Origins The Gay Humanist Group was originally founded in response to the
Gay News 'blasphemy' trial by members of the
Campaign for Homosexual Equality at their Brighton conference in August 1979. The group had been responded in response to unfounded accusations by
Mary Whitehouse that a "gay humanist lobby" was influencing public opinion and public policy. The founding members of the Gay Humanist Group thought that, while Whitehouse's claims were unfounded and untrue, that a gay humanist lobby group was a good idea and indeed one urgently needed. The Gay Humanist Group became GALHA (Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association) in 1987. It later became Galha LGBT Humanists in 2012, and then LGBT Humanists in 2015. In 1983, LGBT Humanists lobbied
Amnesty International to begin providing support for gays and lesbians in countries where people were persecuted for their sexuality. LGBT Humanists was also part of the
Equal Love Campaign which in 2011 attempted to bring a case to the
European Court of Human Rights concerning same-sex civil marriages and opposite-sex civil partnerships. Alongside Northern Ireland Humanists, LGBT Humanists also campaigned successfully for legal recognition of same-sex marriages in Northern Ireland. In 2019, following the successful passage of a bill to extend marriage equality, humanists paid for billboards across Belfast announcing "
Love wins for everyone". In 2023, LGBT Humanists worked alongside Humanists UK patrons
Stephen Fry and
Sandi Toksvig to convince the UK Government to grant legal recognition to humanist ceremonies in England and Wales, as is already the case in Scotland and Northern Ireland, arguing that "humanist marriages are an LGBT rights issue", after the Census had shown that 63% of LGBT people were non-religious and fewer than 1% of places of worship conducted same-sex marriages. LGBT couples were therefore much more limited in their options for legal marriages compared to opposite-sex couples. In 2023, to mark 10 years since the passage of the Same-Sex Marriage Act, LGBT Humanists members David Cabreza and Peter McGraith, who had been the first same-sex couple to marry in England in 2014, delivered hundreds of postcards "cordially inviting" the Justice Secretary to recognise humanist marriages in England and Wales. Humanist celebrants from Humanist Society Scotland conducted the first same-sex marriages in Scotland in 2014. A humanist couple also had the first same-sex wedding in England that year, but it had been a civil wedding rather than humanist ceremonies due to these being recognised in Scotland but not yet in England or Wales in 2014.
Funerals, memorials, and remembrance In 1994, LGBT Humanists organised a humanist funeral for the gay Olympic figure skating champion
John Curry, followed by a humanist memorial service at
Conway Hall. Media interest in Curry's funeral helped to promote the availability of humanist funerals to LGBT people who had not heard of the concept; LGBT people have always been less likely to religious than the public at large. Since 2018, LGBT Humanists has organised a
Trans Day of Remembrance ceremony in London, inaugurated by the trans musician and humanist celebrant
Adèle Anderson.
Ban on conversion therapy In its foundation year, 1979, LGBT Humanists became the first UK-based organised to campaign against so-called
conversion therapy, and campaigned throughout the 1980s against the legality of so-called "Christian cure ministries" for gays and lesbians. Humanists again brought the issue to media attention and to the
UN Human Rights Council in 2018, precipitating
Theresa May's government to announce a ban on the practice. After successive governments have failed to implement the ban the campaign was ongoing as of 2024, when the UN Human Rights Committee told the UK to implement the ban it promised six years prior. LGBT Humanists UK remains the only organisation representing LGBT non-religious people and humanists in the UK. LGBT Humanists UK provides fellowship for LGBT non-religious people and continues to lead the fight to ban conversion therapy in the UK. LGBT Humanists works closely with organisations including Stonewall and Faith to Faithless to campaign against so-called 'conversion' therapy and to support and empower survivors of this discredited and harmful practice. ==See also==