Delegates of the United Methodists voted overwhelmingly to repeal its opposition to LGBT clergy on Wednesday. The vote at the church’s General Conference, which tallied 692-51, saw the church remove its ban on “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from serving in the church as ordained or appointed ministers.

The United Methodist Church has reversed its ban on gay clergy, clearing the way for LGBTQ clergy to be appointed as ministers in Houston and across the country for the first time since 1984 starting Friday.

The United Methodist General Conference has voted to remove a decades-old ban on ordaining pastors in romantic same-sex relationships after thousands of conservative congregations left the

United Methodist delegates in the US repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBT clergy with no debate on Wednesday, removing a rule forbidding “self-avowed practising homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers.

United Methodists lifted a 40-year ban on gay clergy Wednesday in a major step toward greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the nation’s largest mainline Protestant denomination. The vote to remove the ban was the latest decision by the United Methodist Church's top legislative assembly here this week toward rolling back what many progressive and centrists Methodists view as overly restrictive policies.

The United Methodist Church is moving to end its longstanding ban on the ordination of gay clergy, following decades of debate over the role of LGBTQ people in the church. The Wednesday vote to end the ban passed with 93% approval at the Methodist Church’s first general conference meeting since 2019.