Posts Tagged ‘ballot measure’

Day 5: Celebrate Love Heroes!

No Comments | Share On Facebook| Day 5: Celebrate Love Heroes! Share/Save/Bookmark Jan 23, 2013

Today is Day 5 of the Thirty Days of Love. Today’s action is to honor Courageous Love in your community. Click here for more resources, family actions, and more! Click here to sign up for the daily Thirty Days of Love emails.

Award recipients Sally, Pat, Scott, and Charles with Campaign Manager Jennifer Toth.

On Sunday, we got to help kick off the second annual Thirty Days of Love by awarding Courageous Love Awards to leaders at First Unitarian Church of Baltimore. “Honor Legacy” is the theme for this first week of the campaign, and it is an apt touchstone for our historic congregation. When Rev. William Ellery Channing delivered “the Baltimore sermon” from our pulpit in 1819, he shook religion at its core and defined an American Unitarianism that was serious, rational, and progressive.

It was a joy to celebrate the stories of our congregational leaders. As a group, they worked to pass marriage equality—by popular vote!—this past November in Maryland, and have also advocated for the rights of LGBTQ people for decades. Award recipients Sally Wall and Pat Montley were our public spokespersons, receiving messaging training, addressing the media, and organizing other congregations to mobilize for equality. Scott MacLeod was our principal cheerleader in the congregation, urging our people to volunteer at phone banks and door-to-door canvassing, and leading a square dance fundraiser.

Fighting for human rights was nothing new for award recipient Charles Blackburn. In 1961, he was a Freedom Rider in the south, challenging local segregation laws by riding interstate buses. In 2004, Charles and his partner were one of nine couples in Deane & Polyak v. Conoway, the suit for equal marriage rights in Maryland. That suit was lost in 2007. Our congregation’s response? We hung a banner proclaiming “Civil Marriage is a Civil Right” as a testament to our commitment to equal rights for all. This past Sunday, acknowledging that marriage equality could not have been won without our UU Legislative Ministry of Maryland, we were able to take the banner down with pride.

Any organization or individual can give Courageous Love Awards to those who exhibit “courageous love.” This is an opportunity to recognize the amazing change-makers in your community and inspire future social justice work. Click here for more info on Courageous Love Awards.

Together, let’s continue to put our faith into action, and stand on the side of love!

Rev. David Carl Olson
First Unitarian Church of Baltimore, Maryland

PS: The Standing on the Side of Love campaign hopes your congregation is participating in Share the Love Sunday! The SSL website has some helpful resources for planning your service, taking a collection to support the Unitarian Universalist Association, and discussing what it means for your congregation to rejoice in community and stand on the side of love. Thanks for your generosity on February 17!

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A Celebration Worthy of Cake

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| A Celebration Worthy of Cake Share/Save/Bookmark Dec 27, 2012

Here at Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland, Maine, we recently celebrated our state’s vote for marriage equality during our Sunday services–an event complete with Standing on the Side of Love-themed cakes!

Standing on the Side of Love cakes!

We had two wedding cakes with same-sex edible marzipan couples as toppers, which the congregation shared during coffee hour. During the service itself, we danced around the sanctuary to commemorate the occasion.

Maine approved marriage equality by ballot measure in November. We are excited to begin having same-sex weddings here at our congregation in the new year!

Meret with her cake.

This post was contributed by Meret Bainbridge, a member of Allen Avenue UU Church.

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Love Wins Big at the Ballot Box

No Comments | Share On Facebook| Love Wins Big at the Ballot Box Share/Save/Bookmark Nov 07, 2012

Pinch me! I, like many of you, still can’t believe that this moment has finally arrived.

Yesterday, voters in Maine and Maryland affirmed marriage equality at the ballot box. Minnesota became the first state in the country to reject writing discrimination into its state constitution. And, while the ballots are still being counted, marriage equality appears headed for passage in Washington State. These outcomes may influence the U.S. Supreme Court when it considers the constitutionality of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. After working for more than a decade for LGBTQ equality, I’m ecstatic to say that the United States has reached the tipping point. We are poised to take our place among the other nations of the world who stand on the side of love.

But wait–there’s more! Wisconsin voters elected Tammy Baldwin–the first openly-LGBTQ American, and a woman of profound integrity–to the U.S. Senate, offering new hope and a shining example of success to young people who are hoping that it will get better, who will know they can achieve anything. Electoral outcomes in New Hampshire and Iowa mean marriage equality is most likely safe in those states, and the composition of Colorado’s legislature could mean new possibilities for relationship recognition for same-gender couples. Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins has retained his seat after anti-gay forces tried to oust him for joining in a unanimous 2009 decision for marriage equality.

Of course, whether we are Republicans and Democrats, all of us understand that when it comes to advancing equality for LGBTQ people in our nation, there was simply no contest between President Obama and Governor Romney. Hopefully, with President Obama’s leadership, we will never again have a sitting president who does not support full equality for LGBTQ people in our country.

Friends, Election 2012 is our moment. Love wins big!

Of course, our victories go much further than just LGBTQ equality. Voters in my home state of Maryland became the first in the nation to ever vote on a DREAM Act measure at the ballot, signaling resounding approval for providing in-state tuition to undocumented residents. Minnesota voters rejected a regressive voter ID amendment. And voters in two states–Colorado and Washington–said yes to decriminalizing marijuana. In an ideal world, this could indicate a shift in our national conversation about drug laws that disproportionately affect poor communities of color.

As these victories set in, however, we remember that this is really about people, and our love for one another. “Gratitude” is the number one word I am hearing emerge from the mouths of those who had so much invested in outcomes yesterday.

So today, let us all offer our gratitude to one another for our collective work to bend the arc of the world towards greater love and justice.

In faith,

Dan Furmansky
Former Campaign Manager
Standing on the Side of Love

The message above went out on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

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The Painful Ordinariness of Marriage Equality

4 Comments | Share On Facebook| The Painful Ordinariness of Marriage Equality Share/Save/Bookmark Nov 05, 2012

Rev. Eric C. Kaminetzky

This post was written by Rev. Eric C. Kaminetzky, minister of the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church in Washington State. Voters in Washington face a referendum on marriage equality–Referendum 74–this coming Election Day.

The painfully ordinary plea from citizens of Washington State who wish their marriages to be recognized within the laws of the State of Washington is this: treat as equal all couples who enter into civil, legal unions. What is painfully, and perfectly ordinary about this plea is that it lifts up lessons this state and the larger union of the United States have learned before, and again: separate but equal is neither.

As a Unitarian Universalist minister serving a congregation in Washington State, I have contact with families of many descriptions, and I see in them all the same joys, sorrows, needs, and potentials. As the minister of the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church, I hold the metaphorical keys to the religious kingdom of marriage in our institution and it is my joy to support couples and their families in joining their lives.

Unitarian Universalist ministers and congregations have been offering marriage ceremonies to couples of all genders and identities for decades, and we recognize our right to do so, even under the present laws of the State of Washington. When Referendum 74 passes and civil, legal unions are called and counted as marriages, my Unitarian Universalist colleagues and I will celebrate the crumbling of the walls of division, and we will, for the first time, be able to offer succor and support, religious and civil, for marriage regardless of the participants genders. That day will be joyful, and many things will change.

What will not change are our rights as clergy to perform religious marriage ceremonies. Our civil law cannot now forbid us from performing them. More importantly, when Referendum 74 passes, our civil law will not be able to require us, or leaders of any other religious organization in the state, to perform them. The laws of the State of Washington have no power to prevent us from performing religious marriage ceremonies, and they will have no power to require us to provide them.

On the day Referendum 74 passes, and with the support of my congregation, the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church could choose to go out of the marriage business altogether. And while I can think of no reason why we would, what is important about your support of Referendum 74 is that it is unrelated to and will have no effect on religious marriage.

Referendum 74 simply recognizes that a civil, legal union between two people is civil marriage, and that civil marriage is a civil, legal union between two people.

I am a biological and gender identified male, civilly, legally, and religiously married to a biological and gender identified female. We were married by a Unitarian Universalist minister at a Unitarian Universalist congregation in the State of New Jersey, and the Court Clerk in the town where we married was glad to take our application and our money to register and recognize our civil, legal union as a marriage. When we moved to the State of North Carolina, our marriage was recognized without a hitch. And now, we live in the State of Washington, where again no question is asked by anyone when we say we are married. And isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? For everyone?

Washington State is full of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning people who have, in other states and countries, entered into civil legal unions with or without the benefit of religious ceremony. In those states and countries, they have the right to call themselves “married.” In our state they do not.

The test of whether a couple can marry under the civil law is not and should not be administered by the church, synagogue, mosque, coven, or meeting. It should be, and on November 6th it will be, administered by you, and me, and every other registered voter who cares about the integrity of our laws and about the right for all couples who enter into civil, legal unions to be treated as equals under the law.

How painfully ordinary.

How perfect.

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Speak, Act, Vote with Love

1 Comment | Share On Facebook| Speak, Act, Vote with Love Share/Save/Bookmark Nov 02, 2012

With just a few days remaining until Election Day, we’re all at the breaking point–waiting has become excruciating, our patience is flagging, and we’re moments away from throwing the television out the window to avoid another campaign ad. Amid this climate of dual frustration and anticipation, it is easy to lose sight of what truly matters.

This inspiring video, created by Elliott Cennamo, reminds us that LOVE is the true antidote for the fear and hate that is so widespread during this election season:

Please help us spread this message of love before the election on Tuesday. Simply click here to share the video with your friends on Facebook, or click here to share via Twitter.

Many of us care about the same things. Who will be elected President? Who will hold majorities in Congress? Will Wisconsin Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin become the first openly gay individual to be elected to the U.S. Senate? Will various ballot initiatives across the country—on marriage equality, voter ID, animal welfare, reproductive justice, health care, the death penalty, and so much more—become law or be rejected?

No matter the outcome of these social justice issues that we care so deeply about, what gives us hope is that people like you all over the country will never stop working to make our society a more compassionate, loving, just place. Of all the things people in the world choose to worship, LOVE is right there at the top for all of you.

Thank you for all you do to promote justice in the world. And as Elliott’s video reminds us, may we all remember during this trying time to speak, act, and vote with love.

In faith & justice,

The Standing on the Side of Love Team

The message above went out on Friday, November 2, 2012 to Standing on the Side of Love supporters. You can sign-up for these emails here.

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