Posts Tagged ‘UU Fellowship of Raleigh’

The message below went out on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 to those Standing on the Side of Love supporters who signed up for daily Thirty Days of Love emails. You can sign-up for the 30 Days of Love emails here.

Every once in a while, a group of people does something so loving that it moves me to tears.

This past Sunday, at my beloved UU Fellowship of Raleigh (UUFR), some of us told our stories about how we are affected by discrimination against same-gender couples. We spoke of how things will get even worse if North Carolina’s anti-LGBT, anti-family, so-called “marriage” amendment passes on May 8th. We agreed to an ambitious call to action: our 500+ members will gather 5,000 pledge commitments to vote against the Amendment and do 50 hours of phone banks. Then, unanimously, all present members stood up in a congregational meeting to vote for our statement of conscience opposing the Amendment. We were, literally, all standing together on the side of love. And when the statement passed, there was a spontaneous outburst of clapping and celebratory shouts of joy. Like me, many of my LGBT friends and allies were moved to tears. This vote said to us that we matter, we have value, and we deserve equality; it said we are not alone in this fight and our fellow UU’s are standing with us.

Check out this video from UUFR and learn how you can help:

I hope UU’s from across the country will move me to tears again – by doing virtual phone banks to fight anti-gay amendments in both North Carolina and Minnesota.

Click here to sign up to phone bank.

Another time I was moved to tears was during the act of public witness at our June 2011 UUA General Assembly in Charlotte, NC, where thousands of UU’s in a sea of yellow Standing on the Side of Love t-shirts stood together in opposition to this same anti-LGBT, anti-family NC amendment. It was the power of love and the power of numbers combined that touched not only me, but the many members of what has now become the Coalition to Protect NC Families, which is working to defeat the Amendment. Jen Jones, their Communications Director, was so inspired by Standing on the Side of Love and similar justice movements that she is literally running across North Carolina with “RACE to the Ballot” to raise awareness about the harms of the Amendment. It is no coincidence that she is wearing RACE gear in the same color yellow to be in solidarity with us UU’s; she expects to stand with us UU’s again in the coming weeks and months at rallies before NC’s May 8th ballot referendum.

And I expect to be moved to tears by UU’s across the country when I find out how many people sign up to do what they can from their own states – virtual phone banks to North Carolina and Minnesota voters to urge them to vote against these discriminatory amendments.

While it’s an uphill battle to fight these amendments, with enough volunteers to reach the NC and MN voters who are willing to vote against these amendments, we can turn the tide of discrimination.

Please, move us to tears again with your willingness to stand with us on the side of love. Please volunteer to phone bank now.

In faith,

Tracy Hollister
UU Fellowship of Raleigh