On May 1, United Methodist delegates repealed their church's longtime ban on LGBTQ+ clergy, removing a rule banning "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or appointed as ministers, NBC New York reported.
Delegates voted 692-51 at their General Conference—the first such legislative gathering in five years. Past General Conferences of the United Methodist Church had steadily reinforced the ban and related penalties amid debate and protests, but many of the conservatives who had previously upheld the ban have left the denomination in recent years. More than 7,600 mostly conservative congregations in the United States left the Church between 2019 and 2023, citing dismay over the denomination not enforcing its bans on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ ordination.
The consensus was so overwhelming that it was rolled into a "consent calendar," a package of normally non-controversial measures that are bundled into a single vote to save time.
Also approved was a measure that bars district superintendents from penalizing clergy for either performing a same-sex wedding—or for refraining from performing one. It also bans superintendents from forbidding or requiring a church from hosting a same-sex wedding.
—Andrew Davis