About

Who are LGB Christians?

We are a welcoming network of lesbian, gay and bi sexual Christians and our friends launched in October 2023 at the third LGB Alliance Conference.

LGB Christians will defend the rights of same-sex attracted people in the face of increasing backlash, confusion, and risks caused by ideas which replace the biological reality of the two sexes with self defined, gender identities.

We are UK-based, ecumenical, non-party political, and not affiliated with any organisation. We are part of a new, revitalised, and wider lgb and human rights movement created in response to these serious global challenges.  We will cooperate and engage with new and existing organisations whose purpose is to protect and clarify these hard won, but threatened, rights and freedoms.

These include but are not limited to:

We welcome the support of all those who recognise the distinctive needs of lesbian, gay and bisexual people and for our right to act and speak together. We will always respect the rights of others where there is no conflict. Where there is conflict we will seek to resolve them, with particular reference to the Equality Act 2010.

We will engage in a spirit of good disagreement and respectful dialogue with all who hold a different view. We hope the same approach will be reciprocated.  This will help create conditions for fruitful dialogue and the creation of mutual trust.

LGB Christians has come into existence because of numerous conversations, personal experience, much listening and extensive research.  As Christians we accept and reaffirm the existence of biological reality as part of God’s creation; we are born men or women, not ‘assigned’.

We are in solidarity with the millions of lgb people worldwide, irrespective of their faith or belief, who live in countries where homosexuality is still criminalised and persecution is tragically real, and especially with those who worship in churches where they are shamed, marginalised or condemned.

We will never turn our back on those less fortunate than ourselves, wherever they live.  The criminalisation of same-sex attraction must end everywhere.

Why Now?

Individual lesbian, gay and bisexual Christians have faced discrimination over numerous decades.  In fact for centuries.  This still takes many forms.  All are homophobic, for instance:

  • being asked to leave churches if in a same sex relationship
  • being refused ordination
  • being denied blessings as well as same sex marriage
  • mandatory celibacy for gay and lesbian ministers and clergy and some laypeople

Legal exemptions provided to Christian and other faith groups in legislation relating to:

  • Equal Opportunities
  • Same sex Marriage
  • Employment Legislation

are discriminatory and should be repealed.

However, another new challenge has emerged.

For wider society this has meant the alarming and distressing sight of biological men competing in women’s sports, seeking unfettered access to women’s spaces such as toilets, changing rooms, rape crisis centres and prisons.  The social contagion of young people (many of whom are or very likely to be same sex attracted), seeking to present as the opposite sex through surgery and hormones is already becoming an unprecedented medical scandal.

For individual lgb christians this has meant being asked to leave churches for expressing views which question these new ideas, views that are legally protected under the Equality Act, and are compatible with being Christian.  No one should be fearful of expressing their thoughts.

Ideas that undermine the importance of biological reality threaten our ability to meet separately as gay men or lesbians, male or female, to freely express ourselves.  Exploring our spirituality as naturally embodied beings at events such as retreats and conferences and even socially, has become contested or even prohibited.

Some churches committed to these new ideas use misguided safeguarding policies to fuel the social contagion instead of creating ‘watchful waiting’ space and time for those young people to grow into healthy gay, lesbian or bisexual adults or trans adults.

LGB people, and indeed some trans people have been unwillingly caught up in this controversy and are in danger of being made scapegoats for changes which neither we nor they sought, nor feel are justified. Because of this the goodwill and acceptance towards LGB people and same sex marriage can no longer be taken fully for granted.

For a personal account of some of our concerns from a parish priest with considerable relevant experience we recommend Revd Lorenzo Fernandez-Smal‘s article, Same-sex attracted Christians are now caught between two competing orthodoxies.