As of June 2016, Chris Hartmann, director of the Kentucky-based mostly Fairness Campaign, stated that to his knowledge “there aren’t any counties where marriage licenses are being denied” in his state. In April and June 2020, bishops Helmut Dieser from the Diocese of Aachen and Georg Bätzing from the Diocese of Limburg said that blessings of same-sex unions in Catholic churches needs to be allowed. There have also been discussions about the blessing of similar-intercourse unions and marriages in different countries. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America began formally allowing blessings of same-sex couples in late August, 2009-though there have been no express prohibitions earlier than this point. There was a surge in nudity in movie in the United Kingdom after 1960. The gritty social drama This Sporting Life (1963) was among the first to include glimpses of male nudity. On 11 May 2022, blessings of same-sex marriages had been celebrated in greater than 100 Catholic churches in Germany, akin to in the cathedral in Magdeburg, and in Essen was first time a Catholic bishop with Ludger Schepers at place.
The Waldensian Evangelical Church turned the primary Italian Christian denomination to bless identical-sex couples. The Reformed Church of America (RCA) permits blessings of identical-sex marriages and ordination of homosexual reverends, as for example Rev. Ursula Cargill in New Jersey, however debates have break up the church for years and never all congregations recognize this position. This position was later reiterated by quite a few German bishops. Also, “the National Baptist Convention USA Inc. doesn’t have an “official” place on any issues close to homosexuality”. Among Baptists, The American Baptist Churches USA permits every congregation to resolve for itself. On 15 March 2021, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, below the approval of Pope Francis, launched a responsum (doctrinal answer) through which it clarified that the Catholic Church does not have the power to provide liturgical blessings of homosexual unions. In 2024, the Pope clarified that the blessings may not be given to the unions but solely the individual persons. In the course of the week of 23 May 2021, about one hundred twenty German priests held blessings including blessings of same-intercourse unions. In Austria, the blessing of identical-sex unions is allowed within the Diocese of Linz.
In August 2019, the blessing of same-sex marriages is allowed in Swiss Reformed Church. In 2017, the affiliation We are Church supported the blessing of same-intercourse marriages. Essentially, this means that from the moment we are born we’re fed a narrative which only validates sexual experiences that happen between a cisgender man and a cisgender girl. On 25 September 2023, in another responsum to conservative cardinals before the World Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis signalled the Church’s openness to blessings for gay couples so long as they did not misrepresent the Church’s view of marriage as between one man and one girl. The following month, archbishop Ludwig Schick from the Archdiocese of Bamberg supported blessings of same-intercourse marriages. The next month, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising and chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference expressed the identical view in an interview. In May 2015, the Central Committee of German Catholics voted in favour of the blessing of same-sex unions. On 20 September 2022, the Flemish bishops of the Belgian Bishops’ Conference issued a document allowing the blessing of similar-sex unions, suggesting a ritual that included a prayer and a benediction for stable same-sex unions. Thus a congregation could select at their discretion to solemnise identical-sex marriages, to bless same-intercourse unions, or refuse to carry out any ceremony for similar-sex couples, or refuse to perform any kind of marriage for anyone.
We wished to say, ‘We met, we’re in love, we wish to share it.’ And it was form of a press release, as nicely, of an awakening for me, too. UCC businesses, and so every congregation has the liberty to bless or prohibit any type of marriage or relationship in no matter way they discern acceptable. In 2015, after the Supreme Court legalized similar-sex marriage nationally in the US, the office of the presiding bishop released a letter informing members that each congregation is free to marry gay and lesbian couples or to decide on not to take action. As marriage coverage is a congregation matter in the ELCA, similar-sex partnership blessings and marriages had been performed by many Lutheran pastors previous to the 2009 actions. The top of the German Bishops Conference has spoken towards gay blessings however the lay organisation, the Central Committee of German Catholics, is in favour. On 1 October 2021, a big majority of German Catholic bishops and laity supported blessings of same-intercourse marriages in a doc on the Synodal Path. On 11 March 2023, the Synodal Path with assist of over 80% of Catholic bishops referred to as for blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples within the German Catholic dioceses.