Author Meets Critics: Brian Blackmore's To Hear and to Respond: The Quakers' Groundbreaking Push for Gay Liberation, 1946-1973

This roundtable will discuss Brian Blackmore's new monograph *To Hear and to Respond: The Quakers' Groundbreaking Push for Gay Liberation, 1946-1973*, which examines the contributions of Quakers, specifically from the liberal tradition of the Religious Society of Friends, to the advancement of lesbian, gay, and bisexual rights in the United States between 1946-1973. Scholars of American sexual politics, sexuality, and Quaker history will situate Blackmore’s interdisciplinary study across their respective disciplines. The conversation among the panelists will prove stimulating not only to historians of gay rights, but to anyone seeking to imagine a relationship of mutual flourishing between religious and LGBT+ communities. A brief abstract of the book is as follows: This book examines the contributions of Quakers, specifically from the liberal tradition of the Religious Society of Friends, to the advancement of lesbian, gay, and bisexual rights in the United States between 1946-1973. In this period, Quakers established the first social service organization for gay people in the United States, wrote the first public and positive evaluation of homosexuality from a religious perspective, and composed the first public statement in support of bisexuality from a religious assembly. A critical study of Quaker pamphlets, periodicals, lectures, business minutes, and personal papers from this era reveals that Quaker support of gay liberation was exercised through experiments in criminal justice reform, challenges to Christian moral codes, and advocacy for change within the Religious Society of Friends. The findings presented in this project seek to broaden our understanding of gay rights history by showing that Quakers played a pivotal role in the emergence and development of the gay rights movement in the United States.