Quakers, like most Protestant denominations, hold differing views of homosexuality within their ranks. But no other mainstream Protestant religion has embraced LGBTQ+ identity like the Quakers, known officially as the Religious Society of Friends.
The clearest example is a text promulgated over seven years in meetings by a group of Quaker writers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and teachers, assembled to consider issues surrounding homosexuality.
Published in 1963, “Towards a Quaker View of Sex” asserted, “An act which expresses true affection between two individuals and gives pleasure to them both, does not seem to us to be sinful by reason alone of the fact that it is homosexual.”
The book sparked fierce debate among Quaker communities, with one member from the Friends Temperance and Moral Union calling its findings “poison.” But the book also set the Quakers on a path to forward-thinking policy on LGBTQ+ rights, at a time when other Christian denominations remained adamantly opposed to homosexuality.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
The group was contrarian from the start.
The Quakers trace their history to England, where George Fox, a founder of the movement, proselytized a direct relationship to God and a “priesthood of all believers.” It was an organizing principle anathema to the state-directed Church of England. Brought before a judge in 1650 with an accusation of blasphemy, Fox “bade them tremble at the word of the Lord.” The Quakers’ name was coined.
The Friends — named for Jesus’s words recorded in the Gospel of John: “You are my friends, if you do what I command you” — gained a foothold in England and Wales, particularly among women drawn to the goal of restructuring the family and central roles for them in “meetings” that regulated marriage and domestic behavior.
As in England, the Quakers were persecuted in the American colonies. The Puritans were responsible for the hanging deaths of four Quakers known as the Boston martyrs in 1660.
But the Quaker movement spread in North America, and settlements dotted the Northern colonies. They earned a reputation for silent worship, insularity, austerity, craftsmanship, and opposition to slavery. A history of conscientious objection to military service dates back to the American Revolution.
Since the publication of “Towards a Quaker View of Sex,” the Friends have shared a compassionate embrace with LGBTQ+ people in the movement for equal rights.
In 1973, a group of Quakers established the Friends Homosexual Fellowship to promote dialogue over the rights of gay people in the wider Quaker community.
In 1987, a Friends community considered same-sex marriage for the first time, and at their Yearly Meeting in 2009, Quakers in Britain became the first religious organization there to formally recognize same-sex marriage.
In recent years, LGBTQ+ affirming Quakers in Iowa have protested book ban legislation in the state. In 2023, a Quaker community erected a Pride Progress flag billboard with the message, “You are Loved, You are Valued, You are Welcome.”
The same year in Pennsylvania, Quakers took a stand against a far-right MAGA group espousing hateful Christian Nationalist rhetoric attacking the LGBTQ+ community, and in 2025, British Quakers rejected the country’s Supreme Court ruling that prevents trans people from using single-sex spaces.
Said one friend at the meeting held to address the issue, “This is what love requires of us.”
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.