12.9.25 Action Center Update

Side With Love

Welcome to the Action Center Weekly Update. Each week, we’ll share:

  • A brief analysis of critical issues in this political moment

  • Immediate actions you can take

  • Resources to deepen knowledge and strengthen our collective work to side with love

Nothing is inevitable. Justice movements are built by ordinary people who come together to defeat oppression and nurture a loving world. You are not alone. We have power. Together, we can create a just and thriving future.

Movements are strongest when we act together. Organize with your teams and networks, and take these actions in community. For practical tools, see our Organizing School and Skill Up resources.

Democracy

Core Principle: Democracy is not a destination but a practice rooted in interdependence and the worth and dignity of all. While authoritarianism consolidates power, we are the majority—and we must organize to build a truly multiracial democracy.

The Update:
While states manipulate maps, terrorize our neighborhoods, and pass exclusionary laws, the people continue to build democracy from the ground up. Across faiths, communities, and political affiliations, neighbors are finding common cause and shared humanity. From this deeply spiritual foundation, we can build the “bigger we” that can topple authoritarian regimes and build a democracy where all thrive. We do this by building collective power—in the upcoming 2026 elections and through noncooperation with the corporations and institutions that uphold injustice.  

In 2026, voters will likely face more than 50 statewide ballot questions, from voting rights to abortion access to how citizens can amend their constitutions. Whether these measures protect multiracial democracy or entrench minority rule will depend on how we talk with one another now, how we listen with compassion, meet people where they are, and connect our values to what’s at stake. 

That practice also includes strategic noncooperation: refusing to comply with systems designed to divide or silence us. Strategic noncooperation means choosing connection over coercion, care over compliance, and collective action over resignation. By investing in relationships, values-based conversations, and community power — the places where democracy truly grows — we show that no gerrymandered map can limit the size of our “we.”

Join: Learn strategic noncooperation at Side With Love’s monthly community meeting, The Gathering on January 12, 8pm ET/7pm CT/

Learn more: Join the campaign to stop deportation flights. Learn more about how UUs are taking action to Stop Avelo on December 12, 11am ET/10am CT

Take Action: Join UUSJ Action Hour from DC Home Rule and Statehood on December 16, 7:30pm ET/6:30pm CT/5:30pm CT/4:30pm PT

Gender & LGBTQ Justice

Core Principle: Every body is sacred. We affirm that trans people are divine, abortion is a blessing, and no one is disposable. Attacks on identity are designed to divide us—solidarity is our moral and strategic mandate.

The Update:
In a moment when public health, bodily autonomy, and the dignity of our trans communities are under coordinated attack, we gather not in fear but in purpose. Join the Defend Public Health community on Tuesday, December 9th, 5–6pm ETto confront the legislative and governmental assaults threatening our trans colleagues, loved ones, and neighbors — and to learn how we can rise together in solidarity. As Human Rights Day approaches on December 10, we are reminded that the rights of trans people and the fight for reproductive justice are inseparable from the universal promise proclaimed by the UDHR: inalienable rights for every human being. This week’s national news offers both a warning and a spark — as a federal judge blocked an attempt to strip Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood across 22 states, affirming that retroactive punishment has no place in public health. In times like these, let us remember: the world is scary — together we win, and our collective action is both the remedy and the prophecy for the future we are building.

  • Take Action:

    Please join the Defend Public Health community on Tuesday, December 9th at 5-6pm ET to learn more about legislative and other government attacks on our trans colleagues’, loved-ones’, and communities’ health and rights, and hear more about ways to take action to fight these attacks and be in solidarity and community with trans people in the United States.

Resources:

  • Read: “US judge blocks Trump from cutting Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in 22 states, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston said a group of Democratic state attorneys general who had challenged the provision were likely to succeed in establishing that the law constitutes an unconstitutional retroactive condition on their participation in the Medicaid healthcare program.” - Read the rest of the article from Reuters by Nate Raymond.

  • Join: “Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December — the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR is a milestone document that proclaims the inalienable rights which everyone is entitled to as a human being - regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Available in more than 500 languages, it is the most translated document in the world.” - Use it as a prompt to reflect on trans rights and reproductive justice as human rights: perhaps send a letter to a local/regional representative, raise awareness about ongoing trans issues, or support a human-rights or reproductive justice organization.

Decriminalization & Immigration

Core Principle: Criminalization and dehumanization deny the dignity of our communities. Safety cannot come at the expense of others. As people of faith, we proclaim a future of care, abundance, and mutuality—not domination.

The Update:

This week we saw more targeted and racist restrictions on asylum seekers with the targeting of Afghani refugees and Somali immigrants and the proposal to pause work permits for asylum seekers for the foreseeable future.   But we are also seeing more swells of resistance. Unitarian Universalists across the country keep showing up for and with local asylum seekers.   There are several UUs on the screen in this The Rachel Maddow show clip  that showcased the many actions to Stop Avelo Airlines last week. Join us to take action to Stop Avelo this Friday, December 12th!

Take Action: (2–3 partner actions)

  • Stop Avelo Action Hour with UU Justice North Carolina and Side with Love nationally, December 12, 2025 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM ET  Sign up to take action even if you can’t be there live! In April, Avelo Airlines entered into a $150 million contract with ICE to operate deportation flights. This week, Side with Love is partnering with UU Justice North Carolina to turn their weekly NC action hour into a national action call to Stop Avelo. UU Justice NC always has great music to help us feel the justice movement in our bones, and gathers Unitarian Universalists and with their beloved North Carolina justice partners to take action.

  • Take Action to Stop Collective Punishment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers After Tragic Shooting  In the days following the November 26 shooting of two members of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. by an Afghan asylee, the Trump administration immediately pursued a campaign of collective punishment. The administration has started to implement a sweeping immigration crackdown with massive implications for Afghans, refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants both abroad and here in the U.S.

Church World Service stands unequivocally with the Afghan allies, refugees, and newcomers who are building new lives in safety in the U.S. – and who are now facing new threats and hateful rhetoric. See their statement condemning both this senseless violence and the hostile response from President Trump and his administration and this factsheet for more information.

Resources:

In this webinar we'll discuss how ICE works closely with tech companies to surveil and enforce its violent program and what we can do to defend ourselves and our communities. Co-sponsored by: Center for Political Education, Bay Resistance, Movement Generation and 18 Million Rising.  Spanish interpretation will be available // Interpretación al español disponible.

  • Watch/Listen: 

  • Solidarity and Risk: Side with Love’s Gathering

  • Side With Love Organizing Strategy Director Nicole Pressley introduced a framework for analyzing to understand our power and what we are up against, predict what comes next, and plan our actions strategically.  Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen invited us to think about a time we took a risk in line with our values, how that felt, and what made it possible.  She invited us to reflect on our personal resiliency and the solidarity so deeply needed right now as we make sure to center those most targeted (and most at risk) by federal and state governments.  Rev. Tania Marquez closed The Gathering with a somatic practice focusing on gentle touch and self-awareness

Climate Justice

Core Principle: A just and loving world is also a flourishing one. A fossil-free future is possible, where clean energy is a human right and all beings thrive. To get there, we must create new systems, norms, and practices.

The Update:
We’re watching political and corporate decisions treat land, water, and people as disposable. These rollbacks and resource grabs don’t just threaten ecosystems; they threaten the communities whose bodies breathe that air, whose homes rely on that grid, and whose futures depend on healthy soil and stable climate. When policymakers weaken the living systems of the land, they weaken the living systems of our communities.

And across the country, working people are feeling it first and worst, from miners suffering black lung in West Virginia to communities of color bearing the brunt of rising energy demands, pollution, and climate risks. Climate justice means recognizing that oppression against land and oppression against people are intertwined; the same forces that strip protections from rivers and wetlands also exploit labor and sacrifice frontline communities. Our call is to be rooted in love and solidarity to defend the land as we defend each other, knowing that what harms one harms us all, and what heals one makes all of us more free.

Read “‘They ain’t worried about the miners or people in West Virginia or coal miners anywhere’: Black lung sufferers despair over DC’s distance” from Fortune.  

Watch/Listen COP30 Reportback from UUJEC: Thursday, December 11 at 5 PST/ 8 PM EST on Zoom. Register now. Featuring International Convocation of UU Women’s Cindy Piester and Bolivian UU Climate Negotiator Carmen Capriles. 

Join the UU movement for Climate Justice. Come to Green Sanctuary 2030 Office Hours on January 7, 7pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PT

Together, we practice the world we long for. Together, we win.




12.2.25 Action Center Update