History

Photo courtesy of the Library of the Society of Friends

How did we get where we are today?

  • 1954 Wolfenden Committee setup
  • 1957 Wolfenden report published
  • 1957 Towards a Quaker View of Sex writing group formed
  • 1963 Towards a Quaker View of Sex book published
  • 1967 Wolfenden report passed into law
  • 1973 Homosexuality from the Inside by David Blamires published
  • 1973 Manchester Hulme Hall Conference & Friends Homosexual Fellowship formed
  • 1982 Meeting Gay Friends (anthology of essays by Friends Homosexual Fellowship members) published
  • 1988 Sue Hartshorne raises topic of same-sex marriage with Religious Society of Friends
  • 1988 Publication of ‘Same Sex Relations’ study pack
  • 1988 A Minority of One (by Harvey Gillman) Swarthmore Lecture
  • 1988 Meeting for Sufferings affirms celebration of same-sex relationships
  • 1988 Section 28 comes into law (Amendment to the local government act stating that a local authority “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”)
  • 1991 Friends Homosexual Fellowship changes its name to Quaker Gay and Lesbian Fellowship
  • 1993 QLGF publishes Speaking our Truth explaining the reality of LGB lives
  • 1995 This We Can Say: Talking Honestly About Sex published by a group of 9 Friends (an updated version of Towards a Quaker View of Sex)
  • 1995 Chapter 22 of Quaker Faith and Practice on Close Relationships accepted
  • 1995/6 First meetings for worship to celebrate same-sex relationships
  • 2000 Section 28 repealed in Scotland; the rest of Britain follows in 2003
  • 2004 Past the Rainbow: a Plain Quaker Look at Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Lives (an updated version of Speaking our Truth)
  • 2005 Civil Partnership Act comes into effect
  • 2007 Quaker Life group on recognition of same-sex partnerships
  • 2009 Yearly Meeting in York affirms the right to celebrate same-sex marriageWe Are But Witnesses on marriage equality published
  • 2013 QLGF wins the Stonewall Community Group award
  • 2015 QLGF conference in Manchester on ‘Gender, Faith and Spirituality’
  • 2017 Quaker Gay and Lesbian Fellowship changes its name to Quaker Gender and Sexual diversity community
  • 2019 Michael Booth speaks at BYM on ‘Ten years since equal marriage’
  • 2021 Yearly Meeting 2021 Minute 31  ‘With glad hearts we acknowledge and affirm the trans and gender diverse Friends in our Quaker communities’
  • 2022 Quaker Gender and Sexual diversity community changes its name to Quaker Rainbow