This year’s UU Common Read discussion materials invite participants to tell their own stories and form a deeper understanding of how their gender identity has shaped their lives. Our resource kit offers:

• Two core, four-session Discussion Guide tracks: one for an affinity group of transgender and nonbinary people, and one for a mixed cohort
• A fifth, family-focused session for parents and caregivers (coming, October 2024)
• A four-part workshop for UU youth groups that can be offered as two two-hour gatherings or four shorter meetings (coming, October 2024)
• Video segments. Included in some of the sessions, these are also useful to promote this UU Common Read. (coming, October, 2024)

Leading the Mixed or the Trans and Nonbinary Discussion Group

There are two core versions of this UU Common Read program. One is for mixed groups that may or may not include transgender or nonbinary people or their families. Another is for a cohort of people who are transgender or nonbinary (Native, First Nations, or Indigenous people may also use the term two-spirit).

Using a small group ministry model, facilitators can gather their group in person, online, or in a hybrid format. Each session will run around 90 minutes, including 15 minutes spent on covenant, chalice lighting, and group check-ins. You may choose to spend more or less time, according to the needs of participants. Larger groups may need more time for some activities.

Each track offers content and exercises suited to their particular participants, but they follow the same general plan. The first session does not depend on participants having read the book.

Facilitating Faithfully

This curriculum will introduce some concepts and language around gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation that may be unfamiliar to you, or to participants. Therefore, the first session of each track offers some introductory materials to promote greater understanding of these concepts. In the Mixed group track, Session One introduces general concepts. Session One in the Trans and Nonbinary affinity group track focuses on establishing community trust. Please read through all the Session One materials before gathering your group. You can also read more on our Introduction to Key Concepts.

Whether or not you yourself are nonbinary or transgender, participants may ask questions you don't know the answer to. That’s all right! You are not expected to become an expert on gender or gender identity, just to be willing to open your heart and mind, and to help others do the same. Say that you don't know, and move on.

We have one critical request for congregations as they arrange for facilitators for this curriculum. Because of the nature of the discussions on privilege and gender in the Mixed Group, we are asking that any facilitator who is transgender or nonbinary who does not wish to lead a Mixed Cohort group be excused from that expectation without penalty. This will help protect those vulnerable to harm through unconscious bias as participants unpack their own privilege.

You will want to read through the introductory materials and all four sessions of your track before the group begins. Each session contains important guidelines for planning and facilitation. Whether you are offering this Common Read for a Mixed Group or a Transgender and Nonbinary Cohort, we invite ALL facilitators to carefully follow the guidelines for leading each activity. We offer scripted instructions that will help facilitators enage meaningful transformation for all participants while protecting those most vulnerable from harm.

This curriculum is more than an introduction to gender identity. It will be useful to groups seeking to promote our shared values: our places within an interdependent web of existence; the inherent worth and dignity of all people, whatever their identity or life experiences; and justice and compassion in how we treat one other and ourselves. With Love at the center, it will encourage participants to better understand others, and in this way encourage their own spiritual growth.

We hope this UU Common Read will be transformative for your entire congregation.

Structure of the Four-session Discussion Guides

Each group's discussion guide begins with an introduction page (mixed group; caucus group) that facilitators should read before moving on to the four sessions. Each group’s discussion guide will then have 4 sessions.

• Session One (mixed group 1; caucus group 1) offers an introduction to concepts of gender, transgender history, and life outside of the gender binary. It also guides the group through the process of establishing a covenant that will be used throughout the curriculum.
• Session Two (mixed group 2; caucus group 2) discusses how identity is formed and how we learn to tell our own stories of who we are.
• Session Three (mixed group 3; caucus group 3) explores the diversity of families and experiences in life and love, and how we form communal identities as members of families and of friendship circles.
• Session Four (mixed group 4; caucus group 4) explores why authenticity and acceptance of self are critical to human thriving, and what it feels like to stand with full authenticity in your body and mind.

We suggest leading the four sessions in close succession, once a week for a month or every other week for two months. However, they can also be led as a weekend retreat, a full-day experience, or a seasonal, monthly learning series.

Required and Suggested Materials

If you are facilitating this curriculum in person, you will need to have a number of materials available:

• Colored pocket folder for each participant
• Name tag stickers and markers
• Pens or pencils

• Our handouts include many resources intended to ease the learning and teaching work of facilitators. Be sure to take advantage of them. Some can be shared virtually, but several are worksheets for participants to complete or readings to do together and you will need to make copies.

• Laptop or other way to play videos and music
• Chalice and a way to light it
• Blank paper for journaling
• Whiteboard and dry erase markers, or a newsprint pad
• Stopwatch, timer, clock with a second hand, or other way to keep time

Virtually every session in each track requires these. Specific additional needs for individual sessions are indicated in their Materials sections.

If you are facilitating an online group or in a hybrid format, ask online participants in advance to have writing materials at hand. Send online participants the links to handouts in advance, so they can print them out if they wish; or be prepared to post the handout text in a chat window or display it on a shared screen. Because all rights to songs and music videos are reserved by the original musicians, we advise you not to play them on an online platform like Zoom or Google Meet.