5.27.26 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.

Resources:

  • Watch/Listen:

    • Our Faith Superpowers in Action - Resources from May Gathering to hear from Unitarian Universalists in Memphis (TN), Burlington (VT), and Minneapolis (MN) about how their congregations are using their particular location and resources strategically and creatively.

      Here are just a few takeaways:

      "If we’re doing things right, we WILL be called upon to drop everything in service of love." —Allison Connelly-Vetter

      "The roles that need to be filled aren’t all sexy. Many of them aren’t." —Emma Paskewitz

      "When we risked talking to strangers, we have found we have connections." —Rev. Karen G. Johnston

Bodily Autonomy

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:
A chilling national pattern has broken wide open this week following the high-profile exposure of cases like Patience Rousseau’s. Rousseau was criminalized and imprisoned for over two years following a stillbirth, after a sheriff's deputy interrogated her over a Facebook post where she was expressing her grief.

A local sheriff’s deputy intercepted the post, leading to an aggressive interrogation where Rousseau, shivering on her porch, admitted she had searched the internet for natural remedies and ingested cinnamon to try to induce a miscarriage. Despite medical consensus that cinnamon does not cause pregnancy loss, she was pressured by an overworked public defender into pleading guilty to felony manslaughter. She served over two years in prison before a pro-bono reproductive justice attorney got the wrongful conviction overturned. Rousseau’s case exposes a chilling pattern: prosecutors are increasingly weaponizing personal grief, digital footprints, and antiquated laws to criminalize pregnancy outcomes even in states where abortion is legally protected.

Take Action:

  • Build a "Digital Sanctuary" Network: Work with your congregation or local community to host digital privacy workshops. Teach neighbors how to use encrypted messaging (like Signal), audit their search habits, and turn off location tracking on reproductive health apps to prevent private data from being weaponized by law enforcement.

  • Establish an Autonomous Legal Solidarity Fund: Form a localized, community-managed cash pool to immediately cover emergency bail, legal retainers, or family survival costs without the delays or restrictions of large, institutional non-profits.

Resources:

  • Join:

    • Digital Defense Fund Trainings: Sign up for upcoming community workshops to learn how organizers, activists, and everyday people can protect their digital privacy from state surveillance.

  • Watch/Listen:

    • Boom! Lawyered: The Criminalization of Pregnancy Loss – A legal podcast episode analyzing how prosecutors misuse antiquated statutes to target pregnancy outcomes across the country.

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:
UU Minister Rev. Dr. Robin Tanner shared from outside Delaney Hall ICE detention facility on Monday, where detainees are hunger striking due to deplorable conditions: “Not one more dollar to this monstrous system. I am still coughing from pepper spray but have enough voice to be clear on this: Not one more dime to ICE Agents. Today, at Delaney Hall they beat, pepper sprayed and slammed us to the ground. Among those attacked included Sen. Andy Kim. They punished the families demanding medical care for their loved ones, including a young woman detained in the camps who had a miscarriage several days ago and still hasn’t seen a doctor. Grateful to the faith leaders who came out and members of Congress but mostly for these brave families who are facing down weapons and threats with nothing but the truth and love. Tell Congress as they reconvene- vote no to the reconciliation bill. There are no conditions that will make it safe to give these people another 70 Billion dollars. Shut it down. #FreeFamilies #ICEOut”

We are called to witness, to show up, to put our bodies, hearts, and songs in the way of injustice, and to organize toward a world where all people are free and thriving, and where no one is disposable. May we each do our part.

Take Action:

  • Call, write, visit, & tell your congresspeople no more ICE funding. Last week, collective action once again delayed the ICE funding bill (aka “Reconciliation”) that would give $70 billion more to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Keep pressuring your congresspeople to say no to funding This bill gives ICE and CBP’s unaccountable cruelty.

  • Participate in World Mask Week 2026 this week (May 25 - 31). The Public Health Action Network (PHAN) offers this “global event for talking about masking, sharing pictures about masking, and helping those who may have stopped masking come back to it without shame or judgement.” Masking to keep oneself safe and healthy is criminalized. World Mask Week is an opportunity to shift the narrative - even (especially) if you don’t regularly mask anymore.

Resources:

  • Read:

  • Learn:

  • Join:

    • Melt ICE! Disability Justice is Immigrant Justice! Thursday, June 11th at 12pm-1:30pm PT/ 2pm-3:30pm CT/ 3pm-4:30pm ET. This webinar from Detention Watch Network will explore how disability and immigration justice are connected and discuss ways to include disability justice in efforts to end detention. You'll hear from New Disabled South and Rodney Taylor, a double amputee migrant, who was recently released after spending 15 months in Stewart Detention Center thanks to community organizing efforts. Lately, there has been a rise in discussions and policies that promote eugenics and target disabled people across the country. However, the experiences and history of disabled immigrants are often overlooked when talking about immigrant rights, even though the U.S. immigration system has a history of discrimination against people with disabilities.

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:
If your community isn’t already facing a proposed data center, chances are you will be in the future. Data centers bring new environmental and climate justice challenges like excessive energy use which can bring higher energy rates; water contamination and depletion often in areas already experiencing drought, air and noise pollution, quality of life concerns, and - as is often the case - inequitable siting of the development of polluting industries.

NAACP's Stop Dirty Data Recommendations help communities build power, demand transparency, and protect community health through grassroots action and policy advocacy by calling for moratoriums when necessary, pushing for transparency, identifying and tracking projects, showing up locally, and leading from within.

The NAACP released the nation’s first climate-justice focused principles to provide a guide for organizers, activists, and communities working to stop harmful data centers and/or build cleaner alternatives. The Frontline Framework Community Data Center Guiding Principles are:

  • Our health and the environment are sacred.

  • Communities most affected must lead.

  • Jobs cannot justify harm.

  • Accountability must be enforceable.

  • We reject false solutions and fossil fuel dependency.

  • Infrastructure must be community-led.

  • Interconnected harms require interconnected solutions.

  • Solidarity builds power.

  • We walk our talk.

The principles inform the NAACP’s Stop Dirty Data Centers Campaign and 2026 Recommendations for Protecting Frontline Communities. Using policy, the courts, and advocacy, the NAACP is committed to making sure the harms to residents and the environment don't outweigh the proposed benefits.

Take Action:

Resources:

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

5.19.26 Action Center Update