“We can be very valuable, but we are quite small and vulnerable in most countries”: On the intersection of religion and LGBTI+ people
There are LGBTI+ people of faith everywhere — but it is safe to say they are the largest invisible group in our community. Here’s how organisations, governments, and civil society can help us
The following is a text version of a speech delivered by Wielie Elhorst, Co-President of the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups, at the European LGBT Focal Points Network meeting in Helsinki, Finland on 22 November 2018.
A good afternoon to you all,
First of all I want to thank the organisers of this conference for the invitation to share my thoughts on the intersection of being LGBTI+ and religious, from my vantage point as Co-President of the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups. I am very grateful that this specific intersection is being given attention, and is percieved as an important one in finding ways to contribute to the emancipation and social acceptance of LGBTI+ people. The European Forum owes immense gratitude to Ben Baks of the Dutch Ministry of Education, who already acknowledged this back in 2012, resulting in substantial support for our organisation. Without that support, I most probably would not be here today.
A note on the intersectional approach
I want to preface this speech by recognising that it can be problematic to talk about the specific intersection of being both LGBTI+ and a person of faith. The intersectional approach presupposes multiple discriminations or oppressions and, in the case of religion, you then have to take into account from what specific point you are considering this intersection, I think.
I want to and need to be very modest here, because for me as a white, cis, protestant male in The Netherlands, religion as such is not a problem. Being Christian is not percieved or experienced in reality as a ground for discrimination, although it sometimes is a ground for prejudice — or at least clichés — in the wider LGBTI+ community. This is entirely different for a lot of Muslims in my country, of course. In their case, religion per se is a ground for discrimination.
My faith as a gay man, however, is sadly disputed by some within the Christian community in The Netherlands and specifically in my church — so from this perspective, the intersection is justified. I am sharing a thinking exercise with you here that came to mind yesterday when listening to Dr. Emilia Roig. It may also show that I am still struggling a bit with how to understand and use the intersectional approach correctly, both technically and morally.
The case of Armenia
Now, turning to this intersection: only one week ago I visited Armenia with my Programme Officer Misza Cherniak. We reluctantly travelled to the Central Asian country, because only the week before we had to decide to cancel our Forum Conference for Eastern European and Central Asian LGBT Christians that was due to take place in Yerevan. For the very first time in our organisation’s 37-year history, the risk of violence was too high for one of our activities.
We had to disappoint the more than 50 participants of our conference, who would have been so happy to share stories and experiences, to feel some sense of relief and even reconciliation in the presence of other LGBTI+ people of faith — an opportunity most of them seldom have. Although there was some risk involved for us personally, we felt we needed to go anyway, first of all to show moral support to the local co-organisers of the conference, and secondly to speak to people to get an accurate idea of the situation on the ground. We wanted to find a way to make clear to the authorities in Armenia — the government and police officials — that they should uphold the freedom to assemble, the freedom of religion, and the freedom of LGBTI+ people (in this case, LGBTI+ people of faith especially) to be safe and protected from harm during a peaceful gathering.
Our four-day visit was very meaningful. I am especially grateful to have met with trans sex worker Christina, who was to speak at our Conference and who was beaten up on her doorstep because she refused to listen to her police clients who tried to convince her not to go, probably on behalf of higher police officials. I embraced Christina and apologised for the harm done. I made clear to her that she is a beloved child of God.
Typical situation
The Armenian situation is sadly quite typical of what LGBTI+ people of faith and LGBTI+ people in general face, especially in Eastern and Central European and Central Asian countries: a highly politicised situation in which state and church authorities, however unofficially, work together to build and uphold a “national identity” that rests heavily on so called “traditional values” that leave little or no room for anything that deviates from this clear and simple framework.
Without much knowledge of who LGBTI+ people actually are and what their lives are like, one of the strongholds of this national identity are so-called “family values” that are highly heteronormative and invalidate any form of relationship or household that does not consist of one man and one woman in a marriage with the expected offspring — and a dog.
In this context, the mere mention of the combination of being LGBTI+ and a person of faith is explosive, as we learned again in Armenia. It was enough for the prime minister Pashinyan to state in parliament that we are a headache and that he wanted to leave the question in the hands of the people, and for the Patriarch of the Armenian Orthodox Church Karekin II to publicly state that a conference such as ours bringing LGBTI+ Christians together was unwanted and not in line with the “true identity of real Armenians”. Although we acknowledge we landed in quite a critical political situation — namely, during an election, after a revolution — we think this situation is a clear example of the disproportionality and discriminatory situation that LGBTI+ people find themselves in all too often. They — we — are always seen only as second-class citizens and believers.
About the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups
Before I continue, let me give you just a little bit of information about the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups. Our organization was founded in 1982 in Paris, France. It has long been a safe space for LGBTI+ people of faith to meet each other annually and to share experiences, to empower each other either to build their own communities of faith, or to uphold their positions in their respective churches.
From the beginning lay people and people holding office in their churches have, through their groups, been members of the European Forum. At this moment, the European Forum has more than 40 member groups in over 20 countries. Some groups have also been able to engage in church advocacy, engaging in dialogue with church leaders and improving the position and participation of LGBTI+ people in churches and church or Christian organisations. In some countries this dialogue for change is already half a century old, as for example in my own country: The Netherlands.
On a European level, we have several of what are called working groups — groups of individual members that accompany church advocacy, most importantly our World Council of Churches Working Group, the Roman Catholic Church Working Group, and the Orthodoxy Working Group. I can tell you a lot about these separate working groups, but for the sake of time, I will not. A lot of information is available in our annual Activities Reports that we are more than happy to share with you. It is only since 2013 that we also have been able to build a presence in the political arena. We are now, since July 2016, a member of the Council of Europe.
LGBTI+ people of faith as intermediaries
Coming back to the question of the intersection of LGBTI+ and religion: as an organisation of LGBTI+ people of faith, we are confident in our ability to function as an intermediary that can build bridges between politics, law makers, civil servants like you, society on the one hand and churches and religious communities on the other.
We think it is highly important to have organisations such as ours transnationally, nationally, and also regionally and locally. They exist to provide education and information about the particular struggles of LGBTI+ people of faith, and what their living situations are like — and especially the negative social consequences that can and do follow.
Why are they so important?
· Because LGBTI+ people of faith are storytellers at the crossroads of SOGGI and church and society. They can tell their stories of integration and reconciliation.
· Because LGBTI+ people of faith know their religion/churches from the inside out.
· Because LGBTI+ people of faith can act as brokers for a positive contribution of churches to society and to human rights, and that is as a part of civil society that needs to be taken seriously.
· Because LGBTI+ people of faith can be agents of change.
· Because LGBTI+ people can be the creators of a new or integrated vocabulary for the human rights discourse.
Of course, this sometimes means you will have to put energy into building up a trusting relationship. Unfortunately, we cannot have organisations and groups everywhere. More secular LGBTI+ organisations could be approached, however, because of course there are LGBTI+ people of faith everywhere I think it is safe to say they are the largest invisible group in our community.
We think it is important to engage in this specific field, because LGBTI+ people of faith are a gateway to understanding the enormous influence churches have in some countries in dictating the moral agenda of a population, thus influencing politics heavily. Churches can wield enormous power by supporting conservative law-making regarding SOGGI matters, especially when these are abused in highly politicised situations such as Armenia.
In fact, this is the case in most countries in Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia or even in the Baltics. Only last year we saw the highly problematic way in which the Romanian Orthodox Church galvanised people to vote in favour of a change in the Constitution that would define marriage between one man and one woman as the only basis of a “family”, thus barring all other kinds of families from accessing their rights. Fortunately, the referendum on this subject failed to reach the required electoral turnout threshold of 30 per cent, but you can imagine how much harm was done in the run-up to the referendum by contesting the definition of “family” in the first place.
In any case, it is important in these countries especially not to deny the immense influence of churches as moral authorities. Laws can be made and adopted, but that does not automatically mean hearts are won and changed. And this is precisely one of the aims of the Christian LGBTI+ movement in Europe. It all starts with gaining knowledge of the specific situation of LGBTI+ people of faith.
State and Church
I am not so naive as to deny the difficulty of the specific relationship between Church and State and the sensitivity it requires to handle this subject with care. Having said that, there are absolutely ways to build up a relationship and to work together for emancipation, equality, participation, and social acceptance.
Example 1: International
On a European level, the European Forum aims at formulating a “common values approach” that can lead debates on rights and freedoms. Within the Council of Europe, for instance, we have already presented the notion that freedom of religion and LGBTI+ rights are not necessarily in competition. I cannot elaborate on this now, but if you want you can have access to our first written contribution on this topic that tries to break down the “God versus gay” narrative. Our very existence is evidence that there does not have to be such an oppositional approach, and it does not have lead or dominate debates about rights and freedoms.
Giving us hope especially is the approach of the Conference of European Churches: CEC. In a collection of articles on the freedom of religion or belief, they first and foremost stress that the values the European Union are to be supported by churches wholeheartedly, as they are so closely connected to or even originate from the Christian tradition. Think of values such as: freedom, solidarity, and dignity. The Conference of European Churches as an organisation sees itself as a partner in building a society that is based on those values.
LGBTI+ activists, politicians, and civil servants can invite churches to move ahead down this road, while also considering the rights and freedoms of LGBTI+ people in wider society. We are happy that first steps have been taken here, alongside organisations such as ILGA-Europe and the European Network of Religion or Belief, but a lot still needs to be done.
Example 2: National
On a national level, there is an interesting example to be found in The Netherlands. In 2007 the then Education Minister, Ronald Plasterk, identified a still-backward situation of LGBTI+ people in ethnic and orthodox religious communities. He was able to do so on the basis of research, and also of strong contacts with the LGBTI+ community, both secular and religious.
This identification “on paper” made it possible to connect with religious LGBTI+ organisations and invite them to formulate proposals that would contribute to the realisation of social acceptance of LGBTI+ people in their religious communities. These organisations could take up their own activities on their own terms, with their knowledge of their own religious communities supported and funded by the Dutch government. And they could, if necessary, appeal to Christian organisations and their churches. The LCC Plus Projects, as they are called, have brought five Christian LGBTI+ organisations together and continue to do so to this day. If you so wish, I can tell you more about it. I have been both a project manager and a steering committee member for these projects for a long time.
Example 3: local
One more example, this time on a local level. As you know there are Rainbow cities all around Europe. In the Netherlands there are a few dozen. A lot of them put a lot of effort into raising rainbow flags and creating rainbow cross overs on streets, which I like very much, but some of them really go the extra mile to use a Biblical saying. The city of Dordrecht for example, located in the Dutch “Bible belt”, invited through a civil servant all churches in the city to come together to talk about the position of LGBTI+ people in the city — of course, making sure to include the position of LGBTI+ people in religious communities.
Almost all the churches accepted the invitation. Of course, the dialogue held did not directly appeal against the policies and rules of the churches themselves. This would be beyond what local government or any government is permitted to do, but by acknowledging churches as part of civil society, it was made possible to talk about those values, norms, or necessary actions that would make the city of Dordrecht a safer place for all. So, churches were appealed to as partners in building up an inclusive and safe society in which all can participate equally.
Recommendations
I am finishing with a few recommendations, knowing that there is so much more to say on this topic and that everything has to be considered within the very different contexts of our respective countries. How can you improve the situation of LGBTI+ people of faith and, for that matter, LGBTI+ people in general?
Get to know them and educate yourselves, also through numerous books and publications.
Identify them and use them as keyholders and positive agents of change.
Identify affirmative church leaders locally, regionally, and nationally — they are there. Give them the floor.
Do not be afraid of religion: it is a force for transformation. Always start with looking for common values.
Always include religion in programmes for emancipation and social acceptance.
And last but not least: increase the capacity of organisations of LGBTI+ people of faith to be present in a materially useful way. We can be very valuable, but we are quite small and vulnerable in most countries. Both nationally and internationally, there is only so much we can do without proper funding for capacity and community building.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Wielie Elhorst
(Co-President European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups)
Amsterdam-Tallinn-Helsinki
November 2018
