diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index a88a20f..7519220 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ Changelog
 3.0b9 (unreleased)
 ------------------
 
+- Only decode input in ``html_quote`` when needed under Python 3
+  (`Products.PythonScripts#28 <https://github.com/zopefoundation/Products.PythonScripts/issues/28`_>)
+
 
 3.0b8 (2019-04-26)
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/DocumentTemplate/html_quote.py b/src/DocumentTemplate/html_quote.py
index 47590c6..69a1f7f 100644
--- a/src/DocumentTemplate/html_quote.py
+++ b/src/DocumentTemplate/html_quote.py
@@ -10,9 +10,8 @@
 
 
 def html_quote(v, name='(Unknown name)', md={}, encoding=None):
-    if encoding is None:
-        encoding = 'Latin-1'  # the old default
     v = ustr(v)
-    if isinstance(v, six.binary_type):
-        v = v.decode(encoding)
+    if six.PY3 and isinstance(v, six.binary_type):
+        # decode using the old default if no encoding is passed
+        v = v.decode(encoding or 'Latin-1')
     return escape(v, 1)