United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ was at the forefront of Christian LGBT+ inclusion - a historical legacy that is not all that surprising, considering that the UCC was also the first to ordain an African American minister and a female minister!
William R. Johnson became the first openly gay individual to be ordained in a mainstream Christian denomination on June 25, 1972, when he became a minister in the UCC.
The LGBTQ Religious Archives Network features an exhibit entitled "The Historic Ordination of Bill Johnson," containing newspaper articles reacting to Johnson's ordination, a timeline of events pertaining to Johnson's career, and an eighteen-minute documentary called A Position of Faith.
Rev. Loey Powell subsequently became the first out lesbian person to be ordained in the UCC. She, like Johnson, has been a life-long activist for LGBT+ people within the church.
The issue of human sexuality was opened for dialogue and debate in the UCC during the mid-1970s. Indeed, the Tenth General Synod of the UCC requested that a study of human sexuality be completed by a commissioned cadre of experts in a wide variety of fields, including psychology, theology, ethics, and literature. These experts' conclusions would subsequently be presented to the UCC's Eleventh General Synod.
The team of experts produced a 258 page document, but, according to LGBT+ religious historian R.W. Holmen, the core of the document was revealed in this quote:
For Christians, sexuality is understood as the gift of God and as a dimension through which the love of God and neighbor is expressed.
Our sexuality belongs first and foremost to us. It is pleasure we want to give and get. It is physical expression of attachments to other human beings.
One's values determine approaches to honesty, fidelity, promise-keeping, truth-teling, and the purposes of sexual expression.
Sexuality is a central dimension of each person's selfhood, but it is not the whole of the selfhood. It is a critical component of each person's self-understanding and of how each relates to the world....
The gay rights movement has called attention to the concerns for the dignity of all persons. The word gay, signifying joyfulness, delight, bouyancy, and aliveness, has been reclaimed as a word of positive self-affirmation for a significant number of Americans. (58)
While the study presented at the Eleventh General Synod wasn't intended to be prescriptive, all following UCC policies regarding greater LGBT+ inclusivity stemmed from the comprehensive statement that commission had written.
However, while the UCC was approximately a generation ahead of other Christian denominations in terms of LGBT+ rights, as historian R.W. Holmen notes, there was still pushback. While the LGBT+ affirming movement, called Open and Affirming in the UCC (ONA), surged forward, a rival, more conservative organization was also formed. The conservative group was called the Biblical Witness Fellowship (BWF), and opposed the liberalizing measures the broader church was taking in order to welcome LGBT+ people into the United Church of Christ. While, in many ways, the UCC was a model for LGBT+ inclusion, activism and struggle were still entirely key to greater success.