Framework

First, we'll consider the position of religions regarding the affirmation of LGBTIQ rights. This issue will be the theme for a critical analysis of recent public positions of religious leaderships, taking into account the internal diversity of religions. At this point, it will be important to introduce, with the cautionary criticism that the complexity of the problem requires, the divergent developments in countries of the Global South and Eastern Europe, where there is an increase in acts of state violence against LGBTIQ population.

The second approach focuses on the relationship between sexual orientation and individual religiousness: today are LGBTIQ people freer when it comes to reconciling their religious affiliations and the experience of their sexuality? Or, on the other hand, are they faced with new forms of intolerance and exclusion, be it in the religious field, be it within the LGBTIQ movement? Broadening this issue towards societal transformations, one may question whether the individualisation of spiritualties allows today the reconciliation of previously conflicting religious and sexual identities. The testimony of LGBTIQ activists also acting from their religious affiliations will be crucial to address these issues.

Finally, we intend to develop a reflection regarding the public and political space in order to address the issues of citizenship, rights, practical and symbolic violence still exerted onto the LGBTIQ population. We will discuss, in particular, the forms of polarisation of the debates, in the public space, on rights and new family and affectivity models, as well as the role of policies in the construction of the tensions between religion and sexual diversity.

Speakers

Daniel Ahmed Said, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain

Letizia Tomassone, President  of the Committee "Faith and Homosexuality" of the  Baptist, Methodist and Waldensian Churches; Pastor of the Waldensian Church of Florence, Italy

José Leote, National Coordinator of the association Rumos Novos – Homossexuais Católicos; Professor, Portugal

Moderator: Fernanda Câncio, journalist
 

Presentation and release of the thematic issue Religião, género e cidadania sexual,  Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, by Teresa Toldy and Ana Cristina Santos (ed.), Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra
 

Organisers: Observatory on Religion in Public Space (POLICREDOS) and the Project INTIMATE - Citizenship, Care and Choice: The Micropolitics of Intimacy in Southern Europe

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