Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Queens 147-54 Ash Ave Flushing NY 11355
718 353-3860
From: Rev. Megan Foley (she/her)
Regional Lead / Congregational Life Staff / Central East Region
If you are on Facebook, you may be aware that the UU World’s March issue held an article whose content and process has been named as hurtful and harmful by trans UUs, especially trans religious professionals. We already know that our faith as a whole is not yet as welcoming and inclusive of trans people as we aspire to be. So, this hurt comes on top of many ways many trans UUs have already been hurt and felt excluded.
Since the UU World comes to your members, it’s important for you to be aware of this impact. Many UU World subscribers have only read the paper copy of the magazine and might have no idea of the impact until the next issue. For example, some people may be unaware that in several situations the author asks questions generally experienced as inappropriate without explaining why the questions are inappropriate. This has led to some situations where UUs are asking those questions of trans UUs feeling like they have new permission to do so.
This is a summary of resources produced in the last week to help.
These links start with links to understand what happened, unpack the impact, and talk about this with your members and friends. At the end there are some links to find religious professionals to consult with your congregation to go even deeper.
We expect the next UU World issue and subsequent issues to invite your members into even deeper conversations.
Thanks for your attention to this important matter,
Megan
Links:
UU World editor Chris Walton’s apology and link to the original article.
UUA President Susan Frederick Gray’s apology
Transgender Religious professional Unitarian Universalists Together (TRUUsT) published a response. Earlier this year they also published a report on the experiences of Trans Unitarian Universalists
Zr. Alex Kapitan explains how the article came to be.
Rev. Theresa Inés Soto’s writing this week addressed “trans*, non-binary, genderqueer
and gender-expansive friends and kin.” This is worth passing along to youth, young adults, and adults!
CB Beal explained, in detail, the issues with article in Medium. CB is a religious educator, sexuality educator, and justice consultant who works on inclusion through their lens of “pre-emptive radical inclusion” They will be the keynote speaker at our Seaway Gathering in Ithaca NY on May 3-4.
Evin Carvill Ziemer, CER staff member, explores why not all trans UU’s are reacting the same way. It’s entirely possible the trans UU’s at your congregation are not reacting strongly, and yet, there’s still important learning for your congregation and members.
The UUA’s Commission on Institutional on Change posted a blog analyzing the way this is an example of systemic oppression.
Zr. Alex Kapitan also writes on radicalcopywriter.com including on current guidance on writing about transgender people
Transforming Hearts Collective published a piece to help cisgender UUs understand how to support people impacted by this article when they talk about it with other cisgender people.
Rev. Mykal O’Neal Slack who serves on the Black Lives of UU Organizing Collective Board posted a reflection.
Consulting resources:
Zr. Alex Kapitan, Rev. Mykal O’Neal Slack, Teo Drake, and LeLaina Romero, PhD make up the Transforming Hearts Collective who represent "a vision of a world in which queer and trans people can show up fully as ourselves in all of the places we call home” offering consultation and online courses.
TRUUsT maintains a service directory of religious professionals who are trans and/or people of color who you can hire for leading worship, consulting, and much, much more.
CB Beal’s website as a consultant and educator. They go by “CB” and “they” in UU spaces, but also consult in a wide range of other institutions.
e your paragraph here.
147-54 Ash Ave Flushing NY11355 718 353-3860
Email -Office@uucq.org
TTThe Lewis H. Latimer House Museum received an award of $1000.00 from the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Queens to support the museum’s Tinker Lab program for local children in honor of Lewis H. Latimer, the African American inventor who helped found the congregation in the early 1900’s. (Sherrise Figueroa, Director, Latimer Gardens Community Center/Cornerstone; Al Rankins, President, Lewis H. Latimer Fund, Inc.; Sheryl Lynch, Trustee of the Board, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Queens; Ran Yan, Executive Director, Lewis H. Latimer House Museum.)
Tinker Lab
The Tinker Lab is the key educational program at Lewis H. Latimer House Museum to serve high-quality, innovative hands-on activities treating science and technology as an integral part of the humanities. In the Tinker Lab, participants use an array of technologies such as Scratch, Ev3, and Wedo, and build from scratch using various micro-controllers, proto boards, and coding programs. The museum sees the drive to build in three-dimensional spaces and coding as an invaluable 21st century literacy skillset.
https://latimernow.org/tinker-lab/
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