Jun 13

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

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.

May 27

May 27 You're Invited to Organizing on the Side of Love: the Online Course

Side With Love

Social movements have cycles: they bloom, grow, and struggle. Like people. As remarkable numbers of people of faith and conscience flood into movement at this time - where and how we can and will show up of use matters.

This summer, we’re thrilled to be collaborating with the UU Leadership Institute to offer Organizing on the Side of Love: Tools and Tips for Interconnection and Impact. Over the course of eight modules, we will together explore movement building and organizing 101 with spiritual reflections and tools. The course aspires to be an accessible and affordable tool for people who want knowledge on the subject, and a forum to spark conversations. Newcomers to this stuff, seasoned organizers, and those who have left movement work and are looking for places to come back are all welcome. We’re launching the course on next Wednesday - June 1 - and hope you’ll consider joining us.

Apr 29

Apr 29 Mamahood is not one size fits all

Side With Love

Years ago, in response to Mother’s Day, Strong Families launched something called Mama’s Day- an opportunity to honor all those who mother, especially those most impacted by systemic injustice or who are weighed down by stigma in our culture. On Mamas Day we celebrate Trans and Gender Non-Conforming mamas, immigrant mamas, single mamas, lesbian mamas, young mamas, poor mamas, and others. All mamas deserve to be seen and honored in cards that reflect all the ways our families look. This year, Strong Families is collaborating with love with Presente.org & CultureStrike to send beautiful notes to fortify the spirits of mamas who are in immigrant detention centers on Mother’s Day.

Send a message of hope to mamas in detention this Mamas Day.

In a world where we had achieved racial justice, reproductive justice, fair immigration policies, and an end to mass incarceration, no mama would spend Mamas Day--or any other day--in an immigrant detention center or prison. Immigration detention centers and incarceration tear families apart and prevent us from raising children in safe and healthy environments clearly making this a reproductive justice issue.

Apr 22
Apr 22 Showing Out for North Carolina

Side With Love

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.

Apr 8
Apr 8 Where Will You Be When Democracy Awakens?

Side With Love

As Standing on the Side of Love continues to build our work around #FortificationFridays, we are responding to the asks of many in the SSL constituency who want more emails with inspiration, tools, and specific invites and calls to action. We are continuing to discern deeper into the questions of how do we fortify movements at this time? How do we align with them and answer their calls when watershed moments are happening? This week we are featuring a special call out message from Aquene Freechild, Campaign Co-Director of Democracy is for People at Public Citizen. Aquene is an active young adult leader at All Souls Unitarian Church, Washington, DC, and a member of the congregation’s James Reeb Voting Rights Project. She is a lead organizer for Democracy Awakening.

The momentum is unstoppable. Two broad coalitions representing hundreds of faith, labor, democracy and social justice organizations - Democracy Spring and Democracy Awakening - have come together to launch the biggest effort ever for voting rights and for getting big money out of politics.

All of us working for climate, racial, economic and LGBTQ justice know that we must work together to stop voter suppression and to challenge a public policy process that is dominated by big money. With the U.S. Supreme Court eviscerating voting rights and corporate spending limits in elections, we’re calling on Congress to act.

Mar 29

Mar 29 Sometimes we must raise our voices

Side With Love

In the story “”Facing the Dragon,” SSL Campaign Director Caitlin Breedlove writes: ”Our faith wakes us up in the morning, reminding us that we are called to act in this time. “

Five days after the “United Against Hate” protest of a political event in Fountain Hills, AZ, a large coalition led by Puente Arizona rallied again at the State Capitol in Phoenix to protest the introduction of several new anti-immigration bills in Arizona. Many Unitarian Universalists standing on the side of love were in the coalition.

Puente is a grassroots migrant justice organization based in Phoenix. They write on puenteaz.org: “We develop, educate, and empower migrant communities to protect and defend our families and ourselves in order to enhance the quality of life of our community members.”

Mar 25

Mar 25 Facing the Dragon

Side With Love

If we awaken a Dragon, we need courage to face a Dragon.

Two terms of a Black President. Gay Marriage. Deeply humanizing gains in the struggle for Immigrant Rights. A new force in our country bravely declaring (in word and deed) that Black Lives Matter. In so many ways, communities experiencing identity-based violence have been speaking out, pushing back, and loving ourselves out loud.

This is causing a Dragon of cultural backlash in the United States against these communities. The ‘Trump Effect’ is not about Donald Trump or this election alone anymore. From those of us who are having our sacred Black Lives Matter banners desecrated at our churches to those of us engaging in non-violent civil disobedience who are having our lives threatened: we see rage, resentment and suffering shaped into actions that could make us very afraid.

Mar 9

Mar 9 The Future of Standing on the Side of Love

Side With Love

In 2009, Standing on the Side of Love was launched with the goal of harnessing love’s power to challenge exclusion, oppression, and violence based on sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, race, religion, or any other identity.

Since that time, Standing on the Side of Love has collaborated with and supported Unitarian Universalists, people of faith and conscience to learn, connect and take action for justice & equity within and across communities.

As we look forward, we want your feedback. Click here to take our short survey

Feb 10

Feb 10 Decolonizing Our Work for Justice

Side With Love

It’s an uncomfortable question for those of us known as “settlers,” and one that we do not regularly have to face. Last year, as part of the UU College of Social Justice’s “Solidarity with Original Nations and Peoples” program, I had gone in considering myself someone whose eyes were open to the injustices done to the original peoples of the United States. As I stood on the rocky shorefront of the Salish Sea, listening to Lummi organizer Freddie Lane explain the history of this sacred site under threat, I realized that my knowledge barely scratched the surface.

Feb 8

Feb 8 No One is Disposable

Side With Love

It is becoming common knowledge that the United States incarcerates more people than anywhere else in the world. At any given moment there are 2.3 million people in prisons and jails across the country. Black and Pink is an organization that works with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer identified people who are currently incarcerated or involved with the criminal legal system. I founded Black and Pink just over 10 years ago after my own time in prison. I had been locked up in a queer segregated cell in a county jail in Georgia and experienced a sexual assault by a prison guard in a federal minimum security prison. When I got out there were no resources that I could turn to for support, that needed to change. As of now, Black and Pink is a nationally networked grassroots effort, involving nearly 10,000 prisoners, working to abolish the prison industrial complex while meeting the immediate needs of LGBTQ prisoners. The movement for abolition is one that we, as Unitarian Universalists, have made a commitment to understand better and involve ourselves in as we align with the Black Lives Matter movement.