The message of UUA’s* Standing on the Side of Love campaign is both personal and public. Whether we are focusing on marriage equality, immigration reform, or the dangers of police encounters for blacks, standing on the side of love means standing where the political, public, and personal come together. To care about justice, is to care about the people who live lives in injustice, oppression, and fear. Dr. Martin Luther King said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere.” Where there is injustice, there is also fear, the need to hide, to self-protect, and limit vulnerability. Human flourishing is forestalled.

In our LGBTQA community, even as we live in a state that publicly and politically supports equality, people still live in circumstances that are personally hurtful, personally unjust. All do not yet feel emotionally or spiritually free to live outwardly into the freedom that has been publicly granted. Times have changed rapidly, but not comprehensively. In the personal lives of too many people, coming out into the light of the truth of “this is who I am”, is still a formidable challenge.

Our work as a congregation standing on the side of love is to create safe, respectful, and encouraging community as well as standing strong in public witness. Our work is to seek to fill the gap between the personal and the public, to offer welcome, sanctuary, and support, embodying the love we seek in the world.

~ Rev. Dr. Frances Sink, Unitarian Universalist Minister

*UUA, Unitarian Universalist Association