Being queer and growing up within a religious environment has over the years led to many tragic situations. Both the LGBTQIA+ community and the religious community are extremely diverse, complex and have not always been supportive of each other - especially with one (religion) holding much more societal power and privilege throughout history than the other (LGBTQIA+).

So how does it feel to be both queer and of faith? What can we do to bring people closer together? To promote acceptance and create safe spaces? So that queer people can practice their faith safely and without judgement from both communities?

How do you navigate working environments where people's beliefs (ie Gender Critical) seemingly deny the existence of those within the LGBTQIA+ community (trans, non binary and intersex folk)? And how does the law act in those circumstances?

These are the questions this episode tackles. And the amazing humans that do this are SJ Cooper-Knock (they/them), Becky Emery (she/her) - both of whom are bringing their lived experience of being queer and within the religious community - and Surabhi Shukla (she/her), a lecturer from the Law School at the University of Sheffield bringing the legal perspective on faith and the LGBTQIA+ community. The episode is also hosted by Lucy Straker (she/they).

Trigger warning - there are discussions around statistical chances of people dying by suicide and lived experience of exclusion.

Proud Changemakers is explicitly trans and intersex inclusive. We honour and respect each others’ identities, experiences and insights. We will not tolerate any bigotry, hatred or questioning of others’ identities or experiences.

If you have questions about this or any other episode please contact us at proudchangemakers@gmail.com or through one of our social channels https://linktr.ee/proudchangemakers

Proud Changemakers aims to elevate, advocate and support LGBTQIA+ people across civil society. We want to give our community a platform to share our voices and our challenges, and to celebrate our stories and our diversity. We want to provide insight and guidance to those wanting to support our community - because we won’t make change to the wider society all by ourselves. Find out more about us at https://linktr.ee/proudchangemakers