Celebrating Four Decades of Transforming LGBTQI+ Sports, Co-Founding Seitenwechsel Berlin, and Driving Gender Diversity Across Europe.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Javier Pellon
EGLSF General Secretary: javier.pellon@eglsf.info

BERLIN, Germany / VALENCIA, Spain – June 17, 2026 — The European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) has announced Conny-Hendrik Schälicke (they/them), Germany, as a winner of the prestigious 2026 EGLSF Advocacy Award. Recognized internationally for their monumental, four-decade-long dedication to LGBTIQ+ inclusion in sports, Schälicke’s work spans critical leadership roles within the Federation of Gay Games (FGG), EGLSF, Seitenwechsel Sportverein für FrauenLesbenTrans*Inter* und Mädchen Berlin, BuNTes Netzwerk des queeren Sports (BuNT-Net), and the Bundesverband Trans* (BVT*). The award will be officially presented at the Gay Games XII in Valencia, Spain.

Schälicke’s extraordinary legacy as a volunteer, advocate, and community builder has fundamentally reshaped local, national, and European sports structures to be more equitable, welcoming, and safe for marginalized communities.

Four Decades of Grassroots and European Leadership

Schälicke’s activism began in the late 1980s in Berlin, where they passionately advocated for expanding sports access initially for lesbians and later for transgender and intersex people and queer youth. Their foundational contributions quickly expanded to a European scale:

  • 1988: Co-founded Seitenwechsel, Berlin’s pioneering sports club for women, lesbians, trans, intersex, and non-binary people. Today, the club boasts 1,200 members and offers more than 30 different sports. Schälicke remains an active board member to this day.
  • 1989: Seitenwechsel became a co-founding association of the EGLSF.
  • 1990s: Represented Team Berlin as a delegate to the Federation of Gay Games (FGG).
  • 1996 - 2006: Served as a board member and from 1999 as the first "female" Co-President of the EGLSF, where they also co-founded the EGLSF Diversity Committee to institutionalize inclusion within the federation.
  • 2010: Shortlisted for the FGG's prestigious Tom Waddell Award in recognition of their global impact.
  • 2015: Awarded with the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Preis of the SPD Berlin as co-founding member of Seitenwechsel Berlin
  • 2021: Appointed as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Magnus Hirschfeld Federal Foundation (BMH) representing Bundesverband Trans* (BVT*)
  • 2022: Received the Ethics Award of the German NOC (DOSB) as Board Member of the umbrella association (BuNT-Net) of the German Federal Conference of Queer Sports (BuNT)

A Visionary for Trans, Intersex, and Non-Binary Inclusion

Over the past 20 years, Schälicke’s voluntary and professional efforts have focused heavily on improving sports access for trans, intersex, and non-binary individuals. They have managed the innovative trans-inter-nonbinary swimming program at Seitenwechsel since 2013 and have driven systemic change through key policy initiatives:

  • The Charter for Gender Diversity in Sport: As head of this project since 2020, Schälicke developed a framework to transform the internal structures of sports clubs and associations through educational modules and process support. The Charter was signed by the EGLSF in 2024. In a historic milestone in 2026, the Berlin State Sports Confederation signed the Charter, becoming the first sports umbrella organization of a German federal state to do so.
  • National Advocacy & BuNT-Net: Since 2017, Schälicke has served as the spokesperson for education and sport for the Bundesverband Trans* (BVT*). They also represent Seitenwechsel on the advisory committee for the Federal Network Conference of Queer Sports (BuNT)—which received the DOSB Ethics Award in 2022—and have served as a board member of BuNT-Net association since 2023.

Structural Change Beyond the Sports Pitch

Schälicke’s fight against discrimination extends seamlessly into education and employment. Since 2010, they have served as the Referent for sexual diversity, gender mainstreaming, and anti-discrimination in schools for the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family. In this role, they implement the educational measures of the LGBTIQ state action plan, including physical and adult education. Furthermore, they actively contributed to the working groups for the National LGBTIQ Action Plan (2023–2024) and co-founded the Berlin administration's queer employment network (Regenbogennetzwerk Berlin) in 2022, where they serve as spokesperson.

"True inclusion requires shifting the foundational structures of how we play, learn, and work," said Conny-Hendrik Schälicke. "From founding Seitenwechsel in 1988 to seeing major state confederations sign our Charter for Gender Diversity in Sport today, this journey has always been about making space where everyone can participate as their authentic selves. Receiving the EGLSF Advocacy Award at the Gay Games is a profound honor that belongs to the entire community of activists moving this vision forward."

END.

NOTES TO EDITOR:

EGLSF Founded in 1989, The European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) aims include
combatting against discrimination in sport on grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics and to stimulate integration in sport and emancipation of LGBTIQ+ athletes. The federation has a membership of over 150 European LGBTIQ+ sports clubs and
organisations representing the interests of more than 45,000 people.

Advocacy Awards are granted yearly. For more information about the nomination process, see https://www.eglsf.info/news/eglsf-advocacy-awards/.