All tagged Racial Justice
Celebrating a More Inclusive Judiciary
As we confront the urgent threats to peace, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and more, let’s appreciate and celebrate the landmark nomination of Judge Ktanji Jackson, which grassroots activists helped create, and draw needed inspiration for essential struggles to come.
Announcing the #ReviveLove Tour
Last week, we announced the #ReviveLove Tour - providing political and spiritual sustenance for movement. We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism and Rev. Sekou & the Holy Ghost to bring support and healing to folks around the country.
In each city, we’ll be connecting with Unitarian Universalists and grassroots movement leaders from across the country including chapter leaders of Black Lives Matter and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). With the organizing and leadership of BLUU, we’ll be able to support and facilitate spaces for connection and healing for Black UUs in a number of the cities where we meet.
We are thrilled to let you know that prominent leader in both Black Lives of UU (BLUU) and Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, Lena K. Gardner, will be joining our Standing on the Side of Love organizing team part-time in 2016 and 2017 as our 'Collaborative Organizer'. This work is part of deepening our collaborative work with Church of the Larger Fellowship and BLUU. Lena brings a great deal of commitment, heart, humility, and integrity to this work.
As many of you know, I am deeply committed to the supporting of key organizers as they develop, collaborative practice between groups in justice work, and organizing with (and alongside) people directly affected by oppression and injustice. In a moment where many forces of power would work to turn people of faith against the Movement for Black Lives, our steadfast and steady commitment to accompany, support and fortify the Black Lives Matter movement must be stronger than ever. That sounds like big work. It is.
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.
On Sanctuary, Security and Solidarity
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:
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.