Oliver Jähnke (he/him) is a transman from Goteborg, Sweden. Oliver’s mother was a hairdresser; moreover, she converted to Christianity a few years before she became pregnant with Oliver. Oliver was born in 1994 in Goteborg. Two brothers were born later.
Oliver’s religious background began in an Evangelical Free Church, called Evangeliska frikyrkan i Goteborg, which is a sizable and fundamentalist church parish in Goteborg, which belongs to a wider Evangelical Free church denomination in Sweden. Moreover, the city of Goteborg was considered a strongly anti-gay and anti-queer sentiment city in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Within the Evangelical Free Church, Oliver partook in a local Scout group, church summer camps, and other activities. The theologically conservative free church background was impactful in forming Oliver’s early ideas of God and his wider worldviews as a child and youth. The church’s summer camps also provided some fond memories, despite their conservative elements. Oliver states that as a young boy, the summer camps’ children and he were keen to be playing, learning about the local woods, and building things, like rafts, among other camp activities.
Oliver was enrolled in a Goteborg school system, starting from a local Montessori school. Oliver felt the Montessori teaching and school atmosphere was quite free and self-motivated, which worked well for him, as he was close to teachers and driven by curiosity. Later, Oliver chose music as his major in high school. Moreover, at around 10-11 years old, Oliver had expressed in a school assignment and altogether, felt deeply that he was not a girl. These feelings and the arrival of puberty negatively impacted his well-being and raised feelings of depression. During this time, in the early 2000s, Oliver started to dislike going to church as it was mandatory for him, yet not for his soccer-playing younger brothers.
Oliver’s mother enrolled him secretly into a confirmation camp, organized by the Swedish Alliance Mission Church (In Svenska: Svenska Alliansmissionen) in Småland, Sweden. Oliver felt displeasure at having to go to the confirmation camp, as he didn’t feel faith in his heart at all, before the camp began. However, Oliver was drawn into the faith and the camp services after a few days at the confirmation camp. The camp was a very charismatic worship place, with a lot of worshiping, lifting one’s hands, as well as faith expressed in speaking in tongues, and people falling on the floor shaking. This charismatic faith embodied and lived, was eye-opening for Oliver, — and during the charismatic confirmation camp, he turned to Christianity.
After converting to Christianity, Oliver started to participate in the Swedish Alliance Mission Church’s activities and services increasingly more. During this time, involvement in the church took up a lot of his life and free time. Thus, Oliver attended church, and he began participating in church work there too. Later, Oliver began to lead a teen group and was responsible for a music team at the local parish of the Swedish Alliance Mission Church. Importantly, this charismatic church provided an anti-LGBTQ sentiments condemning backdrop to Oliver's young adulthood.
In 2018, Oliver experienced a profoundly honest self-realization of his identity as a transman. The realization was kindled by personal and societal factors. As a hobby, Oliver had read an autobiography of another trans person. Additionally, the general society was opening up, in Gothenburg and in Sweden, and it was possible to find similar experiences of other trans people alike. However, Oliver’s newly felt identity as a man stirred conflict, opposition, and even some uncompassionate hostility in the Swedish Alliance Mission Church. Oliver’s work as the church leader was doubted and brought into question, and his identity and personhood were condemned as theologically fraught and even sinful within this charismatic church. Oliver began to reassess his work with the charismatic church in the face of this impactful socio-religious and terrifying life turmoil of this spiritual abuse and Bible related violence.
Nonetheless, Oliver had discovered a more LGBTQIA+ affirming faith group, that is the EKHO Gothenburg. EKHO is a Christian Rainbow Movement in Sweden (In Swedish: Riksförbundet EKHO). 1 EKHO started as an organisation and an ecumenical LGBTQ Christian Group in Sweden in year 1976. 2 Then, Oliver started to actively read LGBTQAI+ affirming theological books and the Bible. Also, he began to facilitate and lead a youth group for the EKHO Goteborg in 2018. Later, he joined the national level of the Christian Rainbow Movement EKHO Sweden as a board member and advanced into a representative of trans issues also.
In 2019, Oliver saw a Facebook post, that focused on trans people of faith and their experiences of the Church of Sweden’s LGBTQ+ affirming work. The first Transblessing conference was envisioned and planned amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This is when five trans people met and started to envision what a trans Christian conference could look like within The Church of Sweden. Moreover, time was advantageous for this LGBTQ+ work, because The Church of Sweden’s Transhearing was held in Uppsala in late 2019. 3 Transhearing provided a time for queer and trans people and trans theologians to speak to the priests, ministers and bishops of The Church of Sweden.
Oliver has been a facilitator of The Church of Sweden’s Transblessing digital conference from year 2021 onwards. 4 Transblessing is an international and streamed conference by, with, and for transgender people of faith. Nowadays, The Transblessing is a collaborative online conference that is facilitated by The Church of Sweden, The Church of Sweden Youth work, EKHO Christian Rainbow Movement, and Sensus study association. 5
Also in 2019, Oliver launched his YouTube channel, called Queers of the World. Oliver was rewarded with a Media & Creative Influence award from WCS LGBTQ+ Awards in 2025. 6 Oliver Jähnke’s awarded work as the initiator of Queers of the World YouTube channel, facilitates a documenting video archive, of the lives and stories of LGBTQIA+ people from all over the world. 7 His Queers of the World video archive provides a diverse and worldwide LGBTQIA+ interviews can be found in YouTube. 8
Today, Oliver Jähnke works and is often invited to speak about trans inclusivity and welcoming LGBTQ+ people in The Church of Sweden, and some other Swedish churches. Additionally, as a current project leader of The Transblessing, Oliver is looking forward to this year 2025, October’s Transblessing digital and online conference, which will have very inspiring speakers from all over the world. For more information, please see the Transblessing website listed below. The next Transblessing International Digital conference will be held on 4-5 October 2025. The 2025 conference is welcoming transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming Christians under the age of 30 internationally. 9
(This biographical statement written by Elina Mäkinen from an interview with Oliver Jähnke and from the sources below.)
1 https://www.ekho.se/post/vi-%C3%A4r-kristna-regnb%C3%A5gsr%C3%B6relsen (referred 1.7.2025).
2 https://www.ekho.se/en (referred 1.7.2025).
3 https://tinyurl.com/SvenskaKyrkan2019Transhearing (referred 1.7.2025).
4 https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/transblessing/oliver (referred 1.7.2025).
5 https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/transblessing/om-oss (referred 1.7.2025).
6 https://www.wecreatespace.co/post/wcs-lgbtq-awards-2025-introducing-the-awardees (referred 1.7.2025).
7 https://www.wecreatespace.co/post/wcs-lgbtq-awards-2025-media-creative-influence#viewer-3fu50362474 (referred 1.7.2025).
8 https://www.youtube.com/queersoftheworld (referred 1.7.2025).
9 https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/transblessing (referred 1.7.2025).
Biography Date: July 2025