Preach Inclusion

The training course gathered 34 participants from 11 countries. It was held in Zagreb in November 2019. The goals of the project included raising the abilities of youth workers and their organisations to support struggling LGBTI youth who cannot make peace between their faith and their sexuality/gender identity, or who are struggling to obtain acceptance from their religious family and friends.

LGBTI people of faith are often a taboo within religious and LGBTI communities. As a result, struggling LGBTI youth of faith often feel they have noone to turn to. They fear their religious community will reject them for being LGBTI, while at the same time fearing LGBTI community will look down upon them for being religious. As a result, not many church leaders know a lot about LGBTI issues, while at the same time not many LGBTI youth workers, leaders or activists know much about religion.

Therefore, there is a need for skilled youth workers who can bridge the gaps between religion and LGBTI issues. On this project, they learned how to do that by:

  • learning about the quotes from the holy books related to LGBTI issues

  • learning about the problems in interpreting these text

  • exchanging experience on how to provide spiritual, emotional and psychological support to LGBTI youth of faith who struggle to make peace between their religion and their sexuality/gender identity

  • exchanging experience in supporting LGBTI youth of faith resolve their problems with their religious family and parents

  • exchanging experience of creating a dialogue between religious and LGBTI communities.