Tag: gsa

A Proud History: Reflecting on Decades of Same-Sex Ceremonies at The Sanctuary

The first same-sex ceremony of union at UCV was conducted nearly half a century ago in 1972 by Reverend Dr. Phillip Hewett, who served for over three decades as minister of the Vancouver Unitarians. In this Q&A, former lay chaplain Katherine Roback explains more of this important history. 

The Sanctuary is aptly named because for many years our heritage building here at Oak and 49th was one of the few places in Vancouver that would officiate marriage and other ceremonies for same-sex couples. What was the earliest ceremony that you can remember? 

Katherine Roback: The earliest same-sex wedding I officiated was in 2003, the minute weddings honouring 2SLGBTQ+ couples became legal in B.C. Those were busy years, as many couples came here from the United States and other countries where their love could not yet be legally recognized. Prior to that, I was officiating commitment ceremonies for couples who wished for a beautiful ceremony honouring their love. 

How did the Vancouver Unitarians deal with push back or opposition to 2SLGBTQ+ equality both in general and within the multi-faith community? 

I don’t believe there was any resistance within the congregation. In fact, we had an LGBTQ+ program called “Unison” and opened it up, with strong requests, to the whole congregation. As far as opposition in the multi-faith community, couples from many denominations (or none at all) came to Vancouver Unitarian Church to have their love respected and legalized.

Minister Hewett was decades ahead of many others in performing same-sex ceremonies. Could you talk a bit more about his role? 

Rev. Phillip Hewett actually founded the Lay Chaplaincy Program in Canada in 1972, as he was overwhelmed performing up to eight weddings in a day. This program trained and licensed lay people to officiate ceremonies. He began officiating gay and lesbian ceremonies of union and entered their ceremonies in the official record of Provincial weddings, to legitimize them. He signed certificates of marriage for each couple. 

In our tradition, what’s the distinction between ministers and lay chaplains?  

A minister is ordained by their congregation after completing their theology degree and being called to serve the congregation. A minister marries members of the congregation. 

A lay chaplain is a Unitarian who shows special qualities that can serve anyone wishing a beautiful wedding — non-members of the church.

Could you explain the difference between a marriage ceremony and some of the other ceremonies for couples offered by Unitarian chaplains? 

What makes a marriage ceremony legal are four components that include the couple’s vows, the signing of the marriage license, and the pronouncement by the officiant — and enthusiastic cheers! 

We also perform Ceremonies of Union — just like a legal wedding, but without the signing of the license. Our lay chaplains are also honoured to create, together with couples, ceremonies of all kinds for all occasions, such as a ceremony where couples renew their vows of love and commitment.

Why do you think Unitarian Universalists in Canada, the U.S., and elsewhere, have often played a leading role in movements for 2SLGBTQ+ equality? 

Rather than dogma and creed, Unitarian Faith is founded on a set of principles to live by. The UU First Principle affirms and promotes “the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” That says it all. 

 

Prepare for Pride 2021

As Vancouver Pride approaches, you may be thinking of how to celebrate this year. 

The Vancouver Pride Parade is taking a decentralized approach this year, and we are going to be part of it! We’ll be gathering safely outdoors and doing our own mini Pride Parade around the UCV campus on Sunday, August 1, starting at 12:30 p.m. All members and friends are welcome to attend. Wear something colourful and/or creative – show your Pride however you feel like it!

We’d love to put rainbow colours all around our corner sign at 49th & Oak. We’d love to hear your ideas–and then get your help.  https://vancouverpride.ca/festival-parade/parade-entries/

Welcoming Congregation Recertification update

We’re almost there! 

To renew, a congregation has to already been certified (for us that was way back in 1995–one of the first) and do one worship service related to LGBTQ+ issues. Check!

A third requirement is to support an organization who works in this area. We’ve worked with Rainbow Refugee to support refugees, donated money from the Outreach Opportunities Fund and their founder Chris Morrissey will be speaking on Sunday, July 25. Check!

With a lot of support from Rev. Lara and the worship services committee, we’ve lifted up more than the required six “welcome days of observance.”  Check!

The next one is Non-Binary Day which is July 14th and that brings us to a request for assistance with our final requirement which is to offer an educational event that at least 10% of the members of the congregation attend.  So far 14 members (maybe more) have watched Mairy Beam’s play “What Difference Does It Make?” about coming out as non-binary and another 10 or so were at the panel discussion with cast and crew on June 12th. Could you please watch the play and the discussion and then complete a feedback form?  We need at least 30 members to watch and complete the form. 

Here are the links:

Play from Haven Theatre: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQU6WT6Igs8 

Discussion: https://youtu.be/-t9IuuMu-mk

Then send an email to Debra at debrasutherland8@gmail.com and Debra will send you a link to the survey we need to ask for in order to complete the requirements. 

Forum: Sunday, July 11

What Does Non-Binary Mean? On July 11, Mairy Beam and other members of the GSA will host a forum after the worship service on what non-binary gender means. This is an “ask us anything” forum and we’ll share some anonymous polls to see what your questions are and respond to those. Sign in as soon as you have had your bio break after the service. This shortlink will take you there: ucv.im/gsa

 

Pride Art Installation – Interfaith support letter from Rev. Lara

You may have heard or seen of the desecration of the art installation at our neighbour’s site, Shaughnessy United proclaiming the message “God’s doors are open to all.”

Rev. Lara has sent a message of support on behalf of our congregation.

In case you missed it, here are two links for you:

SHUC Blog

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/church-vandalized-pride-1.6066146

Photo from the CBC story

Dear Rev. Dave Moors, Shaughnessy United

Many of our members at Vancouver Unitarian heard with dismay and sadness (but lack of surprise, unfortunately) about the desecration of your Pride installation.
As a “welcoming congregation” (our denomination’s  equivalent of “affirming congregation”) I and our Genders and Sexualities Alliance wanted to send you and your congregation a message of support.
We are filled with admiration of the creativity, message and beauty of the installation and so glad to hear you remain undeterred and enthusiastic about restoring the doors to their original splendour.
Indeed, currently we have an installation related to residential schools on our corner of 49th & Oak, and you’ve inspired us to think about making a Pride installation for Vancouver pride weekend.
Always some good comes out of these incidents, but don’t we wish it was not necessary.
Please know also that we are practically neighbours and if there were any events or initiatives where you would feel it good to collaborate, we would welcome suggestions.
I look forward to meeting with you, as I will be serving the Vancouver Unitarians for another year or two during their transition to the next settled ministry, and hope we can work together on some of these critical social justice initiatives.
Blessings,

Rev. Lara Cowtan

Interim Minister
Vancouver Unitarians
https://ucv.mg1.co

Help your GSA show how Welcoming we can be

Our Genders and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) is leading an effort to have UCV recertified as an official Welcoming Congregation.

Since we first became a Welcoming Congregation in 1995 the world has changed.  For one thing, there was no mention back then of gender identity or trans issues.  To address this, the UUA decided to be bolder with our Welcome in 2018.

The Five Practices of Welcome Renewal are five benchmarks that every congregation will need to integrate into congregational life in order to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual, two-spirit, genderqueer, non-binary, and the like feel fully welcomed, centered, and embraced in our congregation.

Welcoming Congregations are required to meet the benchmarks annually in order to remain “current” as a Welcoming Congregation. This year so far UCV has completed three of the Benchmarks, and a fourth has been planned.

The 5th benchmark is an educational event.  For this the GSA has organized the panel on June 12 to discuss Mairy Beam’s play, What Difference Does it Make, which deals with issues of gender identity.  We need 10% of the members to attend to show that we are, indeed, interested to be bolder and to renew our Welcoming congregation certification.

 

Remembering Pulse Nightclub – 5 years later

UCV GSA (Genders and Sexualities Alliance) takes this opportunity to mark the 5th Anniversary of the murder of 49, and wounding of 53
attendees at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando Florida on June 12, 2016. This was the most horrific loss of lives to a domestic terrorist prior to the Las Vegas massacre in 2017.

The Pulse Nightclub was a LGBT club hosting a weekly Latin Night. As a consequence, many of the dead and injured were Latino. In keeping with journalistic ethics, the name of the shooter will not be named here, that his deeds be remembered, but not to give his name a place in history. The shooter entered the nightclub wit a SIG Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle and a 9 mm Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol. He shot over 200 rounds in 5 minutes. The shooter was killed in a firefight with the SWAT team.

The shooter, an American whose family immigrated from Afghanistan, claimed to be taking revenge in retaliation to US bombing of Iraq and Syria. Other witnesses claimed that he was conflicted about his own sexuality. What is clear is that his victims were innocent, simply enjoying a night out in a what should have been a safe space.

The site of the Pulse Nightclub will be reopened as a memorial and museum sometime in 2022. At the time of the event, Federal and State buildings lowered their flags to half mast to honour the dead, and then-President Obama travelled to Orlando to pay tribute to bereaved family, friends, and citizens.

 

UUA Link: https://www.uua.org/lgbtq/blog/remember-pulse-nightclub-heroes-among-the-fallen (June, 2019)

Image from this link.

 

UCV is a Welcoming Congregation.

 

 

Gender and Theatre – Join an Interactive Panel Discussion

Watch Mairy Beam’s provocative and enlightening play What Difference Does it Make?  available now on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQU6WT6Igs8  and join us for a Play Discussion moderated by our own Rev Lara Cowtan on Saturday June 12 at 7:00 pm. ucv.im/gsa

What Difference Does It Make?  Minutes before Carmelle’s best friend arrives for a visit from Toronto, Lucy comes out as non-binary. A day later they’re all trapped together isolating from Covid 19. In this hotbed of needs and limitations the characters play out their destinies against the backdrop of a city in virtual lockdown. A sensitive and illuminating portrayal of a person in transition, a partner struggling to adjust and a broken-hearted houseguest inadvertently making things worse.

From the audience: 

  • “Up until I saw this play I didn’t get how significant and important and fundamental the journey to non-binary is.”
  • “captivating, touching, challenging, humorous, sad and informative”
  • “this play is a gem”
  • “true and raw”
  • “I have some thinking to do  . . . “

What Difference Does It Make? was originally produced by Toronto’s Haven Theatre, in February 2021.

This event is coordinated by UCV’s Genders and Sexualities Alliance as part of UCV’s recertification as a Welcoming Congregation.

Registration appreciated but not required:

https://ucv-gender-theatre.eventbrite.ca

Search the website for “gsa” for other information and events.

Our GSA meets on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7:30pm.

All genders and sexualities welcome, even cis-straight.  Email gsa@vancouverunitarians.ca for the zoom link and agenda.

 

Trans Day of Remembrance – Nov 20

We will be acknowledging Trans Day of Remembrance on November 20th.

There are two events to mark in your calendars:

We are very happy to have Morgane Oger present on trans rights in the workplace for our November 18th Action Evening: All Genders Welcome

In addition, for our November 25th Action Evening, Glenn Deefholts will read from his recently published book Genderfluid: A Way of Being

Please click the links above for the action evenings Zoom link and additional information about our speakers. See you there!

Happy Pride 2020

Greetings: Happy Pride! What does Pride Mean to You? 

Vancouver Pride is first weekend in August so during the July 26 worship service we want to include a diverse selection of UCV members and friends wishing us all “Happy Pride”. A 15-second (maximum) video saying “Happy Pride” and or what “pride” means to you or what you are doing this year to celebrate Pride. 

We hope you’ll have some flags, posters, buttons and maybe even feather boas in your video!

You can record and send your video any time up until Saturday noon July 25, but the earlier the better. We’d like to include as many as possible and also have a handle on the length of time required.

Here’s a link to make it easy for you to record or upload your video:

Sunday Greetings

 

 

Discover and discuss LGBTQ+ themed films

by Debra Sutherland

UCV GSA (Genders and Sexualities Alliance) Film Discussion Group

You are invited to our next Zoom meeting on the first Wednesday of each month at 7:15 pm on zoom

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/v5Qqduqupj8iFyUp2_WeCrvz-_U2meqnFQ

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Our UCV GSA met via Zoom earlier this month and enjoyed a lively, interesting and informative session reviewing and recommending wide-ranging films and Netflix series.  I have summarized the films mentioned with the hope that at least one of the series or films will intrigue or interest you, and that you will join us at our next meeting.

Please Like Me is a very clever, well-acted, highly-rated, award-winning Australian comedy/dramedy series that premiered on Netflix in 2013 and continued on for four seasons.   Please Like Me follows Josh, a twenty-something student who’s just been dumped by his girlfriend because he’s gay but hasn’t realized it until then. It is also about so much more than gay relationships – it is about family and friend relationships – and their relationships in turn, and mental health too (it’s not who you might think).  The series was created by stand-up comic Josh Thomas who has mined his own life experiences to full advantage.  Some GSA members were already enthusiastic, happy fans while some like me, had never heard of the show.  I am happy to report that I too am now an enthusiastic and happy fan and also that it is possible to binge watch the whole series in fairly brisk fashion as the number and length of the episodes are relatively short.  I laughed out loud a lot – up until the end of Season 3 anyway, but interestingly the appeal of the series waned for me in Season 4.  So I think Thomas was wise to end the series even as his most loyal and die-hard fans clamoured for more.

Happily, we fans of Please Like Me now have Season One of the new series Feel Good (Netflix, 2020) to enjoy.  It too is a very clever, well-acted, highly-rated, brisk semi-autobiographical comedy-drama set in Britain but featuring Canadian stand-up comic Mae Martin as she/they navigate her/their relationship with a previously straight British woman whose inability to come out of the closet causes deep pain; and then there are the complications of Mae’s addiction struggles.  Think it can’t possibly be funny, think again!  Here is just one of the many stellar reviews, this one from the New Zealand Herald:  “Feel Good’s six episodes (still the perfect series length) strike an extremely watchable balance between intensity and levity, the two often blurring together to create some sublime moments of television”.  Needless to say, I am really enjoying the series!

A film we discussed, that couldn’t possibly be more different than the Please Like Me and Feel Good series, is the Spanish film, Elisa & Marcela (2019), also available on Netflix. It is the fictionalized account of the fascinating and remarkable true story of a very determined Spanish lesbian couple, who, having been lovers for fifteen years, fooled (out of necessity) a priest into marrying them in 1901. The marriage was never annulled and thus remains in the record books as Spain’s first-ever same-sex marriage!  Written and directed by the famed and prolific Isabel Coixet and shot in black and white with some lovely and beautiful art house touches (a bit of a unfortunate flop though, when applied to the sex scenes) the film was nominated for several European awards. The critics, however, have not been kind to this movie and I reluctantly concur.  I did feel drawn in for the first third of the movie and then less so along the way (except for brief moments) although the ending did pull me back in as well.  I think the movie is worth a watch in spite of its flaws and shortcomings – I may even watch it again!  It is a tough and tender story that, as noted by one critic, “deserves an audience but also, and sadly, a story that deserves a stronger film”.

Other films were also briefly introduced and likely to come up for discussion at our upcoming meeting.  Unorthodox (2020) is a new Netflix four-part mini-series that follows Esty, a young woman who flees her marriage and her ultra-Orthodox Hasidic New York community for Berlin.  The series, based on Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir, then alternates between Esti’s new life in Berlin and the one she left behind, The reviews are very positive and I enjoyed part one and I look forward to watching the rest of the miniseries.

Pain and Glory (2019) is the latest film of highly acclaimed, award-winning and ultra-prolific (37 films) Spanish director and icon Pedro Almodovar. The film follows Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas), a successful director, now in physical decline, as he grapples with his past, and with loss, memory and meaning.  Almodovar has gone back and forth over whether or not Pain and Glory is autobiographical but the film is said to be immensely personal and also one of his best works.  Pain and Glory is reviewed very highly favourably by a host of critics and I am looking forward to seeing the film – it is not on Netflix as of yet, but likely can be found on a pay for viewing platform…even I may yet find it on itunes if I ever figure out my smart TV!

Professor Marsden and the Wonder Women (2017) is the story of psychologist Marston and his polyamourous relationship with his wife and their mistress, both of whom inspired his creation of the superheroine, Wonder Woman.  Sounds interesting to me.  It is available on itunes and again, I hope to access it soon!

Carrington (1995) is a biographical film, starring Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce, about the life of British painter Dora Carrington and her unusual relationship with writer Lytton Strachey and others in the Bloomsbury group.  A member also recommended the book Bloomsbury Pie by Regina Mahler that chronicles the story of the Bloomsbury boom.

Last Tango in Halifax is the much praised BBC One comedy-drama series, started in 2012 with Series 5 just airing this January – they must be doing a lot right!  The series is lauded for its focus on and treatment of its two septuagenarian lead characters as well as for the inclusion of LGBT themes.  The series is available through iplayer.

Finally, and notably, a few of us were also able to watch the movie Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall (2017) on Netflix that the Out on Screen organization had set up on Netflix Party (some of us couldn’t quite figure out this digital extension but we watched anyway, without the sidebar chat).  It is a joyful, moving (there’s some tough stuff too) and inspiring documentary of an amazing, multi-talented and creative young queer black artist as he launches his first full scale original musical stage tour “Straight Outta Oz”.  He had already made a well earned big name for himself as a Youtube artist and American Idol contestant, and he is now a Broadway star as well!

Hope to see you at our next Zoom meeting, first Wednesday at 7:15!

Your GSA invites you to a Netflix party – Thursday April 16 7 pm

Netflix Watch Party: ‘Behind The Curtain: Todrick Hall’

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6171960/

Several of us (Debra,Kiersten and Mary) on the UCV Genders and Sexualities Alliance will be online watching this film.

We may be able to have the chat just for our group and friends.

Here’s the information from the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

You’re invited to the Vancouver Queer Film Festival’s first online Watch Party, happening Thursday, April 16th at 7PM. Connect with us, and each other as we come together to watch ‘Behind The Curtain: Todrick Hall’.

This feature-length documentary screened at VQFF 2017, and we’re so excited to experience it again with you (from the safety of our homes). ‘Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall’ is a fiercely fun and inspiring behind the scenes look into Hall’s journey producing music, a visual album and musical stage tour in a heart-stopping production schedule of mere months.

To join our Watch Party, follow the link below to get your free ticket. We’ll send you a link to the screening by 6:50 pm on Thursday, April 16th. We’re using the newly created ‘Netflix Party’ Google Chrome extension that allows users to synchronize viewing with friends and chat while watching together. You will need a Netflix account and the Google Chrome browser to watch with us and join the conversation.

Get your FREE ticket

VQFF Artistic Director, Anoushka Ratnarajah will be online to take note of any questions you have during the screening, and hosting a follow up Q&A live on our Instagram the following day, Friday April 17th at 6 PM.