Dear
General Assembly Registrants,
For
the first time ever our Public Witness event at GA is “On the Grid” and an
official part of our General Assembly so that we can all witness together
without having to compete with other programming!
Valuing
ALL Families—Standing on the
Side of Love with Immigrant and Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian & Transgender
Families takes
place on Friday, June 27th, from 5:00-6:00. Shuttle buses will
be provided to and from the Convention Center.
See
our flyer at http://www.uua.org/documents/aw/080627_witness_flyer.pdf
Today
both gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and immigrant families face
discrimination and legal barriers to keeping their families together. We
will carry our loving and welcoming message of liberal religious family values
into the public Square –
Stranahan
Park
in downtown
Ft.
Lauderdale. We will be joined by interfaith and community organization leaders and members
from
Ft. Lauderdale
and Miami
.
UUA
President William Sinkford will be speaking. He will be joined by:
Greater Fort Lauderdale LGBT & Friends Interfaith Clergy
Stratton Pollitzer, Deputy Director, Equality Florida
Charlotte Quandt & Austin Graham, young adult UUs from St. Petersburg FL
Gabriela Pacheco, Florida Immigrant Coalition
Rev. Gail Tapscott, UU Church of Ft. Lauderdale
Rev. Naomi King, River of Grass Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Rev. Abhi Janamanchi, UU Congregation of Clearwater
And the
River
of Grass Band!
Bring your family and come have a picnic in the park!
A Taste of Africa
will be selling food at the event. There are also several restaurants
(fast and slow) around and across the street from the park. Veggie options are
available.
We will have “kid packs” at the Advocacy & Witness table that will
include materials for children to be part of our advocacy efforts.
There will be information and action opportunities on:
- Helping
to defeat the
Florida
ballot initiative that would constitutionally eliminate recognitions,
rights, and benefits for domestic partners.
- Supporting
comprehensive humane family-based immigration reform and the Child Citizen
Protection Act in Congress that would allow judges to refuse to deport
non-citizen parents of citizen children.
Sponsors
include: UU
Church of Ft. Lauderdale,
River
of
Grass UU Congregation, UU Legislative Ministry of
Florida, Interweave, DRUUMM (Diverse
& Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministries), Greater Fort Lauderdale LGBT
& Friends Interfaith Clergy, ACLU,
Florida Immigrant
Coalition, Equality Florida, Fairness for All Families & Others
We hope to see you there!
Susan Leslie
Director, Office for Congregational Advocacy & Witness
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
25 Beacon Street, Boston MA 02108
(617) 948-4607; sleslie@uua.org
http://www.uua.org/socialjustice/index.shtml
Sign
up for Social Action Chair News at
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