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Listening and paying attention are spiritual practices. They are also acts of justice. There was a time when I saw the number of queer people in our congregation on the rise. Now it’s on the decline. We think we’ve done that. “We’re welcoming.” “Sexual orientation doesn’t matter any more. We have marriage equality.” “Anyone can come here.” Yet, I wonder. Are we listening? Are we paying attention?
By Keith Kron | September 29, 2017 | From Uplift -
The UUA condemns the Nashville Statement in the strongest terms. It is spiritually damaging and culturally oppressive to all people.
By Michael J. Crumpler | September 29, 2017 | From UpliftTagged as: LGBTQ Welcome & Equality -
When faced with unfair taxation after the death of her same-sex spouse, Edie Windsor stood for the right not to be overtaxed or undertaxed because of who you love and how you love.
By Michael J. Crumpler | September 29, 2017 | From UpliftTagged as: Marriage Equality, LGBTQ Welcome & Equality -
Tim Byrne discusses life transitions after difficult challenges.
By Tim Byrne | September 28, 2017 | From Uplift -
As Black trans people, we are a community often the target of criminalization, homelessness, murder and joblessness. As #BlackTransMagick, we ask ourselves “how do we protect our spirits and those of our loved ones who face so much trauma?”
Poetry | By J Mase III | September 25, 2017 | From UpliftTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, #LGBTQ, #Pride, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Activism, America, Anti-Oppression, Arts & Music, Coming Out, Contemplation, Creativity, Diversity & Inclusion, Faith, Healing, Interfaith, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Meditation Practices, Multigenerational Faith Development, UU Theology, LGBTQ Issues, Welcome & Inclusion for LGBTQ, LGBTQ Welcome & Equality, Racial Justice & Multicultural Ministries, Sexually Healthy Faith Communities -
Where do I go from here? I don’t know. Like Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in the tragic bisexual romance Brokeback Mountain, I feel a binding love for something that might be damaging to me and that I may never really be able to be happy with; I just don’t know how to quit the Catholic Church. There’s a kind of spiritual agony in this.
By George Grattan | September 25, 2017 | From UpliftTagged as: Welcome & Inclusion for LGBTQ, LGBTQ Welcome & Equality -
Ehlona Walker reflects on the realization that even in welcoming environments there is room to grow and in restrictive environments there are champions and allies.
By Ehlona Walker | September 22, 2017 | From UpliftTagged as: LGBTQ Welcome & Equality -
Inspired by Sikhs who have been mistaken as Muslim responding to Islamaphobia by drawing the circle of love wider, Stanley Petkus calls on our LGBTQIA+ communities to stand up for each other.
By Stanley Petkus | September 22, 2017 | From Uplift -
Rev. Otto O'Connor commits to using the privilege afforded to him to continue to fight to support transgender people, locally and across our world, and especially non-binary people and transgender people of color.
By Otto O’Connor | September 21, 2017 | From UpliftTagged as: Support for Ministers, LGBTQ Welcome & Equality -
“No one is outside the circle of love,” declares UUA president Susan Frederick-Gray. It is a call to draw the circle ever wider, to look beyond that which we know and ensure all are seen and validated. And so we sing “we are gay and straight together.” We recite “If you are straight and I...
By Kimberley Debus | September 21, 2017 | From UpliftTagged as: LGBTQ Issues, LGBTQ Welcome & Equality -
BSA Jamboree leadership challenged the values of the UUA, UCC and SFE while they were hosting the Friendly Cafe at the 2017 National Boy Scouts of America Jamboree.
By Michael J. Crumpler | September 21, 2017 | From UpliftTagged as: Welcome & Inclusion for LGBTQ, LGBTQ Welcome & Equality -
The word “Welcome” comes from the Old English and means “one whose coming is pleasant.” I love that we begin with a welcome because as Unitarian Universalists, “welcome” connects us to our 7 principles. In Unitarian Universalism, you can bring your whole self: your full identity, your questioning mind, your expansive heart.
June 30, 2017 | From UpliftTagged as: Welcome & Inclusion for LGBTQ, Welcoming Congregation Program -
Midcoast Maine is not always a safe or easy place for LGBTQ people to live openly. A segment of the population remains homophobic and transphobic, and LGBTQ Mainers face harassment and discrimination. There are no LGBTQ bars or community gathering places. As a Welcoming Congregation, MUUF is proud to embrace the LGBTQ community in all its diversity and to provide a spiritual home and a safe space for all. In the words of our brand new mission statement, adopted in May, “Our mission is to nurture spiritual growth, engage in justice, and love joyfully, without limits.” Being a Welcoming Congregation is one of the ways we live our faith and our mission.
June 30, 2017 | From Uplift -
These abuses are all part of a campaign against gay men in Chechnya. In this extremely conservative state, homosexuality considered a sin and a “stain on the family honor”. When the leader of Chechnya was asked to speak on behalf of these terrifying reports, he denied that gay people even lived in Chechnya and therefore the claims have to be false. To me, it seems highly probable that these reports are unfortunately true.
By Hanna Skinner | June 30, 2017 | From Uplift -
Although I came out as trans with a plan in place, I had underestimated the losses that accompanied the truth of my identity. Being genuine seemed to make me less welcome than I’d ever been before. I won’t say that TRUUsT saved me; that seems over dramatic. I will say that attending the first TRUUsT retreat brought me a feeling of welcome that had been missing for many years.
By Anya Drew Johnston | June 30, 2017 | From Uplift -
As a queer woman of color, I experience the diminishment of my own humanity when people try to convince me that focusing on racism somehow ignores sexism, heterosexism, and all the other “isms” that work to make us small. Instead I understand white supremacy to cast a wide range of identities as somehow less than, in order to maintain systems of unearned privilege that benefit the few over the many.
By Sofía Betancourt | June 12, 2017 | From Uplift -
We honored the murdered, and continue to do so. We wept, and continue to do so. But the hate crime that was the Pulse shooting, committed against the LGBTQ community on Latin night, was not the end of it all. We go on.
By Cody Blattner | June 12, 2017 | From Uplift -
One attendee reflected: “It's not often that people in leadership in our faith have the space to be ministered to. I was offered this space and the opportunity to be ministered to FULLY. All of my being was validated and appreciated.”
By Alex Kapitan | June 6, 2017 | From Uplift