Quaker views of homosexuality

Quakers are divided on the issue of homosexuality. Friends associated with Friends General Conference (FGC), the more liberal group of Friends are the most tolerant with many monthly meetings, some yearly meetings providing full equality for homosexuals including marriage. Because Quaker decision making is generally based on a consensus method termed "unity" or "sense of the meeting", the number of individual Quakers who support equality for homosexuals is probably larger than the number of groups which support it would indicate. The Friends United Meeting (FUM) and Evangelical Friends International (EFI), which represent programmed Quaker meetings, have taken stands condemning gay marriage. FUM for example, a statement of "core values" includes both an insistence on abstinence outside of marriage, and a restriction of marriage to heterosexual couples only, effectively condemning the physical expression of homosexuality (without condemning homosexuality per se). Perhaps because of the Quaker history of tolerance, there is no outright condemnation of homosexual people by any mainstream Quaker-affiliated group.

References

• FUM "core values" statement