Some views from outside

Oliver Robertson gauges the reaction from non-Quakers to the same-sex marriage decision

Understandably, the decision by British Quakers to allow same-sex marriages won praise from groups and individuals campaigning for gay rights. Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner and Green Party candidate in Oxford, told the Friend that ‘the Quakers’ decision to open up marriage to same-sex couples, on exactly the same basis as heterosexual couples, is an honourable, courageous, trailblazing decision’, while the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association said: ‘We welcome the courage of the Quakers in joining the campaign for gay marriage. While we may profoundly disagree with them about the existence of a God, or the place of religion in our society, they have shown that religious belief is no excuse for continued bigotry.’

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