Episode 12: with Thomas Spinrath on the aims of the campaign #OutInChurch and his personal navigation of the tension between Catholic socialisation and queerness

“Now we speak for ourselves.” These words start the #OutInChurch manifesto, with which over one hundred full-time, voluntary and former employees of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany have publicly come out as queer today (24 January 2022). The activists demand an end to the manifold discrimination against queer Catholics in all fields of activity and occupation of the church, as well as the acceptance of responsibility for the institutional history of queer hostility by the Catholic bishops. One of the campaign-initiators is DialoguePerspectives participant Thomas Spinrath. He joined our programme in 2019 and discusses the aims of the campaign, as well as his personal navigation of the tension between Catholic socialisation and queerness, in this (German language) conversation with our Programme Manager, Gil Shohat, for our series (Re-)Shaping Europe.

Homepage und manifesto of the campaign (in German): www.outinchurch.de

You can read Thomas’ (German language) blog post on the subject here.