Conny Felice on Pride and the LGBTQ+ Community in Salzburg

So I sat down with Conny Felice, the force behind HOSI Salzburg for a little chat.

If you’ve never met Conny, imagine a force of nature. Her joy for life radiates around her, her voice carries pure generosity, and her piercing blue eyes refuse to stay quiet. She knows there’s a lot to change, and she won’t rest until she’s tried to change it all.

Two years ago, she told me something that has stuck with me ever since. She described the LGBTQ+ community in Salzburg as a bubble, a happy, colourful bubble, but still a bubble. HOSI’s duty, she said, is to keep that bubble safe for those who need it while building bridges from the bubble to society. Easier said than done.

In the past year, the news hasn’t exactly been encouraging. But Conny believes Salzburg is still a colourful and accepting city, the problem is that there are different perceptions of acceptance. Many people think Pride is no longer necessary, especially since, on paper, civil rights for homosexual people are almost equal. But there’s still a huge gap between having rights and being able to use them freely in everyday life.

Studies show people still feel less comfortable working with someone who is trans, inter, homosexual, or Muslim. Hate speech has become more acceptable not only online, and anti-queer propaganda spreads faster than ever.

Conny knows she can’t fix the world, but she can change what happens here in Salzburg. And she takes that responsibility seriously by supporting the queer community, their families, and everyone around them so they can live happy, free lives. “Salzburg ist mein Arbeitsraum” she says.

That’s also the goal of the Pride festival in September: to open space for dialogue, to break down fears and stereotypes. While Conny is happy with every show of support for Pride, she believes it can’t just be about logos and rainbow colours. There need to be conversations too. And those don’t always have to be loud and online; they can happen quietly, in workshops and small groups.

Conny became an activist like many do, out of necessity. She didn’t want others to face the same challenges she did during her transition. For her, change isn’t just writing about injustice online, it’s about putting herself out there and doing something about it. She first came to HOSI for support and realised how important their work is, so she stayed. She has been their Geschäftsführerin for four years now.

Before we ended our conversation, Conny said something I can’t stop thinking about. She said society needs labels to organise things, and that’s ok. But she wants to keep the drawers open. There’s so much more to her than being a trans woman. She fits in many drawers, and that’s fine, as long as we keep them open.

This Pride, we celebrate Conny, her courage, her strength, and her tireless work. And maybe, together, we can start bursting the bubbles that still keep us apart.