Archive for January, 2010

Love is a Verb

No Comments | Share On Facebook| Love is a Verb Share/Save/Bookmark Jan 30, 2010

The message below went out to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. Sign-up for these emails here.

Dear Friend,

Utah is a state where you can be fired from your job or evicted from your home simply because of your sexual orientation or gender identity. Knowing this, we feel our congregation must do more than just preach to the usual choir within our sanctuary walls.

That’s why we’re Reimagining Valentine’s Day this year with the Standing on the Side of Love campaign.

I am so proud to be serving as the minister of my 110-member congregation in Ogden, Utah. We are a fairly small but growing church, and we have big dreams. We imagine a day where no one is judged by their gender identity or oppressed because of their sexual orientation. We understand love to be a verb, an act that transcends fear and extends beyond individuals to embrace a community.

So we are holding a worship service, and we have invited the mayor, the city council, and the general public to attend. After worship, we will hold a town hall style meeting with speakers from Equality Utah and other organizations. We will propose that the city adopt local ordinances providing legal protections for all who work, live, study or worship within our city.

We are doing this because our message of love and inclusion calls us to act when the human dignity of anyone is at stake.

Will you stand with us?

Please register your events, both big and small, on the Standing on the Side of Love website.

You could hold an event of your own, addressing your local issues. Participation could simply mean ceremonially hanging a “Standing on the Side of Love” banner outside your building. No matter how large your event on February 14, it really helps to know we are a part of a much larger movement, and that people all over the country are standing on the side of love with us.

Take action: register your events on the Standing on the Side of Love website.

Love,

Rev. Theresa Novak
Unitarian Universalist Church of Ogden, Utah
Theresa Novak

P.S. We got a nice little piece in our local paper over the weekend about our upcoming event. Standing on the Side of Love has resources to help you get media, as well as worship materials, a religious education curriculum, banners, signs, shirts, and much more.

Don’t Ask, Tell Obama

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| Don’t Ask, Tell Obama Share/Save/Bookmark Jan 26, 2010

Joan Darrah
Joan Darrah, Retired Navy Captain and LGBT Activist

As a retired Navy Captain and lesbian American, I know from firsthand experience that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is blatant employment discrimination.

On September 11, 2001, I left a meeting at the Pentagon just minutes before Flight #77 hit and seven of my co-workers were killed. My partner, Lynne, would have been one of the last to know if something had happened to me that day. My livelihood depended on my pretending our relationship didn’t exist – there was no possible way she could have been listed as my emergency contact.

Every day, on average, two dedicated, hard working, and patriotic Americans are thrown out of our military simply for being gay.  President Obama promised to repeal this law, and now is the time for us to hold him to his promise.

As you read this, the president is preparing to send his military budget to Capitol Hill. With a stroke of his pen he could include a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in that must-pass bill.

TAKE ACTION: Please ask President Obama to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”

The key tests for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve – not the gender of the person you love.

Please contact President Obama and tell him to make good on his campaign promise to replace “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” with a policy of non-discrimination.

Love,

Captain Joan Darrah

Navy, Retired

P.S. I am participating in Valentine’s Day Reimagined by sending in a picture of my family holding a “Standing on the Side of Love” sign. How are you planning to participate?

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Care Bags for Haitian Neighbors

2 Comments | Share On Facebook| Care Bags for Haitian Neighbors Share/Save/Bookmark Jan 22, 2010

Meg SoensMeg Soens, First Parish Church, Unitarian Universalist, Lexington, MA

Love reaches out through us saying we care, and Haitians are not alone in the terrible times that they are experiencing right now. Through us, it gives millions of dollars collectively to try to save lives and help rebuild a human community, but it can do small things that matter, too, through these hands of ours.

I was in a church worship arts council meeting a couple of days after the Haiti earthquake and the music director mentioned that her husband works with several people from Haiti at one of the assisted living centers near our church. I thought, we could just make little baskets with a card and some goodies as a gesture of love and see if we can give one to each person up at the facility who was affected by the earthquake.care bags

People in my church really responded to the idea when I put it out to our email list. Fellow congregants wrote cards, made baked goodies, bought small hand lotions and gift bags, donated money for the $10 gift cards we included, and helped put the bags together and deliver them. We wrote cards saying things like “Thinking of you… Warm wishes and prayers for you and your family in this difficult time. From your friends at First Parish Church.”

When I delivered the bags, the administrators at the facility took charge of giving out the care bags. One administrator told me the next day that they were a complete surprise and brought real smiles to many faces.

When I did speak to a Haitian nurse at a support center where I volunteered over the weekend, she said, “You know, you are all so kind! I mean, I know people are kind, I believe that, but this reminded me of how good people are again.” In such a devastating time, filled with the stress of family deaths and the destruction of her hometown community, she was encouraged and comforted a bit to be reminded that people are good. Aren’t we all, I thought as she spoke with such an open, loving heart.

Singing our Journey for Justice

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| Singing our Journey for Justice Share/Save/Bookmark Jan 20, 2010

marti-kellerRev. Marti Keller is a minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta.

On Monday Jan. 18, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. parade in downtown Atlanta we had over thirty inter-generational participants from the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta marching with the Standing on the Side of Love banner.

As usual, there was quite a delay in getting started, as we waited for the end of the annual worship service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, this year featuring Cornel West and our new mayor Kaseem Reed.  In the hour and a half or more we watched for the traditional contingent of dignitaries to begin their walk and our time to join in, I decided to organize a walking choir, and we practiced the two hymns we mostly all knew and felt were appropriate for this occasion: We Are a Gentle, Angry People and This Little Light of Mine.

As we moved out, we deliberately pitched our songs to the crowds that lined Peachtree Street and then up on to the famous Sweet Auburn Avenue, center of so much of the civil rights activity in “the day.” We sang about being justice-seeking people, black and white, young and old, gay and straight together. We talked about letting our lights shine, building up a world.

MLK Parade Standing on the Side of Love 2Half way into the march one of our members and I talked about whether we could actually teach the song “Standing on the Side of Love” to our band of marchers on the move. First a few learned the chorus, then a few more, then most of them, adding this to our small but lusty repertoire.

Along the way, we saw smiles and support, but we also saw contempt in response to our signs and our identity, and the messages we were conveying visually and musically.

Right outside the original Ebenezer Baptist Church building (now a national historical site) there were some men shouting anti-gay and anti-Jewish rhetoric once they saw our banner and our people marching. We met their hateful shouts with a rousing sing of “Standing on the Side of Love.” We sang it not once, not twice, but three times, directly back at them, with lilting melody and  emotional conviction.

In the words of our intern minister, Julie Lepp, at that moment we lived out our values of faith in action and meeting hate with the power of love.

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Standing on the Side of Love & Dreams with Immigrant Families

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| Standing on the Side of Love & Dreams with Immigrant Families Share/Save/Bookmark Jan 19, 2010

Arpaio RallyBy Bill Lace, Immigration Task Force Chair, Unitarian Universalist Church of Phoenix AZ

It seemed like a mid-January alignment of planets occurred in Phoenix, Arizona with immigration reform events, a human rights march protesting Sheriff Arpaio, and the “Dream Act” play coalescing over a period of a few days surrounding the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend.

On January 16th, thousands of people, including immigrants and immigrant rights organizations, church groups, advocates and anarchists, filled the streets outside Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jail for the March for Human Rights. The march focused attention on stopping human rights violations, racial profiling and use of a controversial 287(g) agreement by Sheriff Arpaio. Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, Unitarian Unitarian Church of Phoenix (UUCP), spoke at the rally calling for all to “stand on the side of love with immigrant families.” Terry Torrey took these
photos of the rally.

On January 15th and 17th, the Social Action Committee of UUCP and First Congregational United Church of Christ in Phoenix commissioned New Carpa Theater Company, a Phoenix company focusing on Latino and multicultural theater works, to present the “Dream Act.”

“Dream Act,” written by James E. Garcia, tells the story of an undocumented student, Victoria Nava, and her dreams of practicing medicine. In the face of anti-immigrant sentiment, she feels her dreams may be slipping away. The play is based on a National Public Radio interview of an undocumented student in Southern California and brings to life the plight faced by the 65,000 undocumented immigrants who graduate from high school each year.Arpaio Rally2

The play was well attended by church members, school administrators, teachers, and students from several schools attended by undocumented immigrants. Immigration reform activist groups CADENA – DREAM Act Arizona and Reform Immigration for America (RIFA) handed out information at booths. Each performance was followed by an interactive discussion session led by Mr. Garcia with experts on the proposed DREAM Act legislation and members of the cast.

I feel proud to have stood up with my faith and interfaith community in partnership with immigrant organizations for justice. Si Se Puede!

Join us by signing an immigration postcard today and stand on the side of love with immigrant families! (Link)

The Washington Post, Thousands protest sheriff’s immigration efforts

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