Rainbow AllianceUC Evanston2024-06-28T18:02:46+00:00
Rainbow Alliance
The Rainbow Alliance supports the LGBTQ community both within UCE and in the broader community. We are meeting via Zoom. Please check the UCE Newsletter for dates and times. All are welcome to attend our meetings! To be added to our mailing list for updates, contact Jordan Strueber or Lizzy Powers through the Realm Membership Directory or at admin@ucevanston.org.
Join one or all of our events:
Resources
Center on Halsted – Community center dedicated to advancing community and securing the health and well-being of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) people of Chicagoland.
Side with Love – The UUA’s public advocacy campaign promoting respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person through advocacy, public witness, and speaking out in solidarity with those whose lives are publicly demeaned.
The Trevor Project. Hotline: 866-488-7386
Welcoming Congregation
A Unitarian Universalist Welcoming Congregation is a congregation that has intentionally spent time engaging in programming, worship services, and education to make their congregation a safe place for the LGBTQIA+ communities.
In the 1980s and 90s, when the word “welcoming” became a code word for a safe space for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, the Unitarian Universalist Association launched a Welcoming Congregation Program to help us learn how to undo homophobia in our hearts and minds, our congregations, and our communities.
1997 UCE was certified as a UU Welcoming Congregation.
UCE has followed the UUA program and has been granted the status of “Welcoming Congregation.” UCE has audited its practices of welcoming gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people and has worked toward increasing understanding and acceptance among people of different sexual orientations. As the UUA states, “Our vision goes beyond the Welcoming Congregation Program. By taking this first step, we hope to explore more issues such as sexism, racism, ableism, and others. Being a Welcoming Congregation can act as a catalyst to learning more about ourselves and to ending exclusion. Only when we are truly open to the wealth of diversity in our world will the inherent worth and dignity of every person be affirmed with a large voice.”
2016 The Unitarian Church of Evanston holds the status of a “Welcoming Congregation” within the Unitarian Universalist Association and continues to follow a course of study developed by the UUA to uphold that status. As a Welcoming Congregation, UCE pledges to address the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender people at every level of congregational life, and celebrate the lives and loves of all people in the spirit of the first principle of Unitarian Universalism. The Welcoming Congregation program initiated by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is a volunteer program for congregations to become more inclusive towards bisexual, gay, lesbian, and/or transgender people. The goal of the program is to reduce prejudice by increasing understanding and acceptance among people of different sexual orientations.
March 2024 UCE formed Welcoming Congregation Renewal Working Group and will be going through the process to renew its Welcoming Congregation status. To join the Working Group, please contact Rev. Susan Frances at sfrances@ucevanston.org.
The UUA has updated its Welcoming Congregation certification to now address transphobia in addition to homophobia, and Welcoming Congregations are being invited to engage in a Welcoming Congregation Renewal process. This process encourages congregations to intentionally spend time engaging in programming, worship services, and education to make our congregations a safe place for people of all gender identities and gender expressions in addition to the previous focus on making congregations a safe place for people with all sexual orientations.
News & Updates from Rainbow Alliance
Volunteer with the Welcoming Congregation Renewal Working Group
Volunteer with the Welcoming Congregation Renewal Working Group
A Unitarian Universalist Welcoming Congregation is a congregation that has intentionally spent time engaging in programming, worship services, and education to make their congregation a safe place for the LGBTQIA+ communities. UCE was certified as a Welcoming Congregation in 1997. The original Welcoming Congregation process focused on addressing homophobia in ourselves and our congregation. The UUA has updated this process with its Welcoming Congregation Renewal program to include addressing transphobia as well as homophobia. Members of our Rainbow Alliance have formed a working group to complete this Welcoming Congregation Renewal process.
This process involves the entire congregation and members with LGBTQIA+ identities and all allies are invited to join the Working Group. If you would like to be engaged with this process, please contact Rev. Susan at sfrances@ucevanston.org by July 7, 2024.
To learn more about Welcoming Congregations, please check out the UUA website – or our UCE Rainbow Alliance webpage.
New Titles Added to Rainbow Alliance Transgender Lending Library
Rainbow Alliance announces the addition of 27 new titles to the UCE Transgender Lending Library. The additions span all age groups from pre-school through adult. These books range from fiction to anthologies, sociology resources, and one graphic novel.
Here’s a preview of a few of these informative and inspiring books:
Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino: A picture book about a sensitive and artistic child who is bullied for wearing an orange dress. Presents a message of self-empowerment. Winner of three accolades, including the American Library Association’s Rainbow List. Pre-K – Grade 2.
George by Alex Gino: George wants to play Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web in her 4th grade class play. The teacher says no, she can’t, because she’s a boy. George hatches a plan to be Charlotte and also to show who she really is. Winner of multiple book awards. For Grades 4-6.
Beyond Magenta by Kuklin: Interviews with and photos of six transgender teens as they describe the transition each of them made to recognize their true selves. A Stonewall Honor Book. Teens.
Outside the XY, Morgan Mann Willis, editor: an anthology of more than 50 autobiographical pieces by people of of black or brown color that examine what it is like to inhabit masculinity outside of cisgendered manhood. Offers a variety of perspectives from those too often marginalized. Adults.
Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt: a true account of a family learning to embrace a transgender child. Based on 4 years of reporting by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Includes glossary, reader’s guide, and bibliography. A New York Times Notable Book and recipient of accolades from People, Men’s Journal, and Stonewall Honors in Nonfiction. Adults.
The Transgender Lending Library book cart is outside Room 3. Browse through the books. You’re sure to find something you’ll want to read.