Equal Rights, Equal Respect

Unitarians have always campaigned for civil and religious liberty, at first for themselves, and simultaneously and subsequently for other oppressed minorities. We believe that every person is deserving of respect and that every person should have equal access to opportunities in life. Therefore we are firmly opposed to oppression and discrimination on the grounds of gender, age, sexual orientation, race, religion or any other arbitrary grounds.

 This fundamental belief in the importance of civil and religious liberty has inspired Unitarians to become involved with a variety of social and political issues over the centuries: the abolition of slavery, better conditions for factory workers, universal education, equal rights for women (for example, we were the first denomination in Britain to have a female minister, Gertrude von Petzold, in 1904), and more recently, equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Our leaflet, Where We Stand: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People and the Unitarian & Free Christian Churches, explains that the Unitarian and Free Christian commitment to equality in the UK is long-standing and wide-ranging; individuals and congregations have always been involved in different areas of social reform. For example, as long ago as 1977, the General Assembly passed a resolution: "That the ministry of the denomination be open to all regardless of sex, race, colour, or sexual orientation, and expresses an abhorrence of discrimination solely on the basis of sexual orientation." 

Most recently, together with the Quakers and the Liberal Jews, we have been prominent in the successful campaign for equal marriage - that gay and lesbian couples should have the right to be married in church or chapel on exactly the same basis as heterosexual couples, because we believe that marriage should be about two people committing to love and care for each other for the rest of their lives, rather than on the ability to procreate.

Our concern for the socially-disadvantaged and oppressed has also led many individual Unitarians to work with various different pressure groups such as Amnesty International, Shelter, women's groups and others. This is what walking the talk is about.