Jun 17

Jun 17 Spiritual Solace After the Pulse Orlando Shooting

We are sending you much love and grace at this tough time. So many of your reached out to us about the Orlando Massacre that we wanted to make sure you did not miss the invitation to join this incredible and moving online event that we are planning with a large set of social justice partners.

LGBTQ faith leaders (ordained and unordained) of Color will be offering prayers and blessings for the LGBTQ community and all who love us. Their voices will be leading us, but ALL who are in need of this are welcome to join and listen. Sending resiliency and comfort in this time. Sign-up here.

Jun 15

Jun 15 On Sanctuary, Security and Solidarity

Side With Love

There are a lot of articles out there about #Pulse. There is a lot of media. A lot of statistics. Some of us are in anguish because we are LGBTQ and we grieve for our people, we rage for our people, we fear for ourselves and our people. Some of us are in anguish because we love LGBTQ people and LGBTQ people of Color deeply and we want to be there for them in this moment. Most of us are also deeply concerned and mourning because we see the media using this tragedy to attack our Muslim family around the country.

We know that there are deep spiritual issues at play for LGBTQ people in this moment. Live wires of cultural pain and history. A few of them that we see:

Jun 13

Jun 13 A love letter from Standing on the Side of Love

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An Open Letter to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer-identified Unitarian Universalists,

Today, we are a people in mourning – mourning not from natural causes but from an unnatural act of hatred directed against us. We hear the horrors of what happened at Pulse in Orlando and it cuts into us like a hot blade. Suddenly our world, which, with the tremendous gains we have made in recent years, had begun to feel a little safer, is ripped open, bleeding and raw, once again.

We hear the words of US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, just last month, when she addressed the transgender community by saying, “no matter how isolated or scared you may feel today, the Department of Justice and the entire Obama Administration wants you to know that we see you; we stand with you; and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward,” and those words ring hollow today. “You can’t protect us,” we scream! Not when hatred and division are the order of the day.

Apr 22
Apr 22 Showing Out for North Carolina

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North Carolina’s leadership moved forward to effectively legalize discrimination of LGBTQ communities- including particularly heinous policing of Trans and Gender Non-Conforming folks- with the passage of House Bill 2 (HB2).

We know HB2, and its similar bills across the US, are not actually about bathrooms or safety. These bills are about controlling peoples’ movement, spaces and communities. When people cannot use bathrooms it is almost impossible to be in public.

Such policing makes sense because these bills are about a fight for who can be in public with safety and dignity. Bills such as HB2 are also about scapegoating Trans and Gender Non-Conforming people to attack workers rights and organizing wins. May we be emboldened to come out against closets, against shadows, against the controlling and rolling back of organizing wins across the country.

Jan 15

Jan 15 Welcome to 30 Days of Love: Towards Racial Justice

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We are thrilled to welcome you to 30 Days of Love: Towards Racial Justice. Over the next thirty days, we’ll be sharing content- here, on Facebook and Twitter - about urgent organizing for racial justice happening around the country. We are thrilled to have Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen, Leadership Development Associate for Youth and Young Adults of Color at the UUA, and Carey McDonald, Outreach Director at the UUA, acting as our inaugural 30 Days of Love hosts.

In their role, Elizabeth and Carey will provide a short video reflection for each of our weekly messages. Centered around the themes of gratitude and wonder, it is our hope that the content of 30 Days of Love feeds and inspires you. Beginning next Tuesday, you’ll receive weekly messages from partners at the frontlines of organizing for racial justice in the country.

Below, hear or read a little more directly from Elizabeth and Carey. To see additional resources for your observance of 30 Days of Love, click here.

Aug 4

Aug 4 A Summer Standing on the Side of Love: My Story

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Unitarian Universalism is in my blood. I am here today because my parents met at the UU church in Birmingham, Alabama many years ago when they were seeking spiritual community in young adulthood. Despite growing up within UUism, I feel like my faith is very deliberate and was truly formed by my involvement in my home church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina throughout high school. One day my minister mentioned to me a program for youth involved in social justice in Boston. This would turn out to be the inaugural Activate Justice Training of the UU College of Social Justice. So, I went to Boston and was exposed to this faith organization on a national level for the first time while I solidified my commitment to social justice. Also, I met an intern they were hosting and I made a note in the back of my head to remember that as an option when I became a college student. Three years later, after my first year studying religion and political science at UNC Asheville, it seemed like the perfect fit, so I applied and was placed with our Standing on the Side of Love campaign in the UUA’s Washington DC office.

Jul 28

Jul 28 Making Dreams Come True

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As I traveled from my home in Richmond, Virginia to Portland, Oregon, I entered Kentucky with a feeling of trepidation. For the next 1300 miles, I would be driving in and out of states where my wife and I would no longer be considered married. Before I left home, Wendy made sure I had our paperwork with me – medical and legal powers of attorney, advanced directive, even my will – because that’s what we had to do to protect our rights in places where our marriage wasn’t recognized.

Within days of our arrival in Portland, on June 28th, the Supreme Court announced its decision that same-sex couples had the constitutional right to marry. Wendy and I were so overwhelmed by emotion that there was nothing we could do but hug each other and cry. But we couldn’t cry for long. We were at General Assembly, and in just ninety minutes, UUs would be gathering for the morning’s general session. There was a celebration to plan.

Jul 6

Jul 6 Living Room Conversations

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Even as many of us are still celebrating the decision affirming marriage equality by the Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS), let us be mindful of how we will treat the emerging new minority: social or religious conservatives.

Don’t get me wrong - I could not be for marriage equality more. I am a gay woman, UU, and have been passionately involved in the marriage equality movement for 11 years as a volunteer and then professional working on several state marriage campaigns from New York City and my home in North Carolina. This year, I’m traveling to several countries to collect the personal stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies and our struggles to get equal access to marriage. Last week, I wrapped a month of interviews in Ireland after their historic yes vote in the marriage referendum. So why am I thinking about how we treat social and religious conservatives?

Jun 16

Jun 16 We’re Engaged! ...with the community

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How some visual and verbal initiatives helped us “come out with pride” as UUs in the larger world.

Eva Brinson has been a member of my church for decades. It took me years to work up the courage to talk to her. A war-time immigrant with a rich German accent, 93 years old, 4'10" and less than 93 pounds – you’d be intimidated, too! I mean, she’s been everywhere, seen, done and lived through everything; she doesn’t bother with small talk, and she doesn’t take any crap. I love that about her.

Jun 10

Jun 10 Pride Then and Now

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Two years ago today, I was scheduled for an afternoon flight from Boston to my home in Richmond, VA. I had been at UUA headquarters for meetings all week, and I was anxious to get home. I regretted that I hadn’t scheduled a late Friday evening flight after I finished my work. But now there was nothing I could do but wait.

While I waited, I pulled out the Boston Phoenix newspaper, to see what was happening around town. Much to my delight, I discovered it was Boston Pride weekend. I could go to the Pride parade on Saturday morning and still make my flight. I love photographing parades. I love all the colors and smiles, the marching bands, and the glad-handing politicians. As a lesbian, I especially love Pride parades.