Towards a Quaker View of Sex

Pivotal Year, 1960

The year 1960 was a turning point for the Working Group. They decided to go public with statements about their deliberations to other British Friends. They began dialogue with other Quakers in some public forums. They secured modest funding to cover some expenses. They began writing a study for publication.

The minutes of the group's meetings in 1960 delineated the ways they intended to become more public and to engage other Friends in their deliberations. They began to focus their energies on writing a report for publication.

Duncan Fairn and Alastair Heron drafted a statement for the group to state their concern that was published in The Friend, 20 May 1960.  A lively exchange of responses was published in subsequent issues.

Keith Wedmore secured a grant of ₤100 from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust to help cover expenses of the group for one year.  The Friends Temperance & Moral Welfare Union became the fiscal agent for the grant.

The group invited selected Friends to join them for a one-day conference, “Some Problems of Homosexuality,” at the Hampstead Meeting House in London on 11 June 1960.

Kenneth Barnes presented the prestigious Swarthmore Lecture to the London Yearly Meeting in 1960 and included a reference to the Quaker Committee on Homosexuality. Keith Wedmore published a three-page article, "Towards a Quaker View of Sex" in the December 1960 issue of Young Quaker.

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