The Quaker Rainbow Banner was displayed during Pride in London 2025 and represents the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community in not only Britain, but also amongst many Quakers worldwide.
The familiar rainbow colours are in the Quaker Rainbow Banner, along with the distinctively Quaker message, 'Quakers seek that of God in everyone – belonging is more than fitting in.' It is not a party slogan so much as a distilled piece of Quaker theology, carried into the street. It says that LGBTQ+ inclusion is not an optional extra for Friends, but rooted in the conviction that every person is a bearer of the divine.
As an object, the banner sits in the same tradition as peace banners at Aldermaston or anti-slavery tracts in the eighteenth century: a piece of cloth that tries to speak the spiritual heart of a community into a contested public space. Its message about “belonging” gently challenges rainbow-washing and tokenism. It insists that queer and trans people in our meetings — and in our societies — are not being “fitted in” to structures built for someone else, but are part of reshaping those structures so that all can thrive. In that sense the flag is not only celebrating what has been achieved, but also quietly naming what is still missing.
Quakers in Britain have travelled a long road to get to a Pride banner like this. British Friends began wrestling with questions of sexuality in the 1960s with the publication of Towards a Quaker View of Sex, and by 2009 Yearly Meeting had agreed to treat same-sex, committed relationships in the same way as opposite-sex marriages, becoming the first religious body in Britain to formally recognise same-sex marriage and to campaign for a change in the law. When Parliament eventually passed the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, Quakers explicitly welcomed it as giving legal effect to that 2009 decision.
The second line on the London flag — “belonging is more than fitting in” — may be the most radical part of the message. “Fitting in” suggests that LGBTQ+ people are tolerated as long as they minimise their difference and adapt to existing norms. “Belonging” implies something deeper: that their stories, bodies and relationships are woven into the fabric of the community, helping shape its worship, ethics and language about God. It is one thing for a meeting to say “everyone is welcome”; it is another to ask what needs to change so that queer and trans Friends are not merely welcomed but able to flourish as themselves.
Today the official Quakers in Britain website describes Friends as an LGBTQ+ affirming faith group, stressing that all people can equally access the divine. Groups such as Quaker Rainbow — the LGBTQIA+ fellowship of Friends — provide space, support and a collective voice for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, intersex, asexual and non-binary Friends, as well as allies. In recent years British Quakers have also joined broader civil society statements standing publicly with trans people in the UK, reaffirming that all people are equal and deserving of safety and dignity.
Across the Atlantic, many Quaker bodies in the United States have taken similar steps, with decades of minutes from meetings and yearly meetings affirming same-gender marriage and the spiritual gifts of LGBTQ+ Friends. The Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC) network maintains a long archive of such minutes, reflecting hard-won change within pastoral and unprogrammed traditions alike. When Friends march under a rainbow flag, then, they are not borrowing someone else’s cause; they are bringing their own community’s wrestling, repentance and joy into the open air.
Globally, the picture is one of striking contrast. International human rights mapping shows that more countries than ever now recognise same-sex relationships, protect LGBTQ+ people in law and outlaw hate crime or incitement to hatred. Global polling has found strong majorities in many countries in favour of anti-discrimination protections and legal recognition for same-sex couples, with large shares of respondents supporting some form of marriage or partnership recognition.
At the same time, dozens of countries still criminalise same-sex sexual activity, and in a smaller number the law threatens the death penalty. In several regions, especially parts of Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, governments have introduced broad “anti-propaganda” laws, restrictions on LGBTQ+ organisations and crackdowns on Pride marches. Even where legal reforms have occurred, public attitudes can lag behind, leaving LGBTQ+ people vulnerable to family rejection, mob violence or police abuse. The global movement for LGBTQ+ dignity is therefore both a story of remarkable progress and of fierce backlash.
For Quakers, whose community spans many of these contexts, this raises searching questions. Friends in some countries can carry rainbow flags openly; in others they witness quietly, or focus on broader human rights language that may be safer. The simple, portable slogan “Quakers seek that of God in everyone” can be a bridge here: it does not assume one legal model or cultural script, but it insists that no one is outside the reach of love and justice.