Guest lecture by Olcay Miyanyedi
On Tuesday, 28th of January, from 8:15 to 9:45 am, Olcay Miyanyedi is giving a guest lecture in PD Dr. Viola Thimm’s course “Islam and queer: Reframing the narrative on LGBTQIA+”.
Olcay Miyanyedi comes from the third generation of a family of guest workers from Turkey. After graduating from high school, he studied Islamic religious studies, Jewish-Christian religious studies and education at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, graduating with a master’s degree. His master’s thesis was titled “Homosexuality and Masculinity in the Islamic Tradition”. He became involved in inter- and intra-religious dialogue at an early stage. After graduating, Olcay headed the democracy project “Andrej is different and Selam loves Sandra” at the Turkish Community in Baden-Württemberg. He then moved to the city of Stuttgart, where he built up and established the gender-equal men*’s policy in the equal opportunities department.
In 2025, Olcay completed an extra-occupational master’s degree in Public Management. His master’s thesis was titled “Queer Visibility in Public Administration in the Context of a Contrasting Case Analysis of the Cities of Stuttgart and Heidelberg”. Since September 2023, Olcay has been head of the office of Florian Wahl (SPD), a member of the state parliament in Baden-Württemberg. In June 2024, he was also elected to the Böblingen municipal council as a city councillor for the SPD.
Olcay volunteers as a team leader for the DGB’s annual gay summer camp and regularly works for the nationwide men’s help line for victims of violence. At the Turkish community, he strategically supports queer projects and plans to establish a queer Muslim group/association. Internationally, he is closely associated with the queer foundation MARUF in Amsterdam, which advocates for the concerns of queer Muslims. Olcay is also part of the project “Schalom and Salam”, which promotes Muslim-Jewish dialogue. Anti-discrimination and intersectional approaches are central to his work and commitment.