Religions intersect with LGBTQ people through a range of beliefs, practices, and organizational policies that shape experiences of romantic orientation and relationships including same-sex couples, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and participation in social and religious life.
The relationship between religion and sexual orientation, romantic orientation, and gender identity varies widely across traditions and communities. In many cases, understandings of romance, gender, and sexuality do not align with modern Western LGBTQ categories, reflecting different cultural and historical perspectives.
Within both historic and contemporary religious traditions, views on LGBTQ people vary widely. These range from full support from LGBTQ-affirming religious groups, including affirmation of diverse sexual and romantic orientations, gender identities and expressions, and same sex marriage, to opposition, including condemnation that can extend from social exclusion explicitly forbidding same-sex sexual activities and/or gender reassignment among adherents, actively opposing social acceptance of LGBTQ identities to the criminalization and violence against LGBTQ people, such as the death penalty for people engaging in homosexual practices. Adherence to anti-gay religious beliefs and communities is correlated with the prevalence of emotional distress and suicidality in LGBTQ minority individuals.
Some religions and traditions may affirm certain members of the LGBTQ community while rejecting others, for example supporting gay rights while opposing transgender rights, or accepting gender diversity while condemning same sex relationships.
Historically, some cultures and religions accommodated, institutionalized, revered and/or tolerated same-sex relationships and non-heterosexual identities; such mythologies and traditions can be found in numerous religions around the world; elements of religious and cultural incorporation of non-heterosexual identities can still be identified in traditions that have survived into the modern era, such as the Berdache, Hijra, and Xanith.
Regardless of their position on LGBTQ, many people of faith look to both sacred texts and tradition for guidance on this issue. However, the authority of various traditions or scriptural passages and the correctness of translations and interpretations are continually disputed.
Scholarship on LGBTQ people and religion Attitudes toward homosexuality have been found to be determined not only by personal religious beliefs, but by the interaction of those beliefs with the predominant national religious context—even for people who are less religious or who do not share their local dominant religious context.
Within the social sciences, religious practice and institutions have been studied for their role in orienting heteronormative societies in how they relate to LGBTQ people and same-sex couples, and their abilities to be functional beings in societal contexts.
Religious views of LGBTQ people
According to a 2006 Australian survey, LGBTIQ+ people in Australia, compared to the general Australian population, were much more likely to report irreligiosity, much less likely to be affiliated with a Christian denomination, and more likely to be affiliated with a religion other than Christianity. The distribution of religions that LGBTQ Australians were raised in, however, was similar to that of the general population. Men—particularly bisexual men—were more likely to be Christians and to have stayed adherent to the religion they were raised in. Lesbian women were more likely to have left the religion they were raised in and be currently unaffiliated.
A 2007 study on the beliefs of LGBTQ people in New Zealand found that 73% were irreligious, 14.8% were Christians, and 2.2% were Buddhists. In contrast, a 2001 census reported that 59.8% of New Zealanders were Christians and 29.2% were irreligious. A 2008 analysis showed that the proportion of LGBTQ individuals identifying as Christians in New Zealand had decreased, with the rate of disaffiliation among LGBTQ individuals who were previously Christian being 2.37 times higher than the general population.
The Radical Faeries is a worldwide queer spiritual movement founded in 1979 in the United States. Radical Faerie communities are generally inspired by aboriginal, native, or traditional spiritualities, especially those that incorporate queer sensibilities. A Williams Institute survey found that the majority of LGBTQ Americans were raised as Christians and predominantly Protestant. A 2024 survey of LGBTQ Americans found that more than 50% were raised as Protestants and in Pentecostalism.
Religious groups and public policy
Opposition to same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights is often associated with conservative religious views. The American Family Association, an American right-wing Christian group, and other religious groups have promoted boycotts of corporations whose policies support the LGBTQ community.
On the other hand, the Unitarian Universalist Association supports LGBTQ individuals' freedom to marry, comparing resistance to marriage equality to resistance to the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, and the end of anti-miscegenation laws.
LGBTQ individuals often endure significant challenges in Islamic countries, which frequently have laws that explicitly criminalize same-sex sexual behavior. In Islamic countries, Sharia may be interpreted to condemn males who engage in same-sex behavior to death—a violation of human rights per international human rights experts and organizations, including Amnesty International.
In conservative Islamic nations, laws generally prohibit same-sex sexual behaviour, and interpretation of Sharia Law on male homosexuality carries the death penalty. This has been condemned as a violation of human rights by human rights organisation Amnesty International and by the writers of the Yogyakarta principles. With the US's signature in 2009, the proposed UN declaration on LGBTQ rights had been signed by 67 members of the United Nations, including all 27 European Union members as well as Japan, Australia, and Mexico. The Human Rights Watch website published an article in 2008 that includes the remainder of the 67 signatories. Muslim nations put forward an opposing statement, and 60 member states have signed this as of March 2009, the majority being in Africa and Asia. Sixty-five out of the total 192 countries have not yet signed either statement as of 2009. In 2011 the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a landmark resolution initiated by South Africa supporting LGBT rights (See Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity at the United Nations).
Views of specific religions
Abrahamic religions
Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) have traditionally affirmed and endorsed a patriarchal and heteronormative approach towards human sexuality, favouring exclusively penetrative vaginal intercourse between men and women within the boundaries of marriage over all other forms of human sexual activity, including autoeroticism, masturbation, oral sex, non-penetrative and non-heterosexual sexual intercourse (all of which have been labeled as "sodomy" at various times), believing and teaching that such behaviors are forbidden because they are considered sinful, and further compared to or derived from the behavior of the alleged residents of Sodom and Gomorrah. However, the status of LGBTQ people in early Christianity and early Islam is debated.
The Abrahamic religions have traditionally forbidden sodomy, believing and teaching that such behavior is sinful. Today some denominations within these religions are accepting of homosexuality and inclusive of homosexual people, such as Reform Judaism, the United Church of Christ and the Metropolitan Community Church. Some Presbyterian, Anglican, Lutheran, and Methodist churches welcome members regardless of same-sex sexual practices, with some provinces allowing for the ordination and inclusion of gay and lesbian clerics, and affirmation of same-sex unions. Reform Judaism incorporates lesbian and gay rabbis and same-sex marriage liturgies, while Reconstructionist Judaism and Conservative Judaism in the US allows for lesbian and gay rabbis and same-sex unions.
Judaism
The Torah (first five books of the Hebrew Bible) is the primary source for Jewish views on homosexuality. It states that: "[A man] shall not lie with another man as [he would] with a woman, it is (, "abomination")" (Leviticus 18:22). (Like many similar commandments, the stated punishment for willful violation is the death penalty, although in practice rabbinic Judaism no longer believes it has the authority to implement death penalties.)
Orthodox Judaism views homosexual acts as sinful. In recent years, there have been approaches claiming that only the sexual anal act is forbidden and considered an abomination by the Torah, while sexual orientation and even other sexual activities are not considered a sin. Conservative Judaism has engaged in an in-depth study of homosexuality since the 1990s, with various rabbis presenting a wide array of responsa (papers with legal arguments) for communal consideration. The official position of the movement is to welcome homosexual Jews into their synagogues, and also campaign against any discrimination in civil law and public society, but also to uphold a ban on anal sex as a religious requirement.
Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism in North America and Liberal Judaism in the United Kingdom view homosexuality to be acceptable on the same basis as heterosexuality. Progressive Jewish authorities believe either that traditional laws against homosexuality are no longer binding or that they are subject to changes that reflect a new understanding of human sexuality. Some of these authorities rely on modern biblical scholarship suggesting that the prohibition in the Torah was intended to ban coercive or ritualized male-male sex, such as those practices ascribed to Egyptian and Canaanite fertility cults and temple prostitution.
The American branch of Conservative Judaism formally approves of same-sex marriage ceremonies. As of 1992 with the Report of the Reconstructionist Commission on Homosexuality, the Reconstructionist Movement of Judaism has expressed its support for same-sex marriages as well as the inclusion of gay and lesbian people in all aspects of Jewish life. The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation leaves the choice of whether or not to perform same-sex marriages to individual rabbis but the procedure is included in the Reconstructionist Rabbi's Manual and many choose to use the traditional language and symbols of kiddushin. Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish denomination in the United States, is generally supportive of LGBTQ rights and marriage.
Christianity
Throughout the majority of Christian history, most Christian theologians and denominations have considered homosexual behavior as immoral or sinful. Currently, Christian denominations have a variety of beliefs about LGBTQ people, and the moral status of same-sex sexual practices and gender variance. LGBTQ people may be barred from membership, accepted as laity, or ordained as clergy, depending on the denomination.