Archive
Displaying 51 - 100 of 118.
-
Members of the trans community and other UUs respond to a harmful UUWorld article
By Jude Sylvan | March 26, 2019 | From Uplift -
A blessing from the LGBTQ+ community of faith and spirit approaching the United Methodist Conference Special Session on human sexuality
February 20, 2019 | From Uplift -
TRUUsT recently released a Report on the Experiences of Trans Unitarian Universalists. This report was based on a 2018 survey that TRUUsT conducted along with the UUA’s Multicultural Ministries office. Y ...
By Jude Sylvan | February 12, 2019 | From Uplift -
At Sanctuary Boston, we want to help grow a Unitarian Universalism that’s as inclusive in its worship styles and format and cultures as it is in beliefs and theologies. We want to help grow a faith that invites the whole person into worship, not only our reason and intellect, but our hearts and bodies as well.
By Matt Meyer | January 9, 2019 | From Uplift -
As we gather in the darkness and the light let us give thanks and witness to our chosen families who we have traveled a lifetime to find.
Blessing | By Jude Sylvan | December 14, 2018 | From Uplift -
On this World AIDS Day 2018, as Unitarian Universalists, let us recommit to ending AIDS through our fight and action.
By Michael J. Crumpler | November 30, 2018 | From Uplift -
While we celebrate this victory, we envision a country where no one’s right to live is put up to a public vote.
By Jude Sylvan | November 9, 2018 | From Uplift -
We are trans. And we are holy. We are intersex. And we are sacred. We are gender-diverse. And we are divine.
By Julián Jamaica Soto | November 8, 2018 | From Uplift -
We offer our witness to this sacred ritual that represents the resting of Matthew’s spirit, as well as the hope of global social healing.
By Jude Sylvan | November 8, 2018 | From Uplift -
Our Unitarian Universalist faith affirms that no person’s identity is dictated by laws and legislation. In accordance with our First Principle, transgender, genderqueer, non-binary, and ALL persons possess inherent worth and dignity, which includes the right to define who we are.
By Susan Frederick-Gray | October 23, 2018 | From Uplift -
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi hosted a hearing with the Poor People's Campaign on September 26, 2018. Rev. Michael Crumpler represented the UUA at this event, and offered his testimony along with Darin Brooks, a fast food worker involved with the Poor People's Campaign. Below is a...
By Michael J. Crumpler | October 16, 2018 | From Uplift -
It is my greatest privilege to introduce our new Multicultural Ministries intern from Harvard Divinity School, Jade Sylvan. Jade will be assisting the UUA Multicultural Ministries Office with LGBTQ and Intercultural programs. ...
By Michael J. Crumpler | October 12, 2018 | From Uplift -
I did a little research on the history of National Coming Out Day. It began in 1988 with the premise that coming out as a queer or trans person was the most basic form of activism one could do, because of the rationale that it is harder for people to hate queer or trans people if they know one.
By Sara Green | October 10, 2018 | From Uplift -
On this 30th Anniversary of National Coming Out Day, let us “come out“ in support of our sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, neighbors and friends courageously living their truth by committing to act in solidarity and give generously to causes affirming our inherit worth and dignity.
By Michael J. Crumpler | October 10, 2018 | From Uplift -
Editor's Note: This charge was offered by Dr. Janice Marie Johnson, UUA Multicultural Ministries and Leadership Director, for the installation of Reverend Dawn Fortune on Saturday, September 29, 2018 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore, NJ. We are...
By Janice Marie Johnson | October 10, 2018 | From Uplift -
The demon that rapes you has a way of making its home within you. You spend the remainder of your life laboring to exorcize this demon that is not you. Today, this demon was exorcised as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford sat before the world and uttered her truth.
By Michael J. Crumpler | September 27, 2018 | From Uplift -
A new approach to Welcome Renewal has come! To learn how to begin the Five Practices of Welcome Renewal at your congregation, please attend one (or more) of our monthly orientations.
Webinar | By Michael J. Crumpler | September 23, 2018 | From Uplift -
Sunday, September 23rd is Bi Visibility Day. Today and everyday, let’s let our bi family and friends know #WeSeeYou and we love you! #UPLIFTbisexuals #BiVisibilityDay #BiVisibilityWeek
By Marie Alford-Harkey, Debra Haffner | September 17, 2018 | From Uplift -
It is our fault as people of faith that the virus is what it is in the world. American religion, both liberal and conservative, is responsible for the rapid spread of AIDS in the 1980s and the 500K deaths by 1990.
By Michael J. Crumpler | September 6, 2018 | From Uplift -
As we honor our lives by celebrating PRIDE throughout the month of June, may all who chose to marry or chose not to marry continue the fight by exposing the hate that we all experience as we go about our daily lives.
June 12, 2018 | From Uplift -
On February 13th 2018, QDEP's Bobby Steggert and Ian Zdanowicz participated in a panel organized by Unitarian Universalist Association at the All Souls Church. The topic of the event was forced migration of people identifying as LGBTQ. Debrown Idrissu and Edafe Okporo gave brilliant talks about their trajectories in their home countries and experiences regarding incarceration in detention centers and the immigration process in the USA.
By Ian Zdanowicz | June 12, 2018 | From Uplift -
The new #ALLPrideMatters pride flag is not a divisive distraction from Pride, but a more perfect expression of Pride for are racialized context. The new #AllPrideMatters pride flag expresses a more perfect union of the Pride that we all hope to celebrate across the country and around the world in June.
June 7, 2018 | From Uplift -
On May 27, 2018, Community Unitarian Universalist Congregation at White Plains had a special LGBTQ Celebration Sunday Service, commemorating our renewal as an LGBTQ Welcoming Congregation. Our Welcoming designation dated back to 2005, but since then the transgender/non-binary movement has evolved greatly and we wanted to renew our commitment to Welcoming all within the LGBTQIA community.
By Anthony Arrien | June 7, 2018 | From Uplift -
Fast forward to a couple of months ago when my 80-year old godfather called to share the news that his beloved country, Trinidad and Tobago, had finally changed its legislation on Thursday, April 12, when Judge Devindra Rampersad “determined that sections of the Sexual Offences Act… criminalised consensual same-sex activity between adults, and were unconstitutional.”
By Janice Marie Johnson | June 7, 2018 | From Uplift -
“When the sharpest words wanna cut me down; I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out; I am brave, I am bruised I am who I'm meant to be, this is me.”
June 7, 2018 | From Uplift -
The power of grace to save us, to move us towards our best and truest selves, even when we don’t know what we’re looking for or what we need, is amazing and beautiful. What a blessing it is for me that Unitarian Universalism has been a part of the grace that has shaped and transformed my life.
By Manish Mishra-Marzetti | June 4, 2018 | From Uplift -
Georgia and the Southeastern United States are in crisis because of HIV/AIDS. The people living in the Southern region of the United States are at the highest risk of contracting HIV. Now that I have your attention I want to provide some statistics for the State of Georgia....
By Derek Rounsley | June 4, 2018 | From Uplift -
I came out when I was 12, prompting several years of severe bullying. Soon after I turned to religion for help, only to find out that I was not welcomed, that I was not “the child of God” the church wanted me to be. I quickly learned that being a member of the church meant hiding a part of...
June 4, 2018 | From Uplift -
I am a privileged, cisgender woman. The world sees me as white. I often pass as heterosexual without trying. My body works in the ways most people expect bodies to work. For these, and many other reasons, I benefit from a vast, unspoken ranking system of privilege and oppression. As a lesbian, I...
By Rev. Edie Love | June 4, 2018 | From Uplift -
But can we talk about what everyone is wearing to Pride, General Assembly, around the house in 90 degree weather, the beach and the cookout? There are so many options to how we adorn ourselves and articulate our lifeforce....
By Sara Green | May 31, 2018 | From Uplift -
Not wanting my parents to find out about my newly blended Black/queer life on the 6 o’clock news; I took a deep breath and made “The Phone Call”.
By Elizabeth Ann Terry | May 31, 2018 | From Uplift -
The line “In the moonlight, black boys look blue” will likely go down as one of my favorite movie lines of all time. This line captures and reclaims the beauty and softness of queer black bodies that is so often stripped away from us. I felt visible when I watched this film...validated even. I needed this film.
By Braxton Simmons | May 31, 2018 | From Uplift -
As we celebrate Pride in 2018, I am proud of the courage and resilience of our beloved LGBTQ and Non-Binary Unitarian Universalists who are showing up in the common struggle for justice and truth. Thanks to you, we continue the vital work of building Beloved Community
By Susan Frederick-Gray | May 31, 2018 | From Uplift -
This reflection comes from Rev. Michael J. Crumpler, UUA's LGBTQ and Intercultural Programs Manager in Multicultural Growth and Witness....
By Michael J. Crumpler | May 15, 2018 | From Uplift -
But more than any program or initiative, it is the lived experience of queer and non-binary folx in our congregations that is the real measure of inclusivity. Here’s where the intersectionality of race, gender, age and sexuality play out, because the younger generations in our congregations (and the whole United States) are less straight and less white.
By Carey McDonald | February 26, 2018 | From Uplift -
In late spring of 2003, nearly 15 years ago now, I was classified to a bunk at Ft. Devens prison with a man named Douglas. We later learned that we were intentionally bunked together with the hope that we would have conflict with each other.
By Jason M. Lydon | February 25, 2018 | From Uplift -
You might wonder why a little church in upstate NY is doing this. There are many reasons, but the most pertinent one is that we are a congregation of deep welcome. We know and practice it. We are certified as a “Welcoming Congregation,” and we know that if that means anything then we have to practice welcome.
By Jennifer Hamlin-Navias | February 25, 2018 | From Uplift -
I see many similarities between “passing” and being “in the closet.” Ironically, while many black people view passing as betrayal, they fail to see the similarities between being black and being queer. By dimensioning queerness as a choice that can be acted on or avoided, they are asking us to choose to “pass” rather than live openly in our truth. Which begs the question, is being in the closet not just a survival tactic?
By Jaidyn Bryant | February 25, 2018 | From Uplift -
There is a spiritual loneliness when looking for your people in the eyes of a congregation that is well read, but not well practiced in the art of addressing racial and trans justice. As a Black trans person whose history has been stolen, erased, and gaslit I had to take intentional steps to piece together a faith practice that didn’t just acknowledge me as a full being, in all my Blackness and transness, but also the reality of the world I exist in at this current moment in time.
By J Mase III | February 25, 2018 | From Uplift -
As a 6’5” African-American humanist, atheist, Unitarian male, I have spent much of my life defying stereotypes. This boldness came out of a lot of privilege in that I was raised by a liberal grandmother with whom I traveled to many countries in order to expose me to many different people from...
By Zachary Bosco | February 25, 2018 | From Uplift -
Trans* persons navigate loss, change, and transitions with grace and beauty. Trans* persons of color do it with fierceness, passion, and soul. Our theology teaches us to persist in spite of one's pain, to love those who hate us, and to continue fighting though we are exhausted.
By Jaelynn Pema-la Scott | February 25, 2018 | From Uplift -
I almost believed that the presence of queer, Black folks in movies like Moonlight meant that a call for representation in Black Panther was excessive—how could queer folks be selfish enough to want to be represented in movies that aren’t particularly about wrestling with gender identity or sexual orientation?
By Marchaé Grair | February 25, 2018 | From Uplift -
February 7, 2018 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. #NBHAAD was founded in 1999 as a national response to the growing HIV and AIDS epidemic in African American communities....
February 7, 2018 | From Uplift -
“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. Ours is no caravan of despair. Come, yet again, come”. These famous words of the prophet Jalal al-Din Rumi, – may he be forever remembered, often ring throughout our Unitarian Universalist congregations on any given Sunday morning welcoming the stranger and providing comfort to those present. And with good reason.
By Chris Long | December 1, 2017 | From Uplift -
On this World AIDS Day, as Unitarian Universalists we reaffirm our belief in “the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” We reaffirm our commitment to remember the 35 million lives to HIV and AIDS. We reaffirm our commitment to celebrate the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS. We reaffirm our commitment to build a world of zero new HIV and AIDS infections by 2030. May it be so!
By Michael J. Crumpler | November 30, 2017 | From Uplift -
We hold within each of us, the spark of the divine, the love of the divine, the image of the divine.
By Paul Langston-Daley | November 18, 2017 | From Uplift -
We honor our ancestors by keeping their stories alive within us we also honor the ancestors by being resilient.
By B Herbert | November 18, 2017 | From Uplift -
I yearn for a time when instead of memorializing transgender and genderqueer individuals who have been killed for living their lives authentically, we will take time to celebrate the gifts these individuals offer our communities. Until then I will attend the vigils, not only to remember the lives lost but also to offer to the transgender communities a supportive religious voice.
By The Rev. Mr. Barb Greve | November 18, 2017 | From Uplift -
“As a Welcoming Congregation, the Pagosa Unitarian Universalist Fellowship invites everyone to share in our faith community. We cherish diversity and foster a safe environment for all.” - PUUF Statement of Inclusion
October 6, 2017 | From Uplift -
Unwarranted arrests of 70+ LGBTQ persons gathered at a meeting at the Vintage Hotel in Lagos, Nigeria have put those living with HIV/AIDS and the agencies committed to supporting them at risk.
September 29, 2017 | From Uplift