Speaker Details: WorldPride Conference

About the spreaker
Wielie Elhorst (1969) is the lgbtiqa+ minister of the Protestant Church Amsterdam since 2022. Next to this ministry he also serves a local parish of the Protestant Church in Amsterdam South East, Wielie grew up in the Salvation Army and was trained as a theologian at the (Reformed) Theological University of Kampen. He came out as gay in 1987 when he was 18 years old. Wielie considers himself to be a lgbtiqa+ activist of faith ever since he wrote his first letter to the National Ethics Committee of his church about the position of homosexual men and women in 1989. He left the Salvation Army to become a member of the Protestant Church. Wielie is now on a voluntary basis the Coordinator of the Working Group Political Advocacy of the European Forum of LGBTI+ Christian Groups. He works for Wondermooi, which a multifaceted project for transgender, nonbinary and other genderdiverse people of faith. He is one three mentors that guide the group 'Transgender & Faith in Zwolle. He is the Coordinator of the working groep 'Faith & Belief' of COC Amsterdam. And is also the Coordinator of the Religious Pride Committee (of Pride Amsterdam). Supported by this Committee and powered by the LCC+ Alliance (for the social acceptance of lgbtiqa+ people in their faith communites) Wielie assembled an initiative group two years ago to organize four special activities for WorldPride, one of which is a day conference on 'Inclusivity, lgbtiqa+ people and their faith cemmunities' of 6 August in de Beurs van Berlage. Wielie was co-author, -editor and -researcher for many publications and researches - one of which will be presented during the aforementioned day conference: the second edition of RICE - the Rainbow Index of Churches in Europe (2025). In 2014 Wielie received the Bob Angel Medal out of the hands of the chair of COC Netherlands. And in 2021 he was knighted in the Order of Oranje Nassau for his longstanding work for lgbtiqa+ people fo faith by the mayor of Amsterdam.