Ökumenische Arbeitsgruppe Homosexuelle und Kirche (HuK), German for Working Group Homosexuality and Church, is a German NGO organized by LGBTTIQ Christians of different denominations in concern of homosexual people in religion and churches. Although the claim of the association is cross-gender, the members are mostly gay men. Lesbians who are interested in this topic are also organized in women-specific associations in Germany.
History
The founders of the group which eventually became HuK gathered at the Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag German Protestant Church Fair in 1977 and founded the group. That makes HuK one of the oldest lesbian-gay organisations in Germany. The members came from diverse backgrounds, the common factor being the discrimination experienced in the churches. At the same time, HuK was distrusted in the gay community because it did not distance itself from the discriminatory churches but wanted to achieve progress from within. In 1978 HuK had 71 members, in February 1979 it was 101 already. Regional groups were formed, for example in Berlin, Frankfurt and Tübingen. At the beginning, the main concern was to stop the churches from classifying homosexual people as "sick" and to put an end to discrimination against homosexuals within the churches.
In the early 1980s, the group strengthened its structures and consolidated itself. Initially, the organization was not even a registered association and there have been heated discussions from 1981 on about whether the association should commit itself to such a fixed legal framework or whether that was more of a threat. From 1981 onwards, membership fees have been charged in order to be able to finance the activities at the church fairs. On 19 March 1983, an association statute was passed by a general meeting of the members and a member working as a lawyer in Marburg was commissioned to register it with the district court (Amtsgericht). The court in Marburg consulted the two main regional church organizations, the Evangelische Kirche von Kurhessen und Waldeck (Protestant Church of Hesse Electorate-Waldeck) and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fulda. As expected, they had reservations. So, this first attempt to register HuK failed. The second attempt, which amended "ecumenical" to the name of HuK, ended successfully in 1985 – at the district court in Nuremberg.
Deutsche Evangelische Kirchentage have been HuK's primary field of activity from the 1970s onwards. Initially participation was difficult, heavily influenced by concerns on the part of the organizers and by obstacles to get access to the events. Attacks by right-wing evangelicals also occurred. At the Kirchentag in Nuremberg in 1979, HuK helped to organize a discussion panel on the topic of "Homosexuality and the Gospel". At this Kirchentag, HuK campaigned with a petition for Pastor Klaus Brinker, who had been refused as pastor in a parish by the Evangelisch-lutherische Landeskirche Hannovers. The petition received 4,709 supporting signatures, a number sufficient to make it an official statement of the Kirchentag. Since the Kirchentag in Frankfurt in 1987, HuK has been taking part in the Protestant Kirchentag as a regular participant.
Only one year after its foundation HuK was present at the Roman Catholic Church Fair in Freiburg in 1978 – albeit rather hidden: it found shelter with the Protestant student congregation, in the "Alternatives Zentrum" (Alternative Centre ). Efforts to include the group in the official programme of the following Katholikentag in 1980 failed due to the Roman Catholic Church's fear of the topic. The Roman Catholic Church initially remained incapable of dialogue. However, an appeal to the German Bishops' Conference and to the Central Committee of German Catholics, calling for an end to discrimination against homosexual people in the church and the initiation of a dialogue, found almost 3,000 supporting signatures at the Katholikentag. At the same time, HuK participated in the preparation of the "Katholikentag von unten", which took place in 1980 parallel to the official Katholikentag. At that time this has been the only opportunity for HuK to be present on the event until 1994. Only after that it became possible for HuK to be present also at every Katholikentag ever since. In 2014, the Katholikentag extended an invitation to HuK for the first time, while the initiative had always come from HuK up to that point.
In 2020/21, HuK was honoured for its commitment to freedom and humanity within the Christian churches with the Herbert Haag Prize and became a member of the Ecumenical Church Fair in Frankfurt.