In 2007, he voted against the
Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations, which for the first time imposed a general restriction on businesses discriminating against people on the grounds of sexual orientation.
[45] In May 2015, regarding a court ruling which found that a Belfast bakery had acted unlawfully in refusing to carry out an order for a cake in support of gay marriage, Farron said that "it's a shame it ended up in court" and "it's important that you stand up for people's rights to have their conscience," but "if you’re providing a service, that’s the key thing – you need to do so without prejudice, without discrimination against those who come through your door."
[46]
He voted in favour of allowing marriage between two people of same sex at the
second reading of the 2013
Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, but he voted not to timetable the debate on the Bill, which would have made it much more difficult to pass had the House of Commons agreed with his position,
[47] over concerns of the impact the "spousal veto" could have on trans people.
[48] He was absent for the vote for gay marriage on the
third reading of the Bill.
[49]
In 2014, he voted in favour of extending the right to same sex marriage to Armed Forces personnel outside the United Kingdom.
[50] He currently holds a 90.4% rating on the issue of same sex marriage according to the website
Public Whip.
[50]
During an interview in 2015 with
Cathy Newman for
Channel 4 News, following his election as leader, Farron avoided a question from Newman on his personal beliefs regarding gay sex, saying that his "views on personal morality [didn't] matter", adding that to "understand Christianity is to understand that we are all sinners".
[51] In the build-up to the 2017 General Election he repeated similar lines in another Channel 4 News television interview, before
Nigel Evans asked him in Parliament whether he thought being gay was a sin, to which he replied, "I do not" and said that he was "very proud" to have supported his party's efforts to introduce gay marriage.
[52] Later, in a BBC interview, he further stated that he didn't believe "gay sex" was a sin.
[53] Despite this,
Lord Paddick resigned from his post as home affairs spokesperson in June 2017 "over concerns about the leader's views on various issues".
[54] In 2018, he expressed regret over his previous assertions that he didn't consider homosexual sex to be sinful, saying he felt under pressure from his party which led him to "foolishly and wrongly" make a statement "that was not right".
[55]
Farron's handling of questions regarding LGBT rights and the sinfulness of homosexuality have been heavily criticised by
LGBT+ Liberal Democrats,
[56][57] as has his continued association with evangelical anti-'
gay lobby' groups, which has been seen as a "lack of care" to the LGBT community.
[58] Former head of the LGBT+ Liberal Democrats, Chris Cooke, made unsubstantiated complaints to the party about Farron's personal conduct when "drunk", and admitted that he "made up a story to cause trouble" following his suspension over Twitter comments directed at Conservative MP
Anna Soubry.
[59]