Religion and sexuality#Christianity

Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) have traditionally affirmed and endorsed a patriarchal and heteronormative approach towards human sexuality.{{cite journal |author1-last=Campbell |author1-first=Marianne |author2-last=Hinton |author2-first=Jordan D. X. |author3-last=Anderson |author3-first=Joel R. |date=February 2019 |title=A systematic review of the relationship between religion and attitudes toward transgender and gender-variant people |journal=International Journal of Transgenderism |publisher=Taylor & Francis |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=21–38 |doi=10.1080/15532739.2018.1545149 |doi-access=free |issn=1553-2739 |lccn=2004213389 |oclc=56795128 |pmc=6830999 |pmid=32999592 |s2cid=151069171 |quote=Many religions are based on teachings of peace, love, and tolerance, and thus, at least based on those specific teachings, these religions promote intergroup pro-sociality. However, evidence from studies of religion and social attitudes have paradoxically revealed that religion is typically a predictor of intergroup anti-sociality, or in other words religion tends to predict most forms of prejudice. When conceptualizing religion in terms of self-reported categorical religious affiliation (i.e., Christian, Muslim, Jewish, etc.), religiously affiliated individuals tend to report more negative attitudes against a variety of social outgroups than individuals who are not religiously affiliated. [...] In addition, most Abrahamic religions (e.g., Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) contain dogmas in which their respective deity create mankind with individuals who are perfectly entrenched in the gender binary (e.g., Adam and Eve), and thus religions might be instilling cisgender normativity into individuals who ascribe to their doctrines.}}{{cite book |last=Graham |first=Philip |year=2017 |chapter=Male Sexuality and Pornography |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X74pDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA250 |title=Men and Sex: A Sexual Script Approach |location=Cambridge and New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=250–251 |doi= 10.1017/9781316874998.013 |isbn=9781107183933 |lccn=2017004137 |quote=Patriarchal beliefs assert the "natural" superiority of men with a right to leadership in family and public life. Such beliefs derive particularly from Abrahamic religions. Patriarchal attitudes relating to sexual behaviour are mixed and inconsistent. They include, on one hand, the idea that as part of their natural inferiority, women are less in control of their sex drives and are therefore essentially lustful, with a constant craving for sex. This belief leads to the rape myth – even when women resist sexual advances they are using it merely as a seductive device. On the other hand, patriarchal beliefs also dictate that women, in contrast to men, are naturally submissive and have little interest in sex, so men have a "natural" right to sexual intercourse whether women want it or not.}}{{cite book |author-last=Mbuwayesango |author-first=Dora R. |year=2016 |orig-date=2015 |chapter=Part III: The Bible and Bodies – Sex and Sexuality in Biblical Narrative |editor-last=Fewell |editor-first=Danna N. |editor-link=Danna Nolan Fewell |title=The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=456–465 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199967728.013.39 |isbn=9780199967728 |lccn=2015033360 |s2cid=146505567}}{{cite journal |author-last=Leeming |author-first=David A. |author-link=David Adams Leeming |date=June 2003 |title=Religion and Sexuality: The Perversion of a Natural Marriage |editor-last=Carey |editor-first=Lindsay B. |journal=Journal of Religion and Health |publisher=Springer Verlag |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=101–109 |doi=10.1023/A:1023621612061 |issn=1573-6571 |jstor=27511667 |s2cid=38974409}}

Catholicism in particular favours exclusively penetrative vaginal intercourse between men and women within the boundaries of marriage over all other forms of human sexual activity, including autoeroticism, masturbation, anal sex, oral sex, non-penetrative and non-heterosexual sexual intercourse (all of which have been labeled as "sodomy" at various times),{{cite book |last=Sauer |first=Michelle M. |year=2015 |chapter=The Unexpected Actuality: "Deviance" and Transgression |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U8mBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA74 |title=Gender in Medieval Culture |location=London |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |pages=74–78 |doi=10.5040/9781474210683.ch-003 |isbn=978-1-4411-2160-8}} believing and teaching that such behaviors are forbidden and considered sinful, and further compared to or derived from the alleged behavior of the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.{{cite web |url=http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=29699 |title=Bishop Soto tells NACDLGM: 'Homosexuality is Sinful' |last=Gilbert |first=Kathleen |date=September 29, 2008 |website=Catholic Online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930122028/http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=29699 |archive-date=30 September 2008}}{{cite web |url=https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/news/2010/12/08/8822/what-are-religious-texts-really-saying-about-gay-and-transgender-rights/ |title=What are Religious Texts Really Saying about Gay and Transgender Rights? |last1=Robinson |first1=Gene |last2=Krehely |first2=Jeff |last3=Steenland |first3=Sally |date=December 8, 2010 |website=Center for American Progress |access-date=March 30, 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/xarchive/voices/the-story-of-sodom-and-gomorrah-was-not-about-homosexuality-20180719 |title=The Story of Sodom and Gomorrah was NOT About Homosexuality |last=Modisane |first=Cameron |date=November 15, 2014 |website=News24 |access-date=March 30, 2021}} However, the status of LGBT people in early Christianity{{cite book |author-last=Doerfler |author-first=Maria E. |year=2016 |orig-date=2014 |chapter=Coming Apart at the Seams: Cross-dressing, Masculinity, and the Social Body in Late Antiquity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7fsoDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 |editor1-last=Upson-Saia |editor1-first=Kristi |editor2-last=Daniel-Hughes |editor2-first=Carly |editor3-last=Batten |editor3-first=Alicia J. |title=Dressing Judeans and Christians in Antiquity |location=London and New York |publisher=Routledge |edition=1st |pages=37–51 |doi=10.4324/9781315578125-9 |isbn=9780367879334 |lccn=2014000554 |oclc=921583924 |s2cid=165559811}}{{cite book |author-last=Hunter |author-first=David G. |year=2015 |chapter=Celibacy Was "Queer": Rethinking Early Christianity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VgDSBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 |editor1-last=Talvacchia |editor1-first=Kathleen T. |editor2-last=Pettinger |editor2-first=Michael F. |editor3-last=Larrimore |editor3-first=Mark |title=Queer Christianities: Lived Religion in Transgressive Forms |location=New York and London |publisher=NYU Press |pages=13–24 |isbn=9781479851812 |jstor=j.ctt13x0q0q.6 |lccn=2014025201 |s2cid=152944605}}{{Cite web|last=Frost|first=Natasha|date=2018-03-02|title=A Modern Controversy Over Ancient Homosexuality|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/john-boswell-homosexuality-catholicism-history|access-date=2021-04-24|website=Atlas Obscura|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=McClain|first=Lisa|title=A thousand years ago, the Catholic Church paid little attention to homosexuality|url=http://theconversation.com/a-thousand-years-ago-the-catholic-church-paid-little-attention-to-homosexuality-112830|access-date=2021-04-24|website=The Conversation|date=10 April 2019 |language=en}} and early Islam{{cite book |author-last=Geissinger |author-first=Ash |year=2021 |chapter=Applying Gender and Queer Theory to Pre-modern sources |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ABYHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 |editor-last=Howe |editor-first=Justine |title=The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender |location=London and New York |publisher=Routledge |edition=1st |pages=101–115 |doi=10.4324/9781351256568-6 |isbn=978-1-351-25656-8 |s2cid=224909490}}{{cite journal |last=Schmidtke |first=Sabine |author-link=Sabine Schmidtke |date=June 1999 |title=Homoeroticism and Homosexuality in Islam: A Review Article |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=260–266 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00016700 |eissn=1474-0699 |issn=0041-977X |jstor=3107489 |s2cid=170880292}}{{cite book |author-last=Murray |author-first=Stephen O. |author-link=Stephen O. Murray |year=1997 |chapter=The Will Not to Know: Islamic Accommodations of Male Homosexuality |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Zw-AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA14 |editor1-last=Murray |editor1-first=Stephen O. |editor2-last=Roscoe |editor2-first=Will |title=Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature |location=New York and London |publisher=NYU Press |pages=14–54 |doi=10.18574/nyu/9780814761083.003.0004|isbn=9780814774687 |jstor=j.ctt9qfmm4 |oclc=35526232 |s2cid=141668547}}{{cite journal |last=Rowson |first=Everett K. |author-link=Everett K. Rowson |title=The Effeminates of Early Medina |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |publisher=American Oriental Society |volume=111 |issue=4 |pages=671–693 |date=October 1991 |url=http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/The_effeminates_of_early_medina.pdf |doi=10.2307/603399 |issn=0003-0279 |jstor=603399 |citeseerx=10.1.1.693.1504 |lccn=12032032 |oclc=47785421 |s2cid=163738149 |access-date=7 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081001195534/http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/The_effeminates_of_early_medina.pdf |archive-date=1 October 2008 |url-status=dead}} is debated.

{{see also|Baháʼí views on homosexuality}}

{{Expand section|date=August 2018}}

In the Baháʼí Faith, sexual relationships are permitted only between a husband and wife, and marriage is emphasized in the faith.{{cite book |last=Hartz |first=Paula |date=2009 |title=World Religions: Baha'i Faith |edition=3rd |url=https://bahai-library.com/pdf/h/hartz_bahai_faith.pdf |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |location=New York City |isbn=978-1-60413-104-8|pages=90–92}} Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, forbade any sexual intercourse outside a heterosexual marriage in his book of laws; the Kitáb-i-Aqdas.{{Cite book |last=Ghaemmaghami |first=Omid |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/d_Y7EQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |title=Exploring the Kitáb-i-Aqdas: The Laws and Teachings of the Bahá’í Faith |last2=Vafai |first2=Shahin |date=2025-01-23 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-7556-0626-9 |pages=270, 380}}{{cite book |author = Universal House of Justice |year = 1992 |title = The Kitáb-i-Aqdas |publisher = Baháʼí Publishing Trust |location = Wilmette, Illinois, USA |isbn = 978-0-85398-999-8 |url = http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/KA/ka-53.html | page = 191}}{{cite book |author = Bahá'u'lláh |author-link = Bahá'u'lláh |orig-year = 1873 |year = 1992 |title = The Kitáb-i-Aqdas |publisher = Baháʼí Publishing Trust |location = Wilmette, Illinois, USA |isbn = 978-0-85398-999-8 | page = 26 |url = http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/KA/ka-4.html#gr19 }} Homosexual sexual relationships and same-sex marriages continue to be prohibited.{{cite news|agency=Religion Unplugged|date=1 July 2022|last=Carlos|first=Iain|title=Meet A Baha'i Activist Pushing For LGBTQ Tolerance In His Faith|url=https://religionunplugged.com/news/2022/7/1/meet-a-bahai-activist-pushing-for-lgbtq-tolerance-in-his-faith|location=Dallas, Texas, USA}}{{cite news|last=Snow|first=Nicholas|date=23 April 2015|newspaper=HuffPost|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brokenhearted-bahais-lgbt_b_7111164|title=Brokenhearted Bahá'is: LGBTs Rejected by Their Faith}}

{{main category|Sexuality in Christianity}}

{{See also|Fornication|Christianity and sexual orientation|Homosexuality and Christianity|Phallic saints}}

The Old Testament and Christianity have historically affirmed and endorsed a patriarchal and heteronormative approach toward 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, anal sex, 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're considered sinful, and further compared to or derived from the behavior of the alleged residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.{{cite journal |last=Gnuse |first=Robert K. |date=May 2015 |title=Seven Gay Texts: Biblical Passages Used to Condemn Homosexuality |journal=Biblical Theology Bulletin |publisher=SAGE Publications on behalf of Biblical Theology Bulletin Inc. |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=68–87 |doi=10.1177/0146107915577097 |issn=1945-7596 |s2cid=170127256}}

In the New Testament, Jesus discussed little about sex, and most of the information about sex comes from the Old Testament and Paul's writings, and some are controversial today.{{cite web|title=Section I.10 - Human Sexuality|url=https://www.anglicancommunion.org/resources/document-library/lambeth-conference/1998/section-i-called-to-full-humanity/section-i10-human-sexuality|website=anglicancommunion.org|access-date=4 January 2020}}

Sexuality carried out between different sexes, between 2 people (Monogamy, although polygamy is not forbidden) and in particular procreation, is generally understood as the ideal state.Tuovinen, Liisa (Sexuality in Different Cultures, 2008), p. 15.{{Cite book |last=Boswell |first=John |title=The Marriage of Likeness: Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe |publisher=Fontana |year=1996 |isbn=9780006863267 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3MiAQAAMAAJ |access-date=April 20, 2021}}

There is conjugal love through Song of Songs in which it is about eroticism and romance.Guy Bechtel, The Four Women of God, Zeta Editorial, ISBN 978-84- 96778 -78-8

{{see also|The Bible and homosexuality}}

Paul the Apostle stated in 1 Corinthians "To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain unmarried as I am. But if they are not practising self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion."{{bibleverse|1 Corinthians|7:8–9|NRSV}} Importantly, Paul's view of sex is also that it is actually unnecessary for those with certain gifts{{Cite web|url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%207&version=NIV|title=Bible Gateway passage: 1 Corinthians 7 – New International Version|website=Bible Gateway}} (presumably "celibacy"). Jennifer Wright Knust says Paul framed desire a force Christians gained control over whereas non-Christians were "enslaved" by it.{{cite book|author=Jennifer Wright Knust|author-link=Jennifer Knust|title=Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2AUEAmdWwuUC&pg=PA1|date=9 November 2005|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-51004-2|pages=51, 67, 78}} Further, Paul says the bodies of Christians were members of Christ's body and thus sexual desire must be eschewed.

New Testament scholar N. T. Wright asserts that Paul absolutely forbade fornication, irrespective of a new Christian's former cultural practices. Wright notes "If a Corinthian were to say, 'Because I'm a Corinthian, I have always had a string of girl-friends I sleep with, that's part of our culture,' Paul would respond, 'Not now you're a Christian you don't.'... When someone disagreed with Paul's clear rules on immorality or angry disputes, the matters he deals with in Colossians 3.5–10, he is... firm, as we see dramatically in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6. There is no place in the Christian fellowship for such practices and for such a person."{{cite web|url=http://ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Communion_Koinonia.htm |title=Communion and Koinonia: Pauline Reflections on Tolerance and Boundaries |website=Ntwrightpage.com |date=12 July 2016 |access-date=2017-06-30}}

Some have suggested that Paul's treatment of sex was influenced by his conviction that the end of the world was imminent. Under this view, Paul, believing that the world would soon end, took it as a corollary that all earthly concerns,{{cite web|url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%207 |title=1 Corinthians 7 – Concerning Married Life – Now for the |publisher=Bible Gateway |access-date=2017-06-30}} including sex, should hold little interest for Christians.{{harvp|Brundage|1987|pp=59–61}} Paul's letters show far greater concern with sexual issues than the gospel writers attributed to Jesus, since Paul was building Christian communities over decades and responding to various issues that arose.{{Cite web |title=Church at Corinth |url=https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/places/related-articles/church-at-corinth |access-date=2022-07-25 |website=bibleodyssey.org |archive-date=2022-07-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725181324/https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/places/related-articles/church-at-corinth |url-status=dead }}

The theologian Lee Gatiss states that "the word 'fornication' has gone out of fashion and is not in common use to describe non-marital sex. However, it is an excellent translation for [the Biblical term] {{Lang|grc-Latn|porneíā}}, which basically referred to any kind of sex outside of marriage... This has been contested... but the overwhelming weight of scholarship and all the available evidence from the ancient world points firmly in this direction. 'Flee sexual immorality ({{Lang|grc-Latn|porneíā}}) and pursue self-control' (cf. 1 Thess 4:1–8) was the straightforward message to Christians in a sex-crazed world."{{cite web |title=The Issue of Pre-Marital Sex |author=Lee Gatiss |publisher=The Theologian |year=2005 |url=http://www.theologian.org.uk/pastoralia/premartialsex.html}}

In early Christianity, reflection on scriptural texts introduced an eschatological hermeneutic to the reading of the Book of Genesis. The Garden of Eden was seen as a normative ideal state to which Christians were to strive; writers linked the future enjoyment of Heaven to the original blessedness of Adam and Eve in their reflections.{{cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Gary |title=Celibacy or Consummation in the Garden? Reflections on Early Jewish and Christian Interpretations of the Garden of Eden |journal=Harvard Theological Review |date=April 1989 |volume=82 |issue=2 |pages=121–148 |doi=10.1017/S0017816000016084 |s2cid=161371876 }}

The valuation of virginity in the ancient church brought into relief a tension between the Genesis injunction to "be fruitful and multiply"{{bibleverse|Genesis|1:28}} with its understood contextual implication of marriage as a social institution, and the interpretation of the superiority of virginity over marriage, sexual activity and family formation from the Gospel texts [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mt+19%3A11-12&version=NIV Matt 19:11-12], [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+19:29&version=NIV Matt 19:29]. One way patristic thinkers tried to harmonize the texts was through the position that there had actually been no sexual intercourse in Eden: on this reading, sex happened after the fall of man and the expulsion from Eden, thus preserving virginity as the perfect state both in the historical Paradise and the anticipated Heaven. John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, Justin Martyr, Epiphanius of Salamis, and Irenaeus of Lyons all espoused this view:

• Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity, 12 "He did not yet judge of what was lovely by taste or sight; he found in the Lord alone all that was sweet; and he used the helpmeet given him only for this delight, as Scripture signifies when it said that 'he knew her not' till he was driven forth from the garden, and till she, for the sin which she was decoyed into committing, was sentenced to the pangs of childbirth. We, then, who in our first ancestor were thus ejected, are allowed to return to our earliest state of blessedness by the very same stages by which we lost Paradise. What are they? Pleasure, craftily offered, began the Fall, and there followed after pleasure shame, and fear, even to remain longer in the sight of their Creator, so that they hid themselves in leaves and shade; and after that they covered themselves with the skins of dead animals; and then were sent forth into this pestilential and exacting land where, as the compensation for having to die, marriage was instituted".St. Gregory of Nyssa, "{{Lang|grc-Latn|Contra fornicarios oratio}}," trans. by William Moore & Henry Austin Wilson, in Philip Schaff & Henry Wace, eds., Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series № 5 (Buffalo, N.Y.: Christian Literature Publishing, 1893) [revised & edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight (2017), "[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2907.htm Church Fathers: On Virginity]," accessed 2019‑10‑07].
• John Chrysostom, On Virginity, 14.3 "When the whole world had been completed and all had been readied for our repose and use, God fashioned man for whom he made the world... Man did need a helper, and she came into being; not even then did marriage seem necessary... Desire for sexual intercourse, conception, labor, childbirth, and every form of corruption had been banished from their souls. As a clear river shooting forth from a pure source, so they were in that place adorned by virginity." 15.2 "Why did marriage not appear before the treachery? Why was there no intercourse in paradise? Why not the pains of childbirth before the curse? Because at that time these things were superfluous."{{harvp|Miller|2005|p=290}}.
• Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 3, ch 22:4 "But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin (for in Paradise they were both naked, and were not ashamed, inasmuch as they, having been created a short time previously, had no understanding of the procreation of children: for it was necessary that they should first come to adult age, and then multiply from that time onward), having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race..."{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103322.htm |title=CHURCH FATHERS: Against Heresies, III.22 (St. Irenaeus) |website=Newadvent.org |access-date=2017-06-30}}
• Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion, 78.17–19 "And as in paradise Eve, still a virgin, fell into the sin of disobedience, once more through the Virgin [Mary] came the obedience of grace."{{harvp|Miller|2005|p=293}}
• Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, ch 100 "For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her..."{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01287.htm |title=CHURCH FATHERS: Dialogue with Trypho, Chapters 89-108 (Justin Martyr) |website=Newadvent.org |access-date=2017-06-30}}

Prof. John Noonan suggests that "if one asks... where the Christian Fathers derived their notions on marital intercourse – notions which have no express biblical basis – the answer must be, chiefly from the Stoics".{{harvp|Noonan|1965|p=68}} He uses texts from Musonius Rufus, Seneca the Younger, and Ocellus Lucanus, tracing works of Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Jerome to the works of these earlier thinkers, particularly as pertaining to the permissible use of the sexual act, which in the Stoic model must be subdued, dispassionate, and justified by its procreative intent.{{harvp|Noonan|1965|pp=67–68}}

Augustine of Hippo had a different challenge: to respond to the errors of Manichaeism.{{harvp|Noonan|1965|p=169}} The Manichees, according to Augustine, were "opposed to marriage, because they are opposed to procreation which is the purpose of marriage". "The method of contraception practised by these Manichees whom Augustine knew is the use of the sterile period as determined by Greek medicine", which Augustine condemns (this stands in contrast to the contemporarily permitted Catholic use of Natural family planning). Elaine Pagels says, "By the beginning of the fifth century, Augustine had actually declared that spontaneous sexual desire is the proof of—and penalty for—universal original sin", though that this view goes against "most of his Christian predecessors".{{cite book|author=Elaine Pagels|title=Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=btufm2vXzpEC&pg=PR17|date=5 October 2011|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-80735-9|pages=xvii-xix}}

As monastic communities developed, the sexual lives of monks came under scrutiny from two theologians, John Cassian and Caesarius of Arles, who commented on the "vices" of the solitary life. "Their concerns were not with the act of masturbation, but with the monks who vowed chastity. The monks' vow made masturbation an illicit act; the act itself was not considered sinful... In fact... prior to Cassian, masturbation was not considered a sexual offence for anyone."{{cite book|last=Keenan |first=James F. |author-link=James F. Keenan|title=A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century: From Confessing Sins to Liberating Consciences|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KWbtc5XPMw0C&pg=PA45|date=17 January 2010|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-2929-2|page=45}}

{{Main|Catholic theology of sexuality}}

{{See also|Theology of the Body|Christian views on masturbation}}

From the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Catholic Church formally recognized marriage between a freely consenting, baptized man and woman as a sacrament – an outward sign communicating a special gift of God's love. The Council of Florence in 1438 gave this definition, following earlier church statements in 1208, and declared that sexual union was a special participation in the union of Christ in the church.{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09707a.htm |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Sacrament of Marriage |website=Newadvent.org |date=1910-10-01 |access-date=2017-06-30}} However the Puritans, while highly valuing the institution, viewed marriage as a "civil", rather than a "religious" matter, being "under the jurisdiction of the civil courts".{{cite journal |last1=Feige |first1=Diana |first2=Franz G M. |last2=Feige |title=Love, Marriage, and Family in Puritan Society |journal=Dialogue & Alliance |volume=9 |issue=1 |date=1 March 1995 |pages=96–114 }} This is because they found no biblical precedent for clergy performing marriage ceremonies. Further, marriage was said to be for the "relief of concupiscence" as well as any spiritual purpose.

The Catholic moral theologian Charles E. Curran stated "the fathers of the Church are practically silent on the simple question of masturbation".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T08zZBoY7uYC&q=the+fathers+of+the+Church+are+pratically+silent+on+the+simple+question+of+masturbation&pg=PA59 |title=Christians, Feminists, and the Culture of Pornography |author=Arthur J. Mielke |page=59 |access-date=2017-06-30|isbn=9780819197658 |year=1995 |publisher=University Press of America }}

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "the flesh is the hinge of salvation".{{cite web |url=http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art11.htm#1015 |title=Catechism |website=Usccb.org |date=2015-08-14 |access-date=2017-06-30 |archive-date=2008-08-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821172548/http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art11.htm#1015 |url-status=dead }} The Catechism indicates that sexual relationships in marriage is "a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator's generosity and fecundity"{{Cite CCC|2.1|2335}} and lists fornication as one of the "offenses against chastity",{{Cite CCC|2.1|2352}} calling it "an intrinsically and gravely disordered action" because "use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose".{{cite web

| title = Persona Humana:Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics, Section IX

| work = Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

|date=December 29, 1975

| url = http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_df75se.htm

| access-date = 2006-08-29 }} The "conjugal act" aims "at a deeply personal unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul"{{Cite CCC|2.1|1643}} since the marriage bond is to be a sign of the love between God and humanity.{{Cite CCC|2.1|1617}}

Pope John Paul II's first major teaching was on the theology of the body, presented in a series of lectures by the same name. Over the course of five years he elucidated a vision of sex that was not only positive and affirming but was about redemption, not condemnation. He taught that by understanding God's plan for physical love we could understand "the meaning of the whole of existence, the meaning of life."{{cite web |title=General Audience, 6 |url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb45.htm |author=Pope John Paul II |date=29 October 1980 |publisher=L'Osservatore Romano |access-date=2006-09-15}} He taught that human beings were created by a loving God for a purpose: to be loving persons who freely choose to love, to give themselves as persons who express their self-giving through their bodies. Thus, sexual intercourse between husband and wife is a symbol of their total mutual self-donation.{{Original research inline|date=June 2016}}

For John Paul II, "The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and divine." He says there is no other more perfect image of the unity and communion of God in mutual love than the sexual act of a married couple, whereby they give themselves in a total way – exclusively to one another, and up to the end of their lives, and in a fruitfully generous way by participating in the creation of new human beings. Through this perspective, he understands the immorality of extra-marital sex. It falsifies the language of the human body, a language of total love worthy of persons by using the body for selfish ends, thus treating persons as things and objects, rather than dealing with embodied persons with the reverence and love that incarnate spirits deserve. John Paul II stresses that there is great beauty in sexual love when done in harmony with the human values of freely chosen total commitment and self-giving. For him, this sexual love is a form of worship, an experience of the sacred.Theology of Marriage and Celibacy, Boston, St. Paul Books and Media 1986{{cite web | url=https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/marriage-and-family/sexuality/the-pope-s-theology-of-the-body.html | author=Christopher West | work=Catholic Education Resource Center | title=John Paul II's Theology of the Body | access-date=2009-09-29 }}

Roman Catholics believe that masturbation is a sin.{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19751229_persona-humana_en.html|title=Persona Humana: Declaration on certain questions concerning sexual ethics|last=Cardinal Seper|first=Franjo|date=2005-12-29|publisher=The Roman Curia|work=§ IX|access-date=2008-07-23}}

In September 2015, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responsible for enforcing Catholic doctrine, did not permit a transgender man in Spain to serve as a godfather effectively barring transgender Catholics from serving as a baptismal sponsors. The statement concluded: "[...] the result is evident that this person does not possess the requisite of leading a life conformed to the faith and to the position of godfather (CIC, can 874 §1,3), therefore is not able to be admitted to the position of godmother nor godfather. One should not see this as discrimination, but only the recognition of an objective absence of the requisites that by their nature are necessary to assume the ecclesial responsibility of being a godparent."{{Cite web |title=Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ Issues: Roman Catholic Church |url=https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-roman-catholic-church |access-date=2022-05-10 |website=Human Rights Campaign |language=en-US}}

{{main|Fornication#Mainstream Protestantism}}

File:United States Adultery Laws Enacted by Year by State.svg in the United States in 1996 and when these laws were enacted]]

Views over sexuality in Protestant churches differ.

Conservative Protestants assert that any and all sex outside of marriage, including that conducted between committed, engaged or cohabiting couples, is the sin of fornication.{{cite book |title=Luther on Women|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BE8yAl6K0tQC&q=sex|author=Susan C. Karant-Nunn and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks|access-date=5 June 2014|page=11|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-65884-3 }}{{cite book |last=Helm|first=Paul|title=Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva, Volume 1: Courtship, Engagement, and Marriage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IlWH2jHaj1YC&q=john+calvin+cohabitation&pg=PA417|publisher=Reformation21|access-date=3 October 2014|date=July 2006|isbn=9780802848031}}{{cite web|url=https://oratoiredulouvre.fr/faq/sexualite-et-foi.php|title=xxx|first=Marc Pernot, pasteur de l'Eglise Protestante Unie de|last=France|access-date=17 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920143847/https://oratoiredulouvre.fr/faq/sexualite-et-foi.php|archive-date=20 September 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}{{cite web|url=https://oratoiredulouvre.fr/faq/j-ai-du-mal-a-trouver-la-paix-apres-une-aventure-avec-un-homme-qui-ne-m-aimait-pas.php|title=J'ai du mal à trouver la paix après une aventure avec un homme qui ne m'aimait pas ?|first=Marc Pernot, pasteur de l'Eglise Protestante Unie de|last=France|access-date=17 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920144451/https://oratoiredulouvre.fr/faq/j-ai-du-mal-a-trouver-la-paix-apres-une-aventure-avec-un-homme-qui-ne-m-aimait-pas.php|archive-date=20 September 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}{{cite web |title=A Social Statement on Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust |date=19 August 2009 |publisher=Evangelical Lutheran Church in America |url=http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/SexualitySS.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/SexualitySS.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live}}

Unlike Roman Catholics, certain Protestants do not disapprove of masturbation due to the lack of a Biblical injunction against the act, including mainline{{cite web|url=http://fragen.evangelisch.de/frage/3072/position-zur-masturbation |title=Position zur Masturbation |language=de|website=Fragen.evangelisch.de |date=2013-05-30 |access-date=2017-06-30}}{{cite journal |title=Reaction to sex report pours in on Lutherans |journal=National Catholic Reporter |volume=30 |issue=3 |date=November 1993 |page=12 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.pcusa.org/get/resources/resource/12036/ |title=Presbyterians and Human Sexuality 1991 |website=Pcusa.org |access-date=2017-06-30 |archive-date=2022-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220116044227/https://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/_resolutions/human-sexuality1991.pdf |url-status=dead }} and conservative denominations.{{cite web |url=http://christianity.net.au/questions/masturbation-a-sin |title=Is masturbation a sin? {{pipe}} Questions & Answers |website=Christianity.net.au |access-date=2017-06-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701183001/http://christianity.net.au/questions/masturbation-a-sin |archive-date=2017-07-01 |url-status=dead }} Among those Protestants who do not view masturbation as being sinful, there are various restrictions, such as making sure it does not lead to use of pornography or looking lustfully at people or mutual masturbation or addiction to the act. It must also not be undertaken in a spirit of defiance against God.{{cite web |url=https://oratoiredulouvre.fr/faq/la-masturbation-est-elle-un-peche.php |title=La masturbation est-elle un péché ? |website=Oratoiredulouvre.fr |access-date=2017-06-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707062047/https://oratoiredulouvre.fr/faq/la-masturbation-est-elle-un-peche.php |archive-date=2017-07-07 |url-status=dead }}

The Confessional Lutheran tradition, which includes several denominations worldwide (such as the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod) takes a traditional stance towards human sexuality, teaching that "God created male and female, sexual human beings".{{cite web |last1=Sonnenberg |first1=Roger |title=The Gift of Sexuality |url=https://files.lcms.org/file/preview/y0hee6DUKO7K2yXDxveNoiXdEcvSQ4og |publisher=Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod |access-date=12 December 2024 |language=en |date=2013}} Confessional Lutherans hold that "Upon creating man and women and the rest of creation, God observed that 'it (was) good,' including the gift of sex." The Confessional Lutheran denominations view "pornography, homosexuality and cohabitation" as sinful.

All 20 Lutheran and Reformed churches of the Evangelical Church in Germany welcome LGBT members,{{cite web |url=https://www.ekd.de/lebensgemeinschaft_2000.html |title=Verläßlichkeit und Verantwortung stärken |language=German |date=2000}} as well as the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. In these Lutheran and Reformed churches gay ministers are permitted in ministry and gay married couples are allowed in their churches.{{Cite web|url=https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/eine-neue-evangelische-sexualethik.1278.de.html?dram:article_id=225003|title=- Eine neue evangelische Sexualethik|website=Deutschlandfunk Kultur|date=20 October 2012 }}{{cite news| url = https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2015-08/sexualitaet-evangelische-kirche-ekd-grundsatzerklaerung| title = Zeit.de: Sex auf Evangelisch (german), 2015| newspaper = Die Zeit| date = 8 August 2015| last1 = Welt| first1 = Christ &.}}

Inside the Lutheran Church of Sweden, the Bishop of Stockholm, Eva Brunne is a lesbian in a registered partnership with Gunilla Lindén, who is also an ordained priest of the Church of Sweden.{{Cite web |url=http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_116555_ENG_HTM.htm |title=SWEDEN: Lesbian priest ordained as Lutheran bishop of Stockholm. Episcopal News Service. |access-date=2011-06-24 |archive-date=January 2, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100102013508/http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_116555_ENG_HTM.htm |url-status=dead}}

The Anglican Church upholds human sexuality as a gift from a loving God, designed to be between a man and a woman in a monogamous, lifetime union of marriage. It also recognises singleness and dedicated celibacy as Christ-like. It reassures people with same-sex attraction they are loved by God, and are welcomed as full members of the Body of Christ. The church leadership has a variety of views in regard to homosexual expression and ordination. Some expressions of sexuality are considered sinful, including "promiscuity, prostitution, incest, pornography, paedophilia, predatory sexual behaviour, and sadomasochism (all of which may be heterosexual and homosexual), adultery, violence against wives, and female circumcision." The church is concerned with pressures on young people to engage sexually and encourages abstinence.

In the Anglican Church, there is a large discussion over the blessing of gay couples, and over tolerance of homosexuality. The discussion is more about the aspect of love between two people of the same-sex in a relationship than it is about the sexual aspect of a relationship.{{cite journal|last1=Vernon|first1=Mark|title=A church at war: Anglicans and homosexuality|journal=Theology & Sexuality|date=January 2006|pages=220–222}}

The Free Methodist Church teaches:

{{quotation|Sexual intercourse is God’s gift to humanity, for the intimate union of a man and woman within marriage. In this relationship, it is to be celebrative (Hebrews 13:4). Marriage, between one man and one woman, is therefore the only proper setting for sexual intimacy. Scripture requires purity before and faithfulness within and following marriage.{{cite web |title=Sanctified Sexuality |url=https://fmcusa.org/wp-content/uploads/PP-FMCUSA-Sanctified-Sexuality.pdf |publisher=Free Methodist Church |access-date=12 December 2024 |language=English |date=27 February 2020}}}}

The Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection teaches: "We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of marriage between a man and a woman."{{cite book|title=The Discipline of the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection (Original Allegheny Conference)|year=2014|publisher=Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection|location=Salem|language=en|pages=21}} It additionally holds that those who remarry after divorce are living in a state of adultery.

The United Methodist Church permits its clergy to officiate same-sex weddings.{{Cite web |title=What is the Church's position on homosexuality? |url=https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-what-is-the-churchs-position-on-homosexuality |access-date=2022-09-20 |website=The United Methodist Church |language=en}}

The Metropolitan Community Church, also known as the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, has a specific outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families and communities.{{cite web|url=http://www.mccchurch.org |title=Metropolitan Community Churches - The Inclusive Church - All are welcome |website=Mccchurch.org |access-date=2017-06-30}}

{{main|Sexuality and Mormonism}}

{{see also|Masturbation and the LDS Church|Homosexuality and the LDS Church|Mormonism and polygamy|Birth control and the LDS Church}}

Within the many branches of the Latter Day Saints movement, the principal denomination, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), teaches conservative views around sexual ethics in their Law of Chastity, which holds that masturbation, pre- and extra-marital sex, and same-sex sexual activity are sins. In the mid-1800s, however, it was allowed for men to be married to and have children with several women, and this was also discontinued in the late 1800s.{{cite web|title=An Ethical Mormon Life|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk:80/religion/religions/mormon/socialvalues/ethics_1.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161219201706/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/mormon/socialvalues/ethics_1.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=2016-12-19|website=bbc.co.uk|publisher=BBC}}

On various occasions,{{cite journal |last1=Malan |first1=Mark Kim |last2=Bullough |first2=Vern |title=Historical development of new masturbation attitudes in Mormon culture: Silence, secular conformity, counterrevolution, and emerging reform |journal=Sexuality and Culture |date=December 2005 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=80–127 |doi=10.1007/s12119-005-1003-z |citeseerx=10.1.1.597.8039 |s2cid=145480822 }}{{citation|last=Packer |first=Boyd |author-link=Boyd K. Packer |title=To Young Men Only |year=1976 |publisher=LDS Church |url=https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/33382_eng.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311171249/https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/33382_eng.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-11 }} LDS Church leaders have taught that members should not masturbate{{cite book|title=For the Strength of Youth|date=1990|publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|location=Salt Lake City, Utah|edition=7|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/marriage-and-family-relations-instructors-manual/part-b-parents-responsibilities-to-strengthen-families/lesson-14-teaching-gospel-principles-to-children-part-2?lang=eng&clang=tam}}{{Citation|last=Kimball|first=Spencer|author-link=Spencer W. Kimball|title=President Kimball Speaks Out on Morality|year=1980|url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1980/11/president-kimball-speaks-out-on-morality?lang=eng}}{{Citation|last=Kimball|first=Spencer|author-link=Spencer W. Kimball|title=The Miracle of Forgiveness|year=1969|publisher=Bookcraft|pages=25, 77–78, 182 |isbn=978-0-88494-192-7|title-link=The Miracle of Forgiveness}} as part of obedience to the LDS law of chastity.{{cite web|last1=Featherstone|first1=Vaughn|title=A Self-Inflicted Purging|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1975/04/a-self-inflicted-purging?lang=eng&_r=1|website=ChurchofJesusChrist.org|publisher=LDS Church|access-date=3 February 2017}}{{cite book|last1=McConkie|first1=Bruce R.|title=Mormon Doctrine|date=1958|pages=610, 708|publisher=Deseret Book}} The LDS Church believes that sex outside of opposite-sex marriage is sinful, and that any same-sex sexual activity is a serious sin.{{cite journal |last1=Bradshaw |first1=William S. |last2=Heaton |first2=Tim B. |last3=Decoo |first3=Ellen |last4=Dehlin |first4=John P. |last5=Galliher |first5=Renee V. |last6=Crowell |first6=Katherine A. |title=Religious Experiences of GBTQ Mormon Males: Religious Experiences of GBTQ Mormon Males |journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion |date=May 2015 |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=311–329 |doi=10.1111/jssr.12181 }} God is believed to be in a heterosexual marriage with the Heavenly Mother, and Mormons believe that opposite-sex marriage is what God wants for all his children. Top LDS Church leaders formerly taught that attractions to those of the same sex were a sin or disease that could be changed or fixed, but now have no stance on the etiology{{cite web|title=Interview With Elder Dallin H. Oaks and Elder Lance B. Wickman: "Same-Gender Attraction"|url=https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/interview-oaks-wickman-same-gender-attraction|website=Mormon Newsroom|publisher=LDS Church|access-date=9 November 2016}} "The Church does not have a position on the causes of any of ... same-gender attraction. Those are scientific questions ... Whether nature or nurture—those are things the Church doesn't have a position on." of homosexuality, and teach that therapy focused on changing sexual orientation is unethical.{{cite web|title=Seeking Professional Help|url=https://mormonandgay.churchofjesuschrist.org/articles/seeking-professional-help|website=mormonandgay.lds.org|publisher=LDS Church|access-date=25 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722181608/https://mormonandgay.churchofjesuschrist.org/articles/seeking-professional-help|archive-date=22 July 2019|url-status=dead}} "[I]t is unethical to focus professional treatment on an assumption that a change in sexual orientation will or must occur." Lesbian, gay, and bisexual members are, thus, left with the option of attempting to change their sexual orientation, entering a mixed-orientation opposite-sex marriage, or living a celibate lifestyle without any sexual expression (including masturbation).{{cite book|last1=Phillips|first1=Rick|title=Conservative Christian Identity & Same-Sex Orientation: The Case of Gay Mormons|date=2005|publisher=Peter Lang Publishing|location=Frankfurt, Germany|isbn=978-0820474809|url=https://www.uvu.edu/religiousstudies/docs/msc_philips_conservative.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418092803/https://www.uvu.edu/religiousstudies/docs/msc_philips_conservative.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2017-04-18|access-date=31 May 2017}}{{rp|11}}

The LDS Church teaches that women's principal role is to raise children. Women who rejected this role as being a domestic woman in the home, were seen as unstable and corrupted.{{cite journal |last1=Dunfey |first1=Julie |title='Living the Principle' of Plural Marriage: Mormon Women, Utopia, and Female Sexuality in the Nineteenth Century |journal=Feminist Studies |date=1984 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=523–536 |doi=10.2307/3178042 |jstor=3178042 |hdl=2027/spo.0499697.0010.312 |hdl-access=free }} Before 1890, the Mormon leaders taught that polygamy was a way to salvation, and many had multiple wives into the early 1900s, and some women practiced polyandry.{{cite web|title=Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/plural-marriage-in-kirtland-and-nauvoo?lang=eng|website=ChurchofJesusChrist.org|publisher=LDS Church}} See footnote 29.

The Mormon religion teaches that marriage should be with a man and a woman. The LDS Church teaches its members to obey the law of chastity, which says that "sexual relations are proper only between a man and a woman who are legally and lawfully wedded as husband and wife." Violations of this code include: "adultery, being without natural affection, lustfulness, infidelity, incontinence, filthy communications, impurity, inordinate affection, fornication." The traditional Mormon religion forbids all homosexual behavior, whether it be intra-marriage or extramarital. In Romans 1:24-32, Paul preached to the Romans that homosexual behavior was sinful. In Leviticus 20:13, Moses included in his law that homosexual actions and behaviors were against God's will. In the 1830s, LDS founder, Joseph Smith, instituted the private practice on polygamy. The practice was defended by the church as a matter of religious freedom. In 1890, the church practice was terminated. Since the termination of polygamy, Mormons have solely believed in marriage between two people, and those two people being a man and a woman. The LDS community states that they still love homosexuals as sons and daughters of the Lord, but if they act upon their inclinations, then they are subject to discipline of the church.{{cite journal|last1=Williams|first1=Alan|title=Mormon and Queer at the Crossroads|journal=Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|date=2011|volume=44|issue=1|pages=53–84,230|doi=10.5406/dialjmormthou.44.1.0053|s2cid=171900135|id={{ProQuest|858948153}}}}{{cite journal |last1=Dehlin |first1=John P. |last2=Galliher |first2=Renee V. |last3=Bradshaw |first3=William S. |last4=Crowell |first4=Katherine A. |title=Psychosocial Correlates of Religious Approaches to Same-Sex Attraction: A Mormon Perspective |journal=Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health |date=3 July 2014 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=284–311 |doi=10.1080/19359705.2014.912970 |s2cid=144153586 }}

Several Unitarian Universalist congregations have undertaken a series of organizational, procedural, and practical steps to become acknowledged as a "Welcoming Congregation": a congregation which has taken specific steps to welcome and integrate gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) members. UU ministers perform same-sex unions and now same-sex marriages where legal (and sometimes when not, as a form of civil protest). On June 29, 1984, the Unitarian Universalists became the first major church "to approve religious blessings on homosexual unions."{{cite news |title=AROUND THE NATION; Unitarians Endorse Homosexual Marriages |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/29/us/around-the-nation-unitarians-endorse-homosexual-marriages.html |work=The New York Times |date=29 June 1984 }}

Unitarian Universalists have been in the forefront of the work to make same-sex marriages legal in their local states and provinces, as well as on the national level. Gay men, bisexuals, and lesbians are also regularly ordained as ministers, and a number of gay, bisexual, and lesbian ministers have, themselves, now become legally married to their partners. In May 2004, Arlington Street Church was the site of the first state-sanctioned same-sex marriage in the United States. The official stance of the UUA is for the legalization of same-sex marriage—"Standing on the Side of Love." In 2004 UU Minister Rev. Debra Haffner of The Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing published An Open Letter on Religious Leaders on Marriage Equality to affirm same-sex marriage from a multi-faith perspective. In December 2009, Washington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the bill to legalize same-sex marriage for the District of Columbia in All Souls Church, Unitarian (Washington, D.C.).

Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness is a group within Unitarian Universalism whose vision is "for Unitarian Universalism to become the first poly-welcoming mainstream religious denomination."{{cite web|url=http://www.uupa.org/index#mission|title=Our Mission|website=Uupa.org|access-date=2017-06-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170918233548/http://www.uupa.org/index#mission|archive-date=2017-09-18|url-status=dead}}

{{Main|Interfaith marriage in Islam|LGBT people in Islam|Mukhannathun}}

{{Further|Islamic sexual jurisprudence|Liberalism and progressivism within Islam}}

[[File:World laws pertaining to homosexual relationships and expression.svg|thumb|300px|

Same-sex sexual activity illegal

{{legend|#f9dc36|Not enforced or unclear}}

{{legend|#ec8028|Penalty}}

{{legend|#e73e21|Life in prison}}

{{legend|#cc6633|Death penalty on books but not applied}}

{{legend|#8c201f|Death penalty}}]]

Interfaith marriages are recognized between Muslims and Non-Muslim "People of the Book" (usually enumerated as Jews, Christians, and Sabians).{{cite encyclopedia|title=Ahl al-Kitab|editor=John L. Esposito|encyclopedia=The Oxford Dictionary of Islam|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2014|url=https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary00bada|df=dmy-all|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195125580.001.0001|isbn=9780195125580}}{{cite journal |last=Leeman |first=A. B. |year=2009 |title=Interfaith Marriage in Islam: An Examination of the Legal Theory Behind the Traditional and Reformist Positions |url=https://ilj.law.indiana.edu/articles/84/84_2_Leeman.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Indiana Law Journal |location=Bloomington, Indiana |publisher=Indiana University Maurer School of Law |volume=84 |issue=2 |pages=743–772 |issn=0019-6665 |s2cid=52224503 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123062516/https://ilj.law.indiana.edu/articles/84/84_2_Leeman.pdf |archive-date=23 November 2018 |access-date=25 August 2021}} According to the traditional interpretation of Islamic law (sharīʿa), a Muslim man is allowed to marry a Christian or Jewish woman, but this ruling does not apply to women who belong to other Non-Muslim religious groups,{{sfn|Leeman|2009|p=755}} whereas a Muslim woman is not allowed to marry a Non-Muslim man of any Non-Muslim religious group.{{sfn|Leeman|2009|p=755}}{{cite book |author-last=Elmali-Karakaya |author-first=Ayse |year=2020 |chapter=Being Married to a Non-Muslim Husband: Religious Identity in Muslim Women's Interfaith Marriages |editor1-last=Hood |editor1-first=Ralph W. |editor2-last=Cheruvallil-Contractor |editor2-first=Sariya |title=Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion: A Diversity of Paradigms |volume=31 |pages=388–410 |location=Leiden and Boston |publisher=Brill Publishers |doi=10.1163/9789004443969_020 |isbn=978-90-04-44348-8 |s2cid=234539750 |issn=1046-8064}} In general, the Quran tells Muslim men not to marry Non-Muslim women,{{sfn|Leeman|2009|p=755}} and it tells Muslim women not to marry non-Muslim men,{{harv|Leeman|2009|p=757}}:These passages are traditionally interpreted as a general prohibition on marriage outside Islam for Muslim women.116 Similar passages117 forbid Muslim men from marrying non-Muslim women. However, another verse specifically authorizes Muslim men to marry women from the People of the Book.118 The Qur'an offers no such express allowance (or prohibition) for Muslim women.119 Although the Qur'an contains no clear prohibition against marrying People of the Book, traditional scholars have reasoned: "If men needed to be given express permission to marry a [non-Muslim], women needed to be given express permission as well, but since they were not given any such permission then they must be barred from marrying a [non-Muslim]." but it makes an allowance for Muslim men to marry women of the People of the Book under certain conditions, such as a low amount of Muslim women in their vicinity. Additionally, the non-Muslim wife must be devout in her religion and not be unchaste.{{sfn|Leeman|2009|p=755}} Some Muslim scholars{{Who|date=November 2024}} discourage all interfaith marriages, citing cultural differences between Muslims and Non-Muslims.{{sfn|Leeman|2009|p=756}}

In some societies outside the traditional dar al-islam, interfaith marriages between Muslims and Non-Muslims are not uncommon, including marriages that contradict the historic Sunni understanding of ijmāʿ (the consensus of fuqāha) as to the bounds of legitimacy.{{cite web |last1=Ghouse |first1=Mike |title=Can A Muslim Woman Marry A Non-Muslim Man? |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/can-a-muslim-woman-marry-a-non-muslim-man_b_589aae92e4b061551b3e05a8 |work=The Huffington Post |access-date=31 October 2020 |language=en |date=8 February 2017}} The tradition of reformist and progressive Islam, however, permits marriage between Muslim women and Non-Muslim men;{{sfn|Leeman|2009}} Islamic scholars opining this view include Khaleel Mohammed, Hassan Al-Turabi, among others.{{cite web |last=Jahangir |first=Junaid |date=21 March 2017 |title=Muslim Women Can Marry Outside The Faith |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/junaid-jahangir/muslim-women-marriage_b_15472982.html |url-status=live |work=The Huffington Post |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325020231/https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/junaid-jahangir/muslim-women-marriage_b_15472982.html |archive-date=25 March 2017 |access-date=25 August 2021}} Despite Sunni Islam prohibiting it, interfaith marriages between Muslim women and Non-Muslim men take place at substantial rates.{{sfn|Leeman|2009}} In the United States, about 10% of Muslim women are today married to Non-Muslim men.{{cite web |author= |date=25 July 2017 |title=Roughly one-in-ten married Muslims have a non-Muslim spouse |url=https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/identity-assimilation-and-community/pf_2017-06-26_muslimamericans-02new-04/ |url-status=live |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Pew Research Center |series=The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181016061221/https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/identity-assimilation-and-community/pf_2017-06-26_muslimamericans-02new-04/ |archive-date=16 October 2018 |access-date=25 August 2021}}

File:21. İstanbul Onur Yürüyüşü Gay Pride (58).jpg in 2013, Taksim Square, Istanbul, Turkey]]

Attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people and their experiences in the Muslim world have been influenced by its religious, legal, social, political, and cultural history.{{cite journal |last1=Rehman |first1=Javaid |last2=Polymenopoulou |first2=Eleni |year=2013 |title=Is Green a Part of the Rainbow? Sharia, Homosexuality, and LGBT Rights in the Muslim World |url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2322&context=ilj |url-status=live |journal=Fordham International Law Journal |publisher=Fordham University School of Law |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=1–53 |issn=0747-9395 |oclc=52769025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721220600/https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=2322&context=ilj |archive-date=21 July 2018 |access-date=30 October 2021}}{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Rowson |author-first=Everett K. |author-link=Everett K. Rowson |title=HOMOSEXUALITY ii. IN ISLAMIC LAW |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/homosexuality-ii |volume=XII/4 |pages=441–445 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |publisher=Columbia University |location=New York |date=30 December 2012 |orig-date=15 December 2004 |doi=10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_11037 |doi-access=free |issn=2330-4804 |access-date=13 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517035334/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/homosexuality-ii |archive-date=17 May 2013 |url-status=live}} The religious stigma and sexual taboo associated with homosexuality in Islamic societies can have profound effects for those Muslims who self-identify as LGBTQ+.{{cite journal |author-last=Polymenopoulou |author-first=Eleni |date=18 May 2020 |title=Forum: LGBTQ+ Issues in International Relations, Human Rights & Development – Same-Sex Narratives and LGBTI Activism in the Muslim World |url=https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2020/05/18/same-sex-narratives-and-lgbti-activism-in-muslim-world/ |url-status=live |journal=Georgetown Journal of International Affairs |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Walsh School of Foreign Service at the Georgetown University |issn=1526-0054 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020121756/https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2020/05/18/same-sex-narratives-and-lgbti-activism-in-muslim-world/ |archive-date=20 October 2020 |access-date=7 December 2021}}{{cite web |author= |date=19 May 2017 |title=Origins of Homophobia in the Muslim Community |url=https://sydneyqueermuslims.org.au/2017/05/19/source-homophobia-muslim-community/ |url-status=live |website=sydneyqueermuslims.org.au |location=Sydney |publisher=Sydney Queer Muslims |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312142856/https://sydneyqueermuslims.org.au/2017/05/19/source-homophobia-muslim-community/ |archive-date=12 March 2018 |access-date=7 December 2021}}{{cite journal |author-last=Ibrahim |author-first=Nur Amali |date=October 2016 |title=Homophobic Muslims: Emerging Trends in Multireligious Singapore |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |volume=58 |issue=4 |location=Cambridge and New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=955–981 |doi=10.1017/S0010417516000499 |issn=1475-2999 |jstor=26293235 |s2cid=152039212}} Today, most LGBTQ-affirming Islamic organizations and individual congregations are primarily based in the Western world and South Asian countries; they usually identify themselves with the liberal and progressive movements within Islam.{{cite book |author-last=Geissinger |author-first=Aisha |year=2012 |chapter=Islam and Discourses on Same-Sex Desire |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8sn9vMPUsNYC&pg=PA80 |editor1-last=Boisvert |editor1-first=Donald L. |editor2-last=Johnson |editor2-first=Jay E. |title=Queer Religion: Homosexuality in Modern Religious History, Volume 1 |location=Santa Barbara, California |publisher=Praeger Publishers |pages=80–90 |isbn=978-0-313-35359-8 |lccn=2011043406}}{{cite book |author-last=Kurzman |author-first=Charles |author-link=Charles Kurzman |year=1998 |chapter=Liberal Islam and Its Islamic Context |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4n8HSe9SfXMC&pg=PA1 |editor-last=Kurzman |editor-first=Charles |title=Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=1–26 |isbn=9780195116229 |oclc=37368975}}

Homosexual acts are forbidden in traditional Islamic jurisprudence and are liable to different punishments, including flogging, stoning, and the death penalty, depending on the situation and legal school. However, homosexual relationships were generally tolerated in pre-modern Islamic societies, and historical records suggest that these laws were invoked infrequently, mainly in cases of rape or other "exceptionally blatant infringement on public morals". Public attitudes toward homosexuality in the Muslim world underwent a marked negative change starting from the 19th century through the global spread of Islamic fundamentalist movements such as Salafism and Wahhabism, and the influence of the sexual notions and restrictive norms prevalent in Europe at the time: a number of Muslim-majority countries have retained criminal penalties for homosexual acts enacted under European colonial rule. In recent times, extreme prejudice, discrimination, and violence against LGBT people persists, both socially and legally, in much of the Muslim world, exacerbated by increasingly socially conservative attitudes and the rise of Islamist movements in Muslim-majority countries.

{{main|Judaism and sexuality}}

{{see also|Homosexuality and Judaism|Judaism and masturbation|Tzniut|Niddah|Yichud|Negiah|Adultery#Judaism}}

File:Homophobic protestors-02. Haifa 2010.jpg protesters holding Anti-LGBTQ Protest signs during the Gay Pride parade in Haifa, Israel (2010)]]

In the perspective of traditional Judaism, sex and reproduction are the holiest of acts one can do, the act through which one can imitate God, and in order to preserve its sanctity there are many boundaries and guidelines. Within the boundaries, there are virtually no outright strictures, and it is in fact obligatory. It prohibits sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage, maintains biblical strictures on relations within marriage including observance of niddah, a prohibition on relations for a period including the menstrual period, and tzniut, requirements of modest dress and behavior. Traditional Judaism views the physical acts of adultery, incest, intentional waste of semen, the physical act of men having sex with men, and male masturbation as grave sins. Judaism permits relatively free divorce, with Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism requiring a religious divorce ceremony for a divorce to be religiously recognized. Worldwide movements in Judaism considered more liberal have rejected Jewish law as binding but rather inspirational and allegorical, so adapted perspectives more consistent with general contemporary Western culture.

Most of mainstream Judaism does not accept polyamory, although some people consider themselves Jewish and polyamorous.{{Cite news|last=Krupkin |first=Taly |url=http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.551971 |title=Polyamorous Jews seek acceptance - Jewish World News - Haaretz - Israel News |newspaper=Haaretz |date=2013-10-12 |access-date=2017-06-30}} One prominent rabbi who accepts polyamory is Sharon Kleinbaum, who was ordained in Reconstructionist Judaism, which considers biblical Jewish law as not necessarily binding, but is treated as a valuable cultural remnant that should be upheld unless there is reason for the contrary. She is the senior rabbi at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York which works independently of any major American Jewish denomination. R Kleinbaum states that polyamory is a choice that does not preclude a Jewishly observant, socially conscious life. Some polyamorous Jews also point to biblical patriarchs having multiple wives and concubines as evidence that polyamorous relationships can be sacred in Judaism.{{cite web|last=Lavin |first=Talia |url=http://www.jta.org/2013/10/10/news-opinion/united-states/ahava-raba-polyamorous-jews-engage-with-multiple-loves-and-their-jewish-traditions |title=Married and dating: Polyamorous Jews share love, seek acceptance {{pipe}} Jewish Telegraphic Agency |website=Jta.org |date=2013-10-10 |access-date=2017-06-30}} There is an email list dedicated to polyamorous Jews, called AhavaRaba, which roughly translates to "big love" in Hebrew. (Its name echoes the Ahava rabbah prayer expressing thanks for God's "abundant love").

{{Main|Tzniut}}

There are several levels to the observance of physical and personal modesty (tzniut), according to Orthodox Judaism, as derived from various sources in halakha. Observance of these rules varies from aspirational to mandatory to routine across the spectrum of Orthodox stricture and observance.

Orthodox Judaism also maintains a strong prohibition on interfaith sexual relations and marriage. Orthodox Judaism, alone of all the Jewish denominations, retains relatively mild traditional disabilities on divorce, including a Biblical prohibition on a Kohen (priestly descendant of Aaron) marrying a divorcee or a woman who has engaged in certain types of sexual misconduct. An Orthodox bill of divorce is required for a divorce to be recognized.

Conservative Judaism, consistent with its general view that halakha (Jewish law) is a binding guide to Jewish life but subject to periodic revision by the Rabbinate, has lifted a number of strictures observed by Orthodox Judaism. In particular, in December 2006, Conservative Judaism's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards adopted responsa presenting diametrically opposed views on the issue of homosexuality. It adopted an opinion restricting a prior prohibition on homosexual conduct to male-male anal sex only, which it declared to be the only Biblical prohibition, declaring all other prohibitions (e.g. male-male oral sex or lesbian sex) rabbinic, and lifting all rabbinic restrictions based on its interpretation of the Talmudic principle of Kevod HaBriyot ("human dignity"). While declining to develop a form of religious gay marriage, it permitted blessing lesbian and gay unions and ordaining openly lesbian and gay rabbis who agree not to engage in male-male anal sex.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rabbinevins.org/HHH%20Dorff%20Nevins%20Reisner%20Final2.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070604193252/http://www.rabbinevins.org/HHH%20Dorff%20Nevins%20Reisner%20Final2.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Elliott N. Dorff, Daniel Evans, and Avram Reisner. Homosexuality, Human Dignity, and Halakha. Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Rabbinical Assembly, December 6, 2006|archivedate=June 4, 2007}} It is also a traditionalist opinion, upholding all traditional prohibitions on homosexual activity, also adopted as a majority opinion,{{Cite web|url=http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/Roth_Final.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070422081604/http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/Roth_Final.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Rabbi Joel Roth, Homosexuality Revisited, Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Rabbinical Assembly, December 6, 2006|archivedate=April 22, 2007}} The approach permits individual rabbis, congregations, and rabbinical schools to set their own policy on homosexual conduct. It reflects a profound change from a prior blanket prohibition on male homosexual practices. It acknowledges a sharp divergence of views on sexual matters within Conservative Judaism, such that there is no single Conservative Jewish approach to matters of sexuality. Conservative Judaism currently straddles the divide between liberal and traditional opinion on sexual matters within contemporary American society, permitting both views.{{Cite web|url=https://forward.com/news/9576/conservative-panel-votes-to-permit-gay-rabbis/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061208205536/http://www.forward.com/articles/conservative-panel-votes-to-permit-gay-rabbis/|url-status=dead|title=Conservative Panel Votes To Permit Gay Rabbis|archivedate=December 8, 2006|website=The Forward}}

Conservative Judaism has maintained on its books a variety of requirements and prohibitions, including a requirement that married women observe the family purity laws and a general prohibition on non-marital heterosexual conduct. The family purity laws require women to be recognized as tumah or niddah during their menstrual period. As a tumah, a woman is to wait 7 days for her menstrual cycle to end and then 7 "clean days" in order to enter the mikveh and begin sexual relations.{{cite book |last1=Ner-David |first1=Haviva |chapter=Reclaiming Nidah and Mikveh through Ideological and Practical Reinterpretation |pages=116–135 |jstor=j.ctt9qgfbf.12 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3trmH8PaQLsC&pg=PA116 |editor1-last=Ruttenberg |editor1-first=Danya |title=The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism |date=2009 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-7634-6 }} During this time, it is forbidden to have any type of contact with the niddah, thus anything she touches is not to be touched and no physical contact is permitted.{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/lev/15?lang=eng|title=The Third Book of Moses Called Leviticus|date=2016|website=The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints}} On the same day as the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards released its homosexuality responsa, it released multiple opinions on the subject of niddah including a responsum lifting certain traditional restrictions on husband-wife contact during the niddah period while maintaining a prohibition on sexual relations. The permissive responsum on homosexuality used the Conservative movement's approach to niddah as an analogy for construing the Biblical prohibition against male homosexual conduct narrowly and lifting restrictions it deemed Rabbinic in nature. The responsum indicated it would be making a practical analogy between an approach in which male homosexual couples would be on their honor to refrain from certain acts and its approach to niddah:

{{blockquote|We expect homosexual students to observe the rulings of this responsum in the same way that we expect heterosexual students to observe the CJLS rulings on niddah. We also expect that interview committees, administrators, faculty and fellow students will respect the privacy and dignity of gay and lesbian students in the same way that they respect the privacy and dignity of heterosexual students.}}

The responsum enjoined young people not to be "promiscuous" and to prepare themselves for "traditional marriage" if possible, while not explicitly lifting or re-enforcing any express strictures on non-marital heterosexual conduct.

Even before this responsum, strictures on pre-marital sex had been substantially ignored, even in official circles. For example, when the Jewish Theological Seminary of America proposed enforcing a policy against non-marital cohabitation by rabbinical students in the 1990s, protests by cohabiting rabbinical students resulted in a complete rescission of the policy.

Conservative Judaism formally prohibits interfaith marriage and its standards currently indicate it will expel a rabbi who performs an interfaith marriage. It maintains a variety of formal strictures including a prohibition on making birth announcements in synagogue bulletins for children on non-Jewish mothers and accepting non-Jews as synagogue members. However, interfaith marriage is relatively widespread among the Conservative laity, and the Conservative movement has recently adapted a policy of being more welcoming of interfaith couples in the hopes of interesting their children in Judaism.

Conservative Judaism, which was for much of the 20th century the largest Jewish denomination in the United States declined sharply in synagogue membership in the United States the 1990s, from 51% of synagogue memberships in 1990 to 33.1% in 2001, with most of the loss going to Orthodox Judaism and most of the rest to Reform. The fracturing in American society of opinion between increasingly liberal and increasingly traditionalist viewpoints on sexual and other issues, as well as the gap between official opinion and general lay practice vis-a-vis the more traditionalist and liberal denominations, may have contributed to the decline.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jcpa.org/cjc/cjc-waxman-f05.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120701162349/http://www.jcpa.org/cjc/cjc-waxman-f05.htm|url-status=dead|title=Chaim Waxman, Winners and Losers in Denominational Memberships in the United States. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 2005|archivedate=July 1, 2012}}

{{Further|LGBT-affirming denominations in Judaism|LGBT clergy in Judaism|Same-sex marriage and Judaism}}

File:Pride Minyan.jpg in Tel Aviv on the second Shabbat of Hanukkah]]

Reform Judaism,{{Cite web|url=https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-responsa/same-sex-marriage-kiddushin/|title=5774.4|website=Central Conference of American Rabbis}} Humanistic Judaism, and Reconstructionist Judaism do not observe or require traditional sexuality rules and have welcomed non-married and homosexual couples and endorsed homosexual commitment ceremonies and marriages.

Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism are more tolerant of interfaith partnerships and often explicitly welcome interfaith families at their synagogues and services. Reform and Liberal branches of Judaism do not currently perform religious (and therefore legally binding) marriage ceremonies for interfaith couples; however as of October 2020, Liberal Rabbis may bless an interfaith marriage under a chuppah at their discretion, provided the couple intend to keep a Jewish household.{{cite web | url=https://www.liberaljudaism.org/marriage-mixed-faith-blessings-faq/ | title=Marriage & Mixed Faith Blessings FAQ }}{{cite web | url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-liberal-rabbis-allow-interfaith-couples-to-marry-under-a-traditional-canopy/ | title=UK liberal rabbis allow interfaith couples to marry under a traditional canopy | website=The Times of Israel }} Humanistic Judaism permits interfaith marriage. Reform, Reconstructionist, and Humanistic Judaism also do not require a religious divorce ceremony separate from a civil divorce.

It has been speculated that the more tolerant attitudes of Reform, Reconstructionist, and Humanistic Judaism towards both sexual diversity and interfaith marriage may have contributed to the rise in their popularity during the 1990s, from about 33% of affiliated households to 38%, passing Conservative Judaism as the largest Jewish denomination in the United States.

{{Main|Buddhism and sexuality}}

{{See also|Buddhism and sexual orientation}}

The most common formulation of Buddhist ethics are the five precepts and the Noble Eightfold Path, which say that one should neither be attached to nor crave sensual pleasure. These precepts take the form of voluntary, personal undertakings, not divine mandate or instruction.

Of the five precepts, the third vow is to refrain from sex with another's spouse, someone under age (namely, those protected by their parents or guardians), and those who have taken vows of religious celibacy.{{cite web|title=Cunda Kammaraputta Sutta|trans-title=To Cunda the Silversmith|others=Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu|publisher=Access to Insight|year=1997|id=AN 10.176|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an10/an10.176.than.html| access-date = 2011-03-14|quote=Abandoning sensual misconduct, he abstains from sensual misconduct. He does not get sexually involved with those who are protected by their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters, their relatives, or their Dhamma; those with husbands, those who entail punishments, or even those crowned with flowers by another man}}{{cite web|url=http://www.dhammatalks.net/suttacentral/sc/zh/ma128.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218064551/http://www.dhammatalks.net/suttacentral/sc/zh/ma128.html|archive-date=18 February 2017|url-status=dead|title=Upāsaka Sutra from Madhyam āgama: Chapter 11|language=zh}} In Chinese Buddhism, the third vow is interpreted as refraining from sex outside marriage.P. 106 A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms: With Sanskrit and English Equivalents and a Sanskrit-Pali Index By Lewis Hodous, William E. Soothill

Buddhist monks and nuns of most traditions are expected to refrain from all sexual activity and the Buddha is said to have admonished his followers to avoid unchastity "as if it were a pit of burning cinders."{{cite book | last =Saddhatissa | first =Hammalawa | title =Buddhist Ethics: The Path to Nirvana | publisher =Wisdom Pubns; New Ed edition | date =December 1987 | page =[https://archive.org/details/buddhistethics0000sadd/page/88 88] | url =https://archive.org/details/buddhistethics0000sadd/page/88 | isbn =978-0-86171-053-9 | url-access =registration }} While laypersons may have sex within marriage, monastics are not to have any sexual conduct at all.

{{Expand section|date=August 2018}}

{{See also|History of sex in India|Hinduism and LGBT topics|Kama}}

{{multiple image

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File:Индия2.jpgs of Khajuraho Group of Monuments]]

Religiously, Hindus begin life at the Brahmacharya or "student" stage, in which they are directed to chastely advance themselves educationally and spiritually to prepare themselves for a life of furthering their dharma (societal, occupational, parental, etc. duties) and karma (right earthly actions); only once they reach the Grihastya or "householder" stage can they seek kama (physical pleasure) and artha (worldly achievement, material prosperity) through marriage and their vocations, respectively.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.patheos.com/library/hinduism/ethics-morality-community/gender-and-sexuality|title=Gender and Sexuality|website=www.patheos.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-28}}

According to the Dharmasastras or the religious legal texts of Hinduism, marriage in Hinduism is an institution for reproduction and thus is naturally limited to heterosexual couples. Furthermore, sex outside of marriage is prohibited. The Manusmriti list eight types of marriage of which four are consensual and encouraged and four are non-consensual and discouraged. However, popular practices did not necessarily reflect religious teachings.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hinduwebsite.com/marriage.asp |title= Hindu Marriages Purpose And Significance|website=www.hinduwebsite.com|language=en|access-date=2019-12-14}}

The Kama Sutra (Discourse on Kāma) by Vatsayana, widely believed to be just a manual for sexual practices, offers an insight into the sexual mores, ethics and societal rules that were prevalent in ancient India. The erotic sculptures of Khajuraho also offer insight. Abhigyana Shakuntalam, a drama in Sanskrit by Kālidāsa, cited as one of the best examples of shringara rasa (romance, one of the nine rasas or emotions), talks of the love story of Dushyanta and Shakuntala."History of Indian Theatre: Classical theatre", by Manohar Laxman Varadpande, p. 123, {{ISBN|9788170174301}}{{cite book |title=A Comprehensive History Of Ancient India (3 Vol. Set) |publisher = Sterling |author = Pran Nath Chopra |page=160}}

A disciplined Sikh is expected to be in control of sexual desire at all times.{{Cite book |last=Blake |first=Simon |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/863556177 |title=Faith, values and sex & relationships education |date=2002 |publisher=National Children's Bureau |others=Zarine Katrak, National Children's Bureau |isbn=1-900990-32-6 |location=London |pages=55 |oclc=863556177}} Kaam, or excessive lust, is one of the five thieves, or vices, that interfere with one's spiritual journey.{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Harbans |title=The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism |date=1992–1998 |publisher=Punjabi University |isbn=9788173803499 |location=Patiala |page=419}} Normal and healthy amounts of sexuality and lust are not condemned nor considered kaam.{{Cite book |last=Singha |first=H. S. |url= |title=Sikh Studies - book 7 |publisher=Hemkunt Press |year=2005 |isbn=9788170102458 |location= |pages=65 |oclc=967096375}}{{Cite book |last=Dilagīra |first=Harajindara Siṅgha |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37769917 |title=The Sikh reference book |date=1997 |publisher=Sikh Educational Trust for Sikh University Centre, Denmark |isbn=0-9695964-2-1 |edition=1st |location=Edmonton, Alb., Canada |pages=108–109 |oclc=37769917}}

In Chinese mythology, Jiutian Xuannü is the goddess of war, sex, and longevity.{{cite journal |last1=Cahill |first1=Suzanne E. |title=Sublimation in Medieval China: The Case of the Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens |journal=Journal of Chinese Religions |date=January 1992 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=91–102 |doi=10.1179/073776992805307692 }} She is closely related to Sunü (素女), who is her divine sister.{{cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Peng |title='Conceal my Body so that I can Protect the State': The Making of the Mysterious Woman in Daoism and Water Margin |journal=Ming Studies |date=2 July 2016 |volume=2016 |issue=74 |pages=48–71 |doi=10.1080/0147037X.2016.1228876 |s2cid=164447144 }} Both their names combined, as xuansu zhidao (玄素之道), signify the Daoist arts of the bedchamber. Most books bearing Jiutian Xuannü's name were about warfare, but there were a few books that were specifically about sex. The Xuannü Jing (玄女經, "Mysterious Woman Classic") and the Sunü Jing (素女經, "Natural Woman Classic"), both dating to the Han dynasty, were handbooks in dialogue form about sex. Texts from the Xuannü Jing have been partly incorporated into the Sui dynasty edition of the Sunü Jing. From the Han dynasty onwards, these handbooks would be familiar to the upper class. On the other side, during the Han dynasty, Wang Chong had criticized the sexual arts as "not only harming the body but infringing upon the nature of man and woman." During the Tang dynasty and earlier periods, Jiutian Xuannü was often associated with the sexual arts. The Xuannü Jing remained a familiar work among the literati during the Tang and Sui dynasties.

The Dongxuanzi Fangzhong Shu (洞玄子房中術, "Bedchamber Arts of the Master of the Grotto Mysteries"), which was likely written by the 7th-century poet Liu Zongyuan, contains explicit descriptions of the sexual arts that was supposedly transmitted from Jiutian Xuannü. The sexual practices, that Jiutian Xuannü supposedly taught, were often compared to alchemy and physiological procedures for prolonging life. In Ge Hong's Baopu Zi, there's a passage in which Jiutian Xuannü tells Huangdi that sexual techniques are "like the intermingling of water and fire—it can kill or bring new life depending upon whether or not one uses the correct methods."

Tu'er Shen ({{lang-zh|兔儿神 or 兔神}}), The Leveret Spirit is a Chinese Shenist or Taoist deity who manages love and sex between men. His name is often colloquially translated as "Rabbit God". Wei-Ming Temple in the Yonghe District of New Taipei City in Taiwan is dedicated to Tu'er Shen.{{Cite web|url=http://www.weimingtang.url.tw/|title=威明堂兔兒神殿|website=www.weimingtang.url.tw|access-date=2018-12-31|archive-date=2008-01-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080128142939/http://www.weimingtang.url.tw/|url-status=dead}} About 9000 pilgrims visit the temple each year to pray to find a suitable partner.{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/taiwan-gay-temple-_n_6499210|title=Why Taiwan's 'Rabbit' Temple Is Almost Exclusively Gay|date=January 19, 2015|website=HuffPost}} The Wei-ming temple also performs love ceremony for gay couples.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newnownext.com/taiwanese-rabbit-temple-drawing-gay-pilgrims/01/2015/|title=Thousands Of Gay Pilgrims Trek To Taiwan To Pray For Love At "Rabbit" Temple|website=LOGO News}}{{cite web |title=A temple for gays at Taiwan's Wei-Ming temple |url=https://www.malaymail.com |website=MalayMail |publisher=Dato' Siew Ka Wai |access-date=4 March 2019}}

{{Main|Haitian Vodou and sexual orientation}}

Within Candomblé, a syncretic religion primarily found in Brazil, there is widespread (though not universal) support for gay rights, many members are LGBT, and have performed gay marriages.{{Cite web|last=CartaCapital|date=2017-09-22|title=Homossexualidade e candomblé|url=https://www.cartacapital.com.br/blogs/dialogos-da-fe/homossexualidade-e-candomble/|access-date=2021-05-01|website=CartaCapital|language=pt-BR}}{{Cite journal|last=Moutinho|first=Laura|year=2013|title=Homosexuality, skin color and religiosity: flirting among the "povo de santo" in Rio de Janeiro|url=http://www.clam.org.br/uploads/publicacoes/book2/32.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/http://www.clam.org.br/uploads/publicacoes/book2/32.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live|journal=CLAM. Sexuality, Culture and Politics – A South American Reader|pages=573–592|isbn=978-85-89737-82-1}}{{cite web|date=27 February 2017|title=Casal gay celebra casamento umbandista em bloco no centro de São Paulo|url=https://g1.globo.com/sao-paulo/carnaval/2017/noticia/casal-celebra-casamento-em-bloco-de-carnaval-no-centro-de-sao-paulo.ghtml|work=GI São Paulo|language=pt}}{{cite web|date=22 September 2017|title=Homossexualidade e candomblé|url=https://www.cartacapital.com.br/blogs/dialogos-da-fe/homosexualidade-e-candomble/|work=Carta Capital|language=pt}}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Practitioners of Santería, primarily found in Cuba, generally (though not universally) welcome LGBT members and include them in religious or ritual activities.{{Cite journal|title=Introduction ~ ¡Homofobia no! ¡Socialismo sí! Identity, culture, gender and sexuality in today's Cuba ~ Minority Stories|url=https://stories.minorityrights.org/afrocuba-lgbtqi/chapter/introduction/|access-date=2021-05-01|website=stories.minorityrights.org|date=5 March 2017 }}{{Cite journal|last=Vidal-Ortiz|first=Salvador|year=2006|title=Sexuality discussions in santería: A case study of religion and sexuality negotiation|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/srsp.2006.3.3.52|journal=Sexuality Research and Social Policy|volume=3|issue=3|pages=52–66|doi=10.1525/srsp.2006.3.3.52|s2cid=144582747|issn=1868-9884|url-access=subscription}} Also a Brazilian syncretic religion, Umbanda houses generally support LGBT rights and have performed gay marriages.{{Cite web|title=Brazil gays celebrate first mass wedding|url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2011-06-23/brazil-gays-celebrate-first-mass-wedding|access-date=2021-05-01|website=The World from PRX|date=August 2016 |language=en}}{{Cite journal|last1=Ogland|first1=Curtis P.|last2=Verona|first2=Ana Paula|year=2014|title=Religion and the rainbow struggle: does religion factor into attitudes toward homosexuality and same-sex civil unions in Brazil?|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24914634/|journal=Journal of Homosexuality|volume=61|issue=9|pages=1334–1349|doi=10.1080/00918369.2014.926767|issn=1540-3602|pmid=24914634|s2cid=32139660}} Homosexuality is religiously acceptable in Haitian Vodou.{{Cite web |title=Haiti's fight for gay rights |url=http://projects.aljazeera.com/2014/haiti-lgbt/ |access-date=2021-03-27 |publisher=Al Jazeera}}{{cite web |date=20 July 2013 |title=Homosexuality And Voodoo |url=http://www.haitiobserver.com/blog/homosexuality-and-voodoo.html |access-date=30 March 2021 |website=Haiti Observer}}{{Cite web |date=2016-10-31 |title=Queer Haitians Find a Refuge in Vodou |url=http://www.advocate.com/current-issue/2016/10/31/why-queer-haitians-are-turning-vodou |access-date=2021-03-27 |website=advocate.com |language=en}} The lwa or loa (spirits) Erzulie Dantor and Erzulie Freda are often associated with and viewed as protectors of queer people.{{Cite web |date=2018-06-06 |title=Black Madonna Vodou Religion Spirit Lwa Erzulie Dantor by Kate Kingsbury |url=https://www.patheos.com/blogs/theglobalcatholicreview/2018/06/polish-black-madonna-haitian-vodou-spirit-erzulie-dantor-kate-kingsbury-africa-love-religion/ |access-date=2021-03-27 |website=The Global Catholic Review |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=lisantiadmin |title=Haiti's LGBTQ-Accepting Vodou Societies |url=https://www.irenemonroe.com/haitis-lgbtq-accepting-vodou-societies/ |access-date=2021-03-27 |website=Rev Irene Monroe |language=en-US}} The lao Ghede Nibo is sometimes depicted as an effeminate drag queen and inspires those he inhabits to lascivious sexuality of all kinds.Randy Conner, David Hatfield Sparks & Mariya Sparks (eds), Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol & Spirit, p. 963, London and New York: Cassell, 1997.Conner, p. 157, "Ghede Nibo"

{{Main|Ancient Mesopotamian religion}}

Individuals who went against the traditional gender binary were heavily involved in the cult of Inanna, an ancient Mesopotamian goddess.{{Cite book|author=Leick, Dr Gwendolyn|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1120210531|title=Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature|isbn=978-0-203-41428-6|oclc=1120210531}}{{Cite web|title=LGBTQ+ in the Ancient World|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1790/lgbtq-in-the-ancient-world/|access-date=2021-08-28|website=World History Encyclopedia|language=en}} During Sumerian times, a set of priests known as gala worked in Inanna's temples, where they performed elegies and lamentations. Men who became gala sometimes adopted female names and their songs were composed in the Sumerian eme-sal dialect, which, in literary texts, is normally reserved for the speech of female characters. Some Sumerian proverbs seem to suggest that gala had a reputation for engaging in anal sex with men.{{Cite book|last=Murray|first=Stephen O.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/35526232|title=Islamic homosexualities : culture, history, and literature|date=1997|others=Will Roscoe|isbn=0-8147-7467-9|location=New York|oclc=35526232}} During the Akkadian Period, kurgarrū and assinnu were servants of Ishtar who dressed in female clothing and performed war dances in Ishtar's temples. Several Akkadian proverbs seem to suggest that they may have also had homosexual proclivities. Gwendolyn Leick, an anthropologist known for her writings on Mesopotamia, has compared these individuals to the contemporary Indian hijra. In one Akkadian hymn, Ishtar is described as transforming men into women. Some modern pagans include Inanna in their worship.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/966491570|title=Cosmopolitanism, nationalism, and modern paganism|date=2017|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|others=Kathryn Rountree|isbn=978-1-137-56200-5|location=New York|oclc=966491570}}

{{Main|Alaska Native religion|Mesoamerican religion|Native American religion|Inuit religion}}

{{Further|Same-sex marriage in tribal nations in the United States}}

File:Catlin - Dance to the berdache.jpg (1796–1872) while on the Great Plains among the Sac and Fox Nation. Depicting a group of male warriors dancing around a male-bodied person in a woman's dress, non-Native artist George Catlin titled the painting Dance to the Berdache.]]

Among the Indigenous peoples of the Americas prior to the European colonization, many Nations had respected ceremonial, religious, and social roles for homosexual, bisexual, and gender-nonconforming individuals in their communities and in many contemporary Native American and First Nations communities, these roles still exist.{{cite journal |url=http://nativeout.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Two-Spirits-Nadleeh-and-Navajo-LGBTQ2-Gaze.pdf |title=Two Spirits, Nádleeh, and LGBTQ2 Navajo Gaze |journal=American Indian Culture and Research Journal |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=167–190 |last=Estrada |first=Gabriel S |year=2011 |doi=10.17953/aicr.35.4.x500172017344j30 |doi-broken-date=3 December 2024 |access-date=29 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150513044527/http://nativeout.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Two-Spirits-Nadleeh-and-Navajo-LGBTQ2-Gaze.pdf |archive-date=13 May 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://nativeout.com/twospirit-rc/two-spirit-101/two-spirit-terms-in-tribal-languages/ |title=Two Spirit Terms in Tribal Languages |website=Native Out |access-date=29 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102172337/http://nativeout.com/twospirit-rc/two-spirit-101/two-spirit-terms-in-tribal-languages/ |archive-date=2 January 2015}}{{cite book|last1=de Vries|first1=Kylan Mattias|title=Encyclopedia of gender and society|date=2009|publisher=SAGE|isbn=9781412909167|editor1-last=O'Brien|editor1-first=Jodi|location=Los Angeles|page=64|chapter=Berdache (Two-Spirit)|access-date=6 March 2015|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nyHS4WyUKEC}}{{cite web|last=Kehoe|first=Alice B.|author-link=Alice Beck Kehoe|year=2002|title=Appropriate Terms|url=https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041105120021/https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html|archive-date=2004-11-05|access-date=2019-05-01|work=SAA Bulletin|publisher=Society for American Archaeology 16(2), UC-Santa Barbara|issn=0741-5672}} Homosexual and gender-variant individuals were also common among other pre-conquest civilizations in Latin America, such as the Aztecs, Mayans, Quechuas, Moches, Zapotecs, and the Tupinambá of Brazil and were accepted in their various religions.{{citation|last=Pablo|first=Ben|title=Latin America: Colonial|url=http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/latin_america_colonial.html|periodical=glbtq.com|year=2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071211012339/http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/latin_america_colonial.html|access-date=2007-08-01|archive-date=2007-12-11|url-status=dead}}{{cite encyclopedia|year=2004|title=Mexico|encyclopedia=glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture|publisher=glbtq, Inc.|url=http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/mexico.html|access-date=2007-08-01|last=Murray|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen O. Murray|editor=Claude J. Summers|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102132531/http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/mexico.html|archive-date=2007-11-02|url-status=dead}}

Since the beginning of the sexual liberation movement in the Western world, which coincided with second-wave feminism and the women's liberation movement initiated in the early 1960s,{{cite book |last=Urban |first=Hugh B. |author-link=Hugh Urban |year=2007 |orig-date=2003 |chapter=The Cult of Ecstasy: Meldings of East and West in a New Age of Tantra |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wvtLClojU_4C&pg=PA203 |title=Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion |location=Berkeley and Delhi |publisher=University of California Press/Motilal Banarsidass |edition=1st |pages=203–263 |doi=10.1525/california/9780520230620.003.0007 |isbn=9780520236561 |jstor=10.1525/j.ctt1pp4mm.12}}{{cite book |last=Pike |first=Sarah M. |author-link=Sarah M. Pike |year=2004 |chapter=Part II – "All Acts of Love and Pleasure Are My Rituals": Sex, Gender, and the Sacred |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2DoK_bUwSR0C&pg=PA115 |title=New Age and Neopagan Religions in America |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |series=Columbia Contemporary American Religion Series |pages=115–144 |isbn=9780231508384 |jstor=10.7312/pike12402.10 |lccn=2003061844}} new religious movements and alternative spiritualities such as Modern Paganism and the New Age began to grow and spread across the globe alongside their intersection with the sexual liberation movement and the counterculture of the 1960s, and exhibited characteristic features, such as the embrace of alternative lifestyles, unconventional dress, rejection of Abrahamic religions and their conservative social mores, use of cannabis and other recreational drugs, relaxed attitude, sarcastic humble or self-imposed poverty, and laissez-faire sexual behavior. The sexual liberation movement was aided by feminist ideologues in their mutual struggle to challenge traditional ideas regarding female sexuality, male sexuality, and queer sexuality. Elimination of undue favorable bias towards men and objectification of women, as well as support for women's right to choose their sexual partners free of outside interference or societal judgment, were three of the main goals associated with sexual liberation from the feminist perspective.

Most Neopagan religions have the theme of fertility (both physical and creative/spiritual) as central to their practices, and as such encourage what they view as a healthy sex life, consensual sex between adults, regardless of gender.

Heathenry, a modern Germanic Pagan movement, includes several pro-LGBT groups. Some groups legitimize openness toward LGBT practitioners by reference to the gender-bending actions of Thor and Odin in Norse mythology.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/908932432|title=Contemporary pagan and native faith movements in Europe : colonialist and nationalist impulses|date=2015|others=Kathryn Rountree, European Association of Social Anthropologists|isbn=978-1-78238-647-6|location=New York|pages=64–84|oclc=908932432}}{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/908932432|title=Contemporary pagan and native faith movements in Europe : colonialist and nationalist impulses|date=2015|others=Kathryn Rountree, European Association of Social Anthropologists|isbn=978-1-78238-647-6|location=New York|oclc=908932432}} There are, for instance, homosexual and transgender members of The Troth, a prominent U.S. Heathen organisation.{{Cite journal|last=Rountree|first=Kathryn|year=2015|title=Contemporary Pagan and Native Faith Movements|url=https://www.stantonkeble.com/downloads/NATIVE-FAITH-MOVEMENTS.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023234304/https://www.stantonkeble.com/downloads/NATIVE-FAITH-MOVEMENTS.pdf |archive-date=2021-10-23 |url-status=live|journal=Association of European Anthropologists|volume=26}} Many Heathen groups in Northern Europe perform same-sex marriages,{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/42330378|title=Magical religion and modern witchcraft|date=1996|publisher=State University of New York Press|others=James R. Lewis|isbn=0-585-03650-0|location=Albany, N.Y.|pages=193–236|oclc=42330378}} and a group of self-described "Homo-Heathens" marched in the 2008 Stockholm Pride carrying a statue of the Norse god Freyr.{{Cite book|last=Schnurbein|first=Stefanie v.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/964730476|title=Norse Revival : transformations of Germanic neopaganism|date=2017|isbn=978-1-60846-737-2|location=Chicago, IL|oclc=964730476}} Research found a greater proportion of LGBT practitioners within Heathenry (21%) than wider society, although noted that the percentage was lower than in other forms of modern Paganism.{{Cite journal|last=Cragle|first=Joshua Marcus|date=2017-06-11|title=Contemporary Germanic/Norse Paganism and Recent Survey Data|url=https://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/POM/article/view/30714|journal=Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies|volume=19|issue=1|pages=77–116|doi=10.1558/pome.30714|issn=1528-0268|url-access=subscription}}

Wicca, like other religions, has adherents with a broad spectrum of views, ranging from conservative to liberal. It is a largely nondogmatic religion and has no prohibitions against sexual intercourse outside of marriage or relationships between members of the same sex. The religion's ethics are largely summed up by the Wiccan Rede: "An it harm none, do as thou wilt", which is interpreted by many as allowing and endorsing responsible sexual relationships of all varieties. Specifically in the Wiccan tradition of modern witchcraft, one of the widely accepted pieces of Craft liturgy, the Charge of the Goddess instructs that "...all acts of love and pleasure are [the Goddess'] rituals",{{cite web | title =Alternative Sexuality | publisher =Tangled Moon Coven |date=2006-08-08 | url =http://www.tangledmoon.org/sexuality.htm | access-date = 2006-12-30 }} giving validity to all forms of sexual activity for Wiccan practitioners.

In the Gardnerian and Alexandrian forms of Wicca, the "Great Rite" is a sex ritual much like the hieros gamos, performed by a priest and priestess who are believed to embody the Wiccan God and Goddess. The Great Rite is almost always performed figuratively using the athame and chalice as symbols of the penis and vagina. The literal form of the ritual is always performed by consenting adults, by a couple who are already lovers and in private. The Great Rite is not seen as an opportunity for casual sex.{{cite journal | title =Sex, Wicca and the Great Rite | journal =The Blade & Chalice | volume = Spring 1993 | issue = 3 }}

{{Main|Raëlism}}

{{Further|Raëlian beliefs and practices}}

File:Korea Queer Culture Festival 2014 58.JPG (2014)]]

Raëlism, an international new religious movement and UFO religion which was founded in France in 1974,{{cite book |author1-last=Palmer |author1-first=Susan J. |author1-link=Susan J. Palmer |author2-last=Sentes |author2-first=Bryan |year=2012 |chapter=The International Raëlian Movement |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RM0AAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA167 |editor1-last=Hammer |editor1-first=Olav |editor1-link=Olav Hammer |editor2-last=Rothstein |editor2-first=Mikael |editor2-link=Mikael Rothstein |title=The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=167–183 |doi=10.1017/CCOL9780521196505.012 |isbn=978-0-521-19650-5 |lccn=2012015440 |s2cid=151563721}}{{cite book |author-last=Dericquebourg |author-first=Régis |author-link=Régis Dericquebourg |year=2021 |chapter=Rael and the Raelians |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tkswEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA472 |editor-last=Zeller |editor-first=Ben |title=Handbook of UFO Religions |location=Leiden and Boston |publisher=Brill Publishers |series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion |volume=20 |doi=10.1163/9789004435537_024 |isbn=978-90-04-43437-0 |issn=1874-6691 |pages=472–490|s2cid=239738621}} promotes a positive outlook towards human sexuality, including homosexuality.{{cite journal |last=Gregg |first=Stephen E. |date=September 2014 |title=Queer Jesus, straight angels: Complicating 'sexuality' and 'religion' in the International Raëlian Movement |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363460714526129 |journal=Sexualities |publisher=SAGE Journals |volume=17 |issue=5–6 |pages=565–582 |doi=10.1177/1363460714526129 |issn=1461-7382 |hdl=2436/609871 |s2cid=147291471 |hdl-access=free |oclc=474576878}}{{cite book |last=Palmer |first=Susan J. |author-link=Susan J. Palmer |year=2014 |chapter=Raël's Angels: The First Five Years of a Secret Order |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ZQMCgAAQBAJ |editor1-last=Bogdan |editor1-first=Henrik |editor2-last=Lewis |editor2-first=James R. |editor2-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |title=Sexuality and New Religious Movements |location=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |series=Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities |pages=183–211 |doi=10.1057/9781137386434_9 |isbn=978-1-349-68146-4}} Its founder Raël recognised same-sex marriage, and a Raëlian press release stated that sexual orientation is genetic and it also likened discrimination against gay people to racism.{{cite web |url=http://www.raelpress.org/news.php?item.16.1 |title=A modern nation is a nation where gays and lesbians are free |date=25 March 2005 |website=Raelian Press Site |access-date=30 March 2021}} Some Raëlian leaders have performed licensed same-sex marriages.{{cite web |url=http://raelianews.org/news.php?item.524.10 |title=A Raelian official licensed to perform legal marriages for same-sex couples in Hawaii |date=18 July 2013 |website=Raelianews |access-date=30 March 2021}}

The cult of Santa Muerte is a new religious movement{{cite speech |last=Chesnut |first=R. Andrew |title=Santa Muerte: The Fastest Growing New Religious Movement in the Americas |url=https://www.up.edu/garaventa/archives/lectures-and-readings/2017-2018-lectures-and-readings/andrew-chesnut-lecture.html |url-status=live |event=Lecture |date=26 October 2017 |location=Portland, Oregon |publisher=University of Portland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207214656/https://www.up.edu/garaventa/archives/lectures-and-readings/2017-2018-lectures-and-readings/andrew-chesnut-lecture.html |archive-date=7 February 2021 |access-date=14 August 2021}} centered on the worship of Santa Muerte, a cult image, female deity, and folk saint which is popularly revered in Mexican Neopaganism and folk Catholicism.{{cite book |author-last=Chesnut |author-first=R. Andrew |year=2016 |chapter=Healed by Death: Santa Muerte, the Curandera |editor-last=Hunt |editor-first=Stephen J. |editor-link=Stephen J. Hunt |title=Handbook of Global Contemporary Christianity: Movements, Institutions, and Allegiance |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill Publishers |series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion |volume=12 |doi=10.1163/9789004310780_017 |pages=336–353 |isbn=978-90-04-26539-4 |issn=1874-6691}}{{cite book |author-last=Flores Martos |author-first=Juan Antonio |year=2007 |chapter=La Santísima Muerte en Veracruz, México: Vidas Descarnadas y Práticas Encarnadas |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F992RDiGJKEC&pg=PA296 |editor1-last=Flores Martos |editor1-first=Juan Antonio |editor2-last=González |editor2-first=Luisa Abad |title=Etnografías de la muerte y las culturas en América Latina |location=Cuenca |publisher=Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla–La Mancha |language=es |pages=296–297 |isbn=978-84-8427-578-7}} A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees.{{cite book |last=Chesnut |first=R. Andrew |year=2018 |orig-date=2012 |title=Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ul0vDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |edition=Second |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199764662.001.0001 |pages=6–7 |isbn=978-0-19-063332-5 |lccn=2011009177}} Santa Muerte is also revered and seen as a saint and protector of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) communities in Mexico,{{cite journal |last=Bárcenas Barajas |first=Karina |date=September–December 2019 |title=Apropiaciones LGBT de la religiosidad popular |url=https://desacatos.ciesas.edu.mx/index.php/Desacatos/article/view/2135/1491 |journal=Desacatos: Revista de Ciencias Sociales |location=Mexico City |publisher=Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) |volume=61 |language=es |pages=98–113 |doi=10.29340/61.2135 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |doi-access=free |issn=2448-5144 |access-date=16 June 2021}}{{cite magazine |last=Lorentzen |first=Lois Ann |year=2016 |title=Santa Muerte: Saint of the Dispossessed, Enemy of Church and State |url=https://hemisphericinstitute.org/en/emisferica-13-1-states-of-devotion/13-1-essays/santa-muerte-saint-of-the-dispossessed-enemy-of-church-and-state.html |url-status=live |editor1-last=Pellegrini |editor1-first=Anna |editor2-last=Vaggione |editor2-first=Juan Marco |magazine=Emisférica |volume=13 |issue=1 |location=New York City |publisher=Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190730153106/https://hemisphericinstitute.org/en/emisferica-13-1-states-of-devotion/13-1-essays/santa-muerte-saint-of-the-dispossessed-enemy-of-church-and-state.html |archive-date=30 July 2019 |access-date=14 August 2021}}{{cite news |last=Woodman |first=Stephen |date=31 March 2017 |title=How a skeleton folk saint of death took off with Mexican transgender women |url=https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/31/santa-muerte-death-transgender-women-mexico/99867052/ |url-status=live |work=USA Today |issn=0734-7456 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191010080701/https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/31/santa-muerte-death-transgender-women-mexico/99867052/ |archive-date=10 October 2019 |access-date=17 November 2021}}{{cite magazine |last=Villarreal |first=Daniel |date=6 April 2019 |title=Bishops tell Catholics to stop worshipping this unofficial LGBTQ-friendly saint of death: Even though "La Santa Muerte" is not a Church-sanctioned saint, millions of people still revere her |url=https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/04/bishops-asking-catholics-stop-worshipping-unofficial-lgbtq-friendly-saint-death/ |url-status=live |magazine=LGBTQ Nation |location=San Francisco |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407080835/https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/04/bishops-asking-catholics-stop-worshipping-unofficial-lgbtq-friendly-saint-death/ |archive-date=7 April 2019 |access-date=16 June 2021}}{{cite web |url=http://www.outinthebay.com/archives.htm |title=Archives |year=2012 |website=outinthebay.com |publisher=Out in the Bay |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120424085030/http://www.outinthebay.com/archives.htm |archive-date=2012-04-24}} since LGBTQ+ people are considered and treated as outcasts by the Catholic Church, evangelical churches, and Mexican society at large. Many LGBTQ+ people ask her for protection from violence, hatred, disease, and to help them in their search for love. Her intercession is commonly invoked in same-sex marriage ceremonies performed in Mexico.{{cite news|url=http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/663167.html |title=Iglesia de Santa Muerte casa a gays – El Universal – Sociedad |newspaper=El Universal |date=2010-03-03 |access-date=2013-02-09}}{{cite web|author=(MÉXICO) SOCIEDAD-SALUD > AREA: Asuntos sociales |url=http://www.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=296160 |title=La Iglesia de Santa Muerte mexicana celebró su primera boda gay y prevé 9 más – ABC.es – Noticias Agencias |work=ABC|location=Spain |access-date=2013-02-09}} The Iglesia Católica Tradicional México-Estados Unidos, also known as the Church of Santa Muerte, recognizes gay marriage and performs religious wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples.{{cite web|url=http://los21.com/vision21/?p=3400 |title=La Nueva Iglesia De La Santa Muerte Permite Bodas Gay |publisher=Los21.com |date=2012-01-24 |access-date=2013-02-09}}{{cite web|url=http://mexicoytradicion.over-blog.org/article-la-santa-muerte-celebra-bodas-homosexuales-en-mexico-51509467.html |title=La Santa Muerte celebra 'bodas homosexuales' en México – México y Tradición |language=es |publisher=Mexicoytradicion.over-blog.org |date=2010-06-02 |access-date=2013-02-09}}{{cite web |url=http://www.tendenciagay.com/noticias/ampliar/789/culto-a-la-santa-muerte-casara-a-gays |title=Culto a la santa muerte casará a gays |publisher=Tendenciagay.com |date=2010-01-11 |access-date=2013-02-09}}{{cite news|title=Mexico's Holy Death Church Will Conduct Gay Weddings |work=Latin American Herald Tribune |date=2010-01-07 }} According to R. Andrew Chesnut, PhD in Latin American history and professor of Religious studies, the cult of Santa Muerte is the single fastest-growing new religious movement in the Americas.

LaVeyan Satanism is critical of Abrahamic sexual mores, considering them narrow, restrictive and hypocritical. Sex is viewed as an indulgence, but one that should only be freely entered into with consent. The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth only give two instructions regarding sex, namely "Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal" and "Do not harm little children", although the latter is much broader and encompasses physical and other abuse. This has always been consistent part of Church of Satan policy since its inception in 1966 as Peter H. Gilmore wrote in an essay supporting same sex marriage:

{{blockquote|Finally, since certain people try to suggest that our attitude on sexuality is "anything goes" despite our stated base principle of "responsibility to the responsible," we must reiterate another fundamental dictate: The Church of Satan's philosophy strictly forbids sexual activity with children as well as with non-human animals.{{cite web|last=Peter |first=Magus |url=http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/FoundingFamily.html |title=Founding Family |website=Churchofsatan.com |date=2004-03-09 |access-date=2017-06-30}}}}

Satanists are pluralists, accepting gays, lesbians, bisexuals, BDSM, polyamorists, transgender people, and asexuals. In that essay, he also stated:

{{blockquote|The Church of Satan is the first church to fully accept members regardless of sexual orientation and so we champion weddings/civil unions between adult partners whether they be of opposite or the same sex. So long as love is present and the partners wish to commit to a relationship, we support their desire for a legally recognized partnership, and the rights and privileges which come from such a union.}}

Allegations have been made by antifascist organisations, several British politicians and the media that the Order of Nine Angles condones and encourages sexual abuse, and this has been given as one of the reasons why the O9A should be proscribed by the British government. Many O9A members openly view rape as an effective way to undermine society by transgressing against its norms. White Star Acception commits rapes by their own admission and O9A texts such as "The Dreccian Way", "Iron Gates", "Bluebird" and "The Rape Anthology" recommend and praise rape and pedophilia, even suggesting rape is necessary for "ascension of the Ubermensch". To advance in rank, ONA member must perform assaults, lynching and sexual assault being the most recommended.{{cite web|url=https://gnet-research.org/2024/01/19/764-the-intersection-of-terrorism-violent-extremism-and-child-sexual-exploitation/|work=Global Network on Extremism and Technology|date=19 January 2024|title=764: The Intersection of Terrorism, Violent Extremism, and Child Sexual Exploitation}}Sieg, George (2013). "Angular Momentum: From Traditional to Progressive Satanism in the Order of Nine Angles". International Journal for the Study of New Religions. 4 (2): 251–283. doi:10.1558/ijsnr.v4i2.251.{{Cite web |title=Order of Nine Angles |url=https://www.counterextremism.com/supremacy/order-nine-angles |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013200546/https://www.counterextremism.com/supremacy/order-nine-angles |archive-date=2022-10-13 |access-date=2020-07-25 |publisher=Counter Extremism Project |quote=One piece of propaganda the group produced is called The Rape Anthology, a collection of ONA writings praising Hitler, Satan and rape, while employing Islamic terminology and demonizing Jews and minorities. Some of the essays suggest that rape is necessary for the ascension of the Ubermensch.}} Material promoting pedophilia has also appeared in ONA's in house magazine Fenrir.[https://archive.org/details/naos-a-practical-guide-to-modern-magick/ONA%20-%20Fenrir%20Volume%20III%2C%20Issue%20II/page/n3/mode/2up ONA – Fenrir Volume III, Issue II. The Girl Goddess] According to BBC News, "the authorities are concerned by the number of paedophiles associated with the ONA".* {{Cite web |date=March 9, 2020 |title=State of Hate 2020 |url=https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/state-of-hate-2020-final.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200302121817/https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/state-of-hate-2020-final.pdf |archive-date=March 2, 2020 |access-date=June 25, 2020 |publisher=Hope not Hate |quote=Over the last 12 months four nazis convicted of terrorist offences have been linked to O9A, and there are two more cases pending.}}

• {{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53141759 | title=Order of Nine Angles: What is this obscure Nazi Satanist group? | work=BBC News | quote=The Sonnenkrieg Division, with its glorification of sexual violence, highlights another disturbing theme relating to the ONA – sexual offending as a way of undermining social norms. ... The authorities are concerned by the number of paedophiles associated with the ONA, taking the group into a different area of law enforcement activity. | date=June 29, 2020 | access-date=June 29, 2020 | archive-date=October 6, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006112100/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-53141759 | url-status=live }}
• {{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-49773773 | title=High Wycombe neo-Nazi Jacek Tchorzewski jailed for terror offences | work=BBC News | date=September 20, 2019 | quote=The satanist text demonstrated a 'marked fixation with blood, the sexualisation of violence, a paedophilic projection of adult sexuality onto children, and with achieving National Socialist political goals through political violence and acts of terrorism'. | access-date=June 25, 2020 | archive-date=October 18, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018171454/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-49773773 | url-status=live }}
• {{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51682760 | title=UK Nazi Satanist group should be outlawed, campaigners urge | work=BBC News | date=July 16, 2020 | quote=ONA's Nazi-Satanist ideology, a supernatural worldview that encourages the disruption of society through violence, criminality and sexual offending. | access-date=March 6, 2020 | archive-date=October 13, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013200544/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51682760 | url-status=live }}

{{Main|Sex magic}}

File:Aleister Crowley, Magus.png in ceremonial garb, photographed in 1912]]

Sex magic is a term for various types of sexual activity used in magical, ritualistic, or otherwise religious and spiritual pursuits found within Western esotericism which is a broad spectrum of spiritual traditions found in Western society, or refers to the collection of the mystical, esoteric knowledge of the Western world. One practice of sex magic is using the energy of sexual arousal or orgasm with visualization of a desired result. A premise of sex magic is the concept that sexual energy is a potent force that can be harnessed to transcend one's normally perceived reality. The earliest known practical teachings of sex magic in the Western world come from 19th-century American occultist Paschal Beverly Randolph, under the heading of The Mysteries of Eulis.{{cite book

| last = Randolph

| first = Paschal Beverly

| editor = Deveney, JP

| title = Paschal Beverly Randolph : A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician

| publisher=State University of New York Press

| location=Albany, NY

| chapter = Appendix B: The Mysteries of Eulis

| pages=327–342

| isbn=978-0-7914-3120-7

| year=1996

}} In the latter part of the 19th century, sexual reformer Ida Craddock published several works dealing with sacred sexuality, most notably Heavenly Bridegrooms and Psychic Wedlock. Aleister Crowley reviewed Heavenly Bridegrooms in the pages of his journal The Equinox, stating:

It was one of the most remarkable human documents ever produced, and it should certainly find a regular publisher in book form. The authoress of the MS. claims that she was the wife of an angel. She expounds at the greatest length the philosophy connected with this thesis. Her learning is enormous. [...]

This book is of incalculable value to every student of occult matters. No Magick library is complete without it.{{Cite book

| publisher = Universal Pub. Co.

| volume = III

| editor = Aleister Crowley

| title = The Blue Equinox

| location = Detroit MI

| year = 1919

}}

Aleister Crowley became involved with Theodor Reuss and Ordo Templi Orientis following the publication of The Book of Lies between 1912 and 1913.King, Francis The Magical World of Aleister Crowley page 80 According to Crowley's account, Reuss approached him and accused him of having revealed the innermost (sexual) secret of O.T.O. in one of the cryptic chapters of this book. When it became clear to Reuss that Crowley had done so unintentionally, he initiated Crowley into the IX° (ninth degree) of O.T.O. and appointed him "Sovereign Grand Master General of Ireland, Iona and all the Britains."{{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib333.htm |title=Book of Lies |last=Crowley |first=Aleister |year=1921 |page=6 |access-date=31 May 2010 |quote=Shortly after publication [of the Book of Lies], the O.H.O. (Outer Head of the O.T.O.) came to me... He said that since I was acquainted with the supreme secret of the Order, I must be allowed the IX {degree} and obligated in regard to it. I protested that I knew no such secret. He said 'But you have printed it in the plainest language'. I said that I could not have done so because I did not know it. He went to the bookshelves; taking out a copy of THE BOOK OF LIES, he pointed to a passage... It instantly flashed upon me. The entire symbolism not only of Free Masonry but of many other traditions blazed upon my spiritual vision. From that moment the O.T.O. assumed its proper importance in my mind. I understood that I held in my hands the key to the future progress of humanity... }}

While the O.T.O. included, from its inception, the teaching of sex magick in the highest degrees of the Order, when Crowley became head of the Order, he expanded on these teachings and associated them with different degrees as follows:Crowley, Aleister. Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley, p. 241

• VIII°: masturbatory or auto-sexual magical techniques were taught, referred as the Lesser Work of Sol
• IX°: heterosexual magical techniques were taught
• XI°: anal intercourse magical techniques were taught.

Hugh Urban, professor of comparative religion at Ohio State University, noted Crowley's emphasis on sex as "the supreme magical power".Urban, Hugh. [http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeV/Unleashing_the_Beast.htm Unleashing the Beast: Aleister Crowley, tantra and sex magic in late Victorian England] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205181057/http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeV/Unleashing_the_Beast.htm |date=2013-12-05 }}. Ohio State University According to Crowley:

{{blockquote|The Book of the Law solves the sexual problem completely. Each individual has an absolute right to satisfy his sexual instinct as is physiologically proper for him. The one injunction is to treat all such acts as sacraments. One should not eat as the brutes, but in order to enable one to do one's will. The same applies to sex. We must use every faculty to further the one object of our existence.{{cite book |last=Crowley |first=Aleister |title=The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography |year=1979 |place=London; Boston |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |isbn=0-7100-0175-4}} Chapter 87.}}

{{further|Homosexuality and religion#Zoroastrianism|Incest#Zoroastrian|Religious views on masturbation#Zoroastrianism}}

{{Portal|Religion|Human sexuality}}

{{Div col|colwidth=24em}}

• Christianity and homosexuality
• Christianity and sexual orientation
• Christian views on birth control
• Erotic plasticity
• Forbidden relationships in Judaism
• Homosexuality and Judaism
• Incest#Religious views
• Jewish views on marriage
• LGBTQ-affirming denominations in Judaism
• Martinus
• Nazar ila'l-murd
• Pederasty in ancient Greece
• Polyamory#Acceptance by religions
• Religious censorship
• Religious trauma syndrome
• Sexual abstinence
• Side A, Side B, Side X, Side Y (theological views)
• Sodomy law
• Song of Songs
• Unification Church and sex
• Virgin goddess

{{Div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin|40em}}

• {{cite book |last=Brundage |first=James A. |title=Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe |year=1987 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=SiGe-Zf0nTIC&q=Law,+Sex,+and+Christian+Society+in+Medieval+Europe |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-07784-0 }}
• {{cite book |last=Habib |first=Samar |year=1997 |title=Islam and Homosexuality, vol. 2 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PqRq1bBbT54C&pg=PA287 |isbn=978-0-313-37904-8 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Jivraj |first1=Suhraiya |last2=de Jong |first2=Anisa |year=2001 |title=Muslim Moral Instruction on Homosexuality |publisher=Yoesuf Foundation Conference on Islam in the West and Homosexuality – Strategies for Action |url = http://www.safraproject.org/Reports/Muslim_Moral_Instruction_on_Homosexuality.pdf |access-date=2018-12-17 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150924093450/http://www.safraproject.org/Reports/Muslim_Moral_Instruction_on_Homosexuality.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-24 |url-status=dead }}
• {{cite book |last=Miller |first=Patricia Cox |year=2005 |title=Women in Early Christianity |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Catholic University of America Press }}
• {{cite book |last=Noonan |first=John Thomas |year=1965 |title=Contraception: a History of its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians And Canonists |url=https://archive.org/details/contrac_noo_1965_00_6167 |url-access=registration |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Belknap Press }}
• {{cite book |last=Pike |first=Sarah M. |author-link=Sarah M. Pike |year=2004 |chapter=Part II – "All Acts of Love and Pleasure Are My Rituals": Sex, Gender, and the Sacred |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2DoK_bUwSR0C&pg=PA115 |title=New Age and Neopagan Religions in America |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |series=Columbia Contemporary American Religion Series |pages=115–144 |isbn=9780231508384 |jstor=10.7312/pike12402.10 |lccn=2003061844}}
• {{cite book |last=Wafer |first=Jim |year=1997 |chapter=Mohammad and male homosexuality |pages=87–96 |editor=Stephen O. Murray & Will Roscoe |title=Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History and Literature |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-7468-7 |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hQuHFPKp8L0C&pg=PA87 }}

{{refend}}

{{Commons category|Religion and sex}}

; General on sex and religion.

• Eisler, Riane, Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth, and the Politics of the Body: New Paths to Power and Love, HarperOne 1996.
• Endsjø, Dag Øistein, Sex and Religion: Teachings and Taboos in the History of World Faiths, Reaktion Books 2011. Also published in Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Italian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Swedish, and Ukrainian.
• Helminiak, Daniel A., Sex and the Sacred - Gay Identity and Spiritual Growth, Routledge 2006.
• Kolodny, Debra (editor), Blessed Bi Spirit: Bisexual People of Faith, Continuum, 2000. {{ISBN|0826412319}}, {{ISBN|978-0826412317}}

;Buddhism

• Faure, Bernard, The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality. {{ISBN|0-691-05998-5}}.
• Sudo, Philip T., Zen Sex: The Way of Making Love. {{ISBN|0-06-075799-X}}.

;Christianity

• Boswell, John, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century, University Of Chicago Press, 1st ed. 1980 {{ISBN|0-226-06710-6}}, paperback 2005 {{ISBN|0-226-06711-4}}
• De La Torre, Miguel A., A Lily Among the Thorns: Imagining a New Christian Sexualitym {{ISBN|978-0-7879-8146-4}}.
• Kern, Jan, Seduced By Sex: Saved By Love. {{ISBN|978-0-7847-2158-2}}.
• Köstenberger, Andreas J., God, Marriage, and Family: Rebuilding the Biblical Foundation. {{ISBN|978-1-58134-580-3}}.
• Kuefler, Mathew (editor), The Boswell Thesis: Essays on Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, University Of Chicago Press, Nov. 2005 {{ISBN|0-226-45741-9}}
• Pagels, Elaine, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity, Vintage 1988.

;Hinduism

• Smith, David, The Hindu Erotic: Exploring Hinduism and Sexuality, I.B. Tauris 2015.
• Vanita, Ruth and Saleem Kidwai, Same-Sex Love In India: Readings from Literature and History, Palgrave, 2001.

;Islam

• {{Cite book|last=Dialmy|first=Abdessamad|title=Which Sex Education for Young Muslims?|publisher=World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists|year=2010|url=http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/14368256/413849807/name/Which|access-date=2019-02-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303174200/http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/14368256/413849807/name/Which|archive-date=2016-03-03|url-status=dead}}
• El Feki, Shereen, Sex and the Citadel - Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World, Vintage 2014.
• {{Cite book|last=Jahangir|first=Junaid bin|chapter=Implied Cases for Muslim Same-Sex Unions|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PqRq1bBbT54C&q=Islam+and+homosexuality,+Volume+2&pg=PR3|editor=Samar Habib|title=Islam and homosexuality, Volume 2|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2010|isbn=978-0-313-37904-8}}
• Kugle, Scott Siraj al-Haqq, Homosexuality in Islam: Critical Reflection on Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims, SD Books 2010.
• {{Cite book|last1=Schmitt|first1=Arno|last2=Sofer|first2=Jehoeda|title=Sexuality and Eroticism among Males in Muslim Societies|publisher=Haworth Press|year=1992|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kw_BVSVmNsUC&q=Sexuality+and+eroticism+among+males+in+Moslem+societies|isbn=978-1-56024-047-1}}
• {{Cite book|last=Schmitt|first=Arno|title=Liwat im Fiqh: Männliche Homosexualität?|publisher=Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies|volume=IV|year=2001–2002|url=http://www.uib.no/jais/content4.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906123507/http://www.uib.no/jais/content4.htm|archive-date=2011-09-06}}

;Judaism

{{Wikiquote}}

• Alpert, Rebecca, Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition, Columbia University Press, 1998. {{ISBN|0231096615}}, {{ISBN|978-0231096614}}
• Boteach, Shmuley, Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy. {{ISBN|0-385-49466-1}}.
• Gold, Michael Does God Belong in the Bedroom? {{ISBN|0-8276-0421-1}}.
• {{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Benjamin |title=Kedushah: The Sexual Abstinence of Married Men in Gur, Slonim, and Toledot Aharon |journal=Jewish History |date=December 2013 |volume=27 |issue=2–4 |pages=475–522 |doi=10.1007/s10835-013-9182-x |s2cid=145210162 }}

;Critical perspectives

• {{Cite book|last=Gravatt|first=Sandra L|title=An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: A Thematic Approach|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y0PtOdR5pxkC&q=sexuality+and+the+Hebrew+bible&pg=PA110|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-664-23030-2}}
• Savramis, Demosthenes, The Satanizing of Woman: Religion Versus Sexuality. {{ISBN|0-385-04485-2}}.

;Other

• Kebacqz, Karen, and Ronald G. Barton, Sex in the Parish, First ed., Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991. {{ISBN|0-664-25087-4}}
• Tolle, Eckhart, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, New World Library, 1st ed. 1999, paperback 2004 {{ISBN|1-57731-480-8}}
• {{Cite book|last=Ecker|first=Ronald L|title=And Adam Knew Eve: A Dictionary of Sex in the Bible|url=https://archive.org/details/AndAdamKnewEveADictionaryOfSexInTheBible_546 |publisher=Hodge & Braddock|year=1995|isbn=978-0-9636512-4-2}}
• Kosman, Admiel, Homosexuality - Between Early Judaism and Early Christianity (Lecture at Winchester University, UK) [http://classroom.winchester.ac.uk/p3m39h480i2/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal&proto=true Prof. Admiel Kosman 20 March 2014] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200528112918/http://classroom.winchester.ac.uk/p3m39h480i2/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal&proto=true |date=28 May 2020 }}

{{Sex}}

{{Religion and topic}}

Category:Religion and LGBTQ people