LGBT rights
We have always been champions of LGBT+ people and their equal human rights, from our 19th century advocacy challenging religious homophobia to our recent successful campaigns for same-sex marriage and inclusive Relationships and Sex Education. Humanists stand in opposition to homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia.
Our dedicated community section, LGBT+ Humanists, has been around since 1979 and has been a consistent champion of the rights of LGBT+ people, and takes the lead in much of our LGBT+ activism.
Love is the beginning, middle, and end of human liberation.
Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner and humanist
Only by learning to love one another can our world be saved. Only love can conquer all.
Dora Russell, humanist writer and campaigner
Relevant policies
Banning conversion practicesMany LGBT people have experienced so-called ‘conversion practices’ – also known as ‘conversion therapy’ – particularly from religious settings. This has attempted to ‘cure’ them…Read the briefing →
Census and national dataData about the UK’s religious and non-religious demographic makeup is often misrepresented in public discourse due to the use of a leading question in the…Read the briefing →
Employment in faith schoolsReligious state schools discriminate against employees based on religion.Read the briefing →
Ending Equality Act exemptionsThe Equality Act 2010, which applies in Britain, contains a number of exceptions that allow religious organisations to discriminate against those of other beliefs or…Read the briefing →
Equality law loopholes for public servicesPublic services are sometimes contracted out to be run by religious groups, which can discriminate against service users and employees due to loopholes in equality…Read the briefing →
Human rights and access to justiceOur human rights laws have loopholes that need closing, and for many people are too hard to access. At the same time, they are under…Read the briefing →
Legal recognition of humanist marriagesHumanist marriages are not legally recognised in England and Wales.Read the briefing →
Relationships and Sex EducationOpt-outs built into relationships and sex education (RSE) mean that many children are not receiving fact-based, objective teaching about sex and relationships. Others aren’t receiving…Read the briefing →
From our past
Humanists have championed LGBT+ rights for generations, and many of the people who built the humanist movement were LGBT+ themselves. Humanists campaigned for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the 1960s, and LGBT+ Humanists began in 1979 as the Gay Humanist Group, in response to the Gay News blasphemy trial. Humanist celebrants were holding same-sex ceremonies decades before the law recognised them. Below are three stories from that history: the archive of LGBT+ Humanists itself, humanist action against ‘conversion therapy’, and the life of a humanist who helped win the 1967 reforms.
Exhibition
Into the Archives, Out of the Closet
LGBT+ Humanists in the 20th century, told through newsletters and photographs from 1979 onwards.
History
Fighting back against ‘conversion therapy’
How humanists have suffered and protested so-called ‘conversion therapy’ for decades.
People
The humanist campaigner at the heart of the fight to decriminalise homosexuality in England and Wales.