The men and women of the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups talk about themselves
The European Forum of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Christian Groups was created in Paris in 1982 and from then on it has been working to achieve the non-discrimination of christian lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transexuals in European churches.
This ecumenical web of people has increasingly grown during the years and is currently formed by 44 groups of LGBT christians from 23 European countries (data refers to 2011).
The European Forum supports the groups that have joined it and individuals who run into discriminations in churches and in society.
It represents its members in discussions with ecumenical organizations, national churches and political and religious organizations.
Amongst the main groups that are members of the Forum, we may mention David & Jonathan (France), mainly made up by catholics, HUK (Germany), made up by lutherans and catholics, Changing Attitude (United Kingdom), made up by anglicans.
For many years Italy had not been represented, until June 2009, when Progetto Gionata – representing Italian homosexual christians – joined again the European Forum.
Subsequently, the groups of homosexual christians Varco (Milan) and Nuova Proposta (Rome) followed in joining the Forum.
Currently the Forum has several different projects on the go – in particular, the collection of homosexual catholics’ stories; supporting the groups of East Europe; cooperating with ILGA-Europe organization, that is, the European department of the International Lesbian and Gay Association; ensuring informal representation at both the European and International Council of Churches.
The video we are offering to you, at top right of the page, shows some beautiful interviews (in English) and many suggestive pictures – taken at the conference of the European Forum in Barcelona, in June 2010 – which are more effective than a thousand words in telling the difficult path of the LGBT christians that are part of the European Forum.
