Bring Love to the Polls on Election Day

Susan Leslie is the Congregational Advocacy & Witness Director for the Unitarian Universalist Association and a member of the Social Justice Council of First Parish Cambridge MA Unitarian Universalist

Are you feeling disheartened during this election season? I have found the level of political discourse downright discouraging. It’s clear that issues and language that we hear in political campaigns can have far-reaching consequences for the kind of world we want to live in. So I am taking action.

When my husband, Bruce, and I go to vote on Election Day, November 2nd, we will be wearing our Standing on the Side of Love T-shirts and buttons. After we vote, we will stand at the polls with other members of our congregation holding SSL placards, and handing out SSL wallet cards.

Will you join us in standing on the side of love on Election Day, and invite others to answer our call?

When people ask us what the Standing on the Side of Love Campaign is—and they always do—we will tell them three things:

• SSL is a campaign that seeks to harness love’s power to stop oppression, exclusion, and discrimination against people because of their identities.
• Elections are becoming increasingly bitter, and far too many cynical politicians are looking for scapegoats – such as LGBT people, immigrants, and Muslims.
• We stand on the side of love to call for an end to this scape-goating, and to ask others to aspire to respect, inclusion, and compassion.

It’s no coincidence that stories of young people being bullied are so prevalent. Look at the rhetoric we hear during election season. There are candidates condemning “the homosexual movement,’ calling for the revocation of citizenship for children of immigrants, and insinuating that Muslim Americans cannot be trusted to worship as they please. Now, more than ever, people need our movement to bring respect and compassion to the public square.

Imagine yellow love shirts, banners and placards at polls across the country on November 2nd with a unique message that calls people to our higher values of love and inclusion.

Let’s lift that message up on Nov. 2nd — click here to sign up to join a SSL contingent for a Visibility Action on Election Day.

Last spring, I joined an interfaith contingent at a Boston Tea Party rally. We held our SSL banner and signs, and I was quoted by the AP. “There’s room for the Tea Party in political discourse,” I said. “But there is no room for fear, homophobia, anti-immigrant sentiment, and racism.” The message clearly resonated, as newspapers across the country included it in their coverage.

This November 2nd, do more than just vote. Stand on the Side of Love. It can make a difference!