In 1992, the Unitarian Universalist Board of Trustees passed a resolution opposing discrimination against homosexuals and atheists by the Boy Scouts of America. In 1998, the Boy Scouts demanded that the Unitarians cease awarding religious medals. After a bitter dispute, in 1999 the Boy Scouts agreed to permit the Unitarians to resume awarding the medals, while the Unitarians agreed to remove its objections to discrimination from the "Religion in Life" manual that accompanies the religious medal program, but insisted on including them in pamphlets mailed along with the manual.

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In 1993 the denomination endorsed the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Equal Rights and Liberation, and its board members participated in the march. That same year the General Assembly staged a public protest and candlelight vigil against North Carolina's "crime against nature" law.

In 1996 the Unitarian Universalist Association became the first mainline denomination in the United States formally to support legally recognized marriage between members of the same sex.

The denomination ordains openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and ministers and helps them find placement with congregations through its equal opportunity program, "Beyond Categorical Thinking." It has created curricular materials to help teach positive attitudes about homosexuality and bisexuality. It also provides Services of Union to lesbian and gay couples, and encourages members to promote positive and constructive approaches to populations affected by the AIDS epidemic.

In 1989 the Unitarian Universalist Association initiated a Welcoming Congregation program, which takes individual congregations through a process of examining attitudes and policies and changing them as needed to make them more accepting of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people.

To this end it produced The Welcoming Congregation Handbook in 1999. That year, Montana became the first state in which all Unitarian Universalist congregations had completed the process. The program is in effect in the Canadian Unitarian Council as well. By the year 2000, 25 percent of UUA churches in the United States had become Welcoming Congregations.

The Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church in the U. S. A. is a part, has dealt with issues of sexuality in complex ways, not all of them favorable to its glbtq membership.

Spurred by the gay liberation movement of the late 1960s, a number of religious groups--including specifically gay-oriented churches and synagogues--have been formed to address the needs of gay and lesbian believers.

Marches on Washington in support of the rights of glbtq people have been a significant part of the modern movement for equality.

Lesbian and gay couples have been fighting for the freedom to marry since the dawn of the modern glbtq struggle for equality; despite some success abroad, progress toward same-sex marriage in the United States has been slow.

Today's glbtq spirituality movements must be seen as part of a long history in which gender-special people were considered sacred to their tribe or family because of their obvious spiritual gifts.

The United Church of Christ has attempted to make its churches a "place of extravagant welcome" for glbtq people.

American reformer, social worker, peace activist, and Nobel Laureate Jane Addams is remembered as the founder of Hull House in Chicago, but her involvement in same-sex relationships has consistently been hidden or minimized by biographers.

Although best known for her crusade for women's suffrage, Susan B. Anthony spoke out on a range of feminist issues.

The Boy Scouts of America, formed to rehabilitate masculinity in the early twentieth century, has constantly seen itself as under attack or at least challenged by homosexuality or effeminacy, and its official policy excluding homosexuals has recently led to several legal and social challenges.