Get to Know UPLIFT, a UUA Welcoming Space for LGBTQIA+ People and Their Allies

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Get to Know UPLIFT, a UUA Welcoming Space for LGBTQIA+ People and Their Allies

In this Q&A, Rev. Michael Crumpler describes UPLIFT as 'a space for LGBTQIA+ people and allies to share stories, curate resources, and receive/provide spiritual care.'

Staff Writer
Two people conversing with each other in front of a white poster board with graphics/illustrations on it

Rev. Michael Crumpler, LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs director at the Unitarian Universalist Association, shares information during a poster session at UUA General Assembly 2018. The UUA’s UPLIFT programs serve LGBTQIA+ people and their allies.

© 2018 Nancy Pierce/UUA

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Rev. Michael Crumpler is the LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs director at the Unitarian Universalist Association. His intersectional ministry is centered in Blackness, queerness, HIV/AIDS, economic justice, and emotional well-being.

Here, he describes the ongoing work of the UUA’s UPLIFT programs.

What is UPLIFT?
Michael Crumpler, Rev. Michael Crumpler, LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs director at the Unitarian Universalist Association

Rev. Michael Crumpler, LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs director at the Unitarian Universalist Association

© Nancy Pierce
UPLIFT began as the UUA’s communications platform for LGBTQIA+ programs, issues, and concerns. It was preceded by the Welcoming Congregation Bulletin newsletter, which had been dormant since 2014. In the wake of the 2016 election and the resurgence of threats to the LGBTQIA+ community, UPLIFT—which launched in 2017 when I was hired at the UUA—was a revived communications opportunity for the UUA to reconnect with UU congregations and communities. UPLIFT now includes:
  • the UUA’s LGBTQIA+ newsletter, blog, and social media (X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram);
  • the UPLIFT Trans/Nonbinary Monthly Gathering Space, a multigenerational, trans-led monthly care space for trans/nonbinary UUs;
  • UPLIFT Action, Side With Love’s bodily autonomy campaign addressing anti-trans legislation and reproductive justice; and
  • UPLIFT Access, providing resources related to accessibility and disability justice.

Our framing is intersectional and positioned to address the current wave of transphobia, threats to abortion rights, and ableism, that unite to serve a fascistic political agenda at the expense of the most vulnerable.

What is UPLIFT’s goal?
To provide a space for LGBTQIA+ people and allies to share stories, curate resources, and receive/provide spiritual care. While UU values have generally been progressive, in recent years the increasing visibility of transgender/nonbinary people and the call to dismantle white supremacy culture have exposed our vulnerabilities related to welcoming trans/nonbinary and BIPOC UUs into our congregations. UPLIFT is committed to an evolving message that addresses the intersectionality of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Because being “welcoming” is not static, UPLIFT intends to challenge our UU congregations and communities to be specific, contextual, and intentional in our welcome and inclusion of our lesbian, gay, transgender/nonbinary, queer, intersex, asexual/aromantic, and two-spirit communities, and all who exist but are yet still invisible.

How does UPLIFT express communal care? 
While communal care is an integral part of Unitarian Universalism, queer, trans, and BIPOC UUs regularly report that their experiences, needs, and concerns are not being centered in UU congregations. As such, these populations often seek communal care in UU affinity spaces. UPLIFT is a conglomerate that seeks to connect with people to let them know that they are not alone. UPLIFT offers pastoral care, peer-to-peer support, and religious resources directly to impacted persons, and to religious professionals and lay leaders.

What are some of UPLIFT’s early successes? 
They include the recent expansion to gatherings and organizing, connecting the community’s needs for spiritual care and political action. We often hear that UUs are good at prophetic witness, while welcome and inclusion are lacking. Unifying our communication, spiritual care, and organizing ensures that we are supporting our most-impacted folks, alongside advocating on their behalf out in the world. The UPLIFT TNB Monthly Gathering is a space where trans people can find the support that our congregations are lacking. UPLIFT Action is a space where all UUs can receive political education and grounding that connects congregational life to social outreach.

"UPLIFT Action is a space where all UUs can receive political education and grounding that connects congregational life to social outreach."

What new programs have launched since 2022?

UPLIFT Access was launched in 2023 as a newsletter and blog that addresses accessibility and disability justice and serves as a resource to raise awareness and address ableism in UU congregations and communities. It is curated by Gretchen Maune, the UUA’s Accessibility Resources coordinator, one of two new positions that fulfill a memorandum of understanding between the UUA and EqUUal Access. The second position is held by Rev. Amanda Schuber, who serves as the Disability Justice associate with Side With Love. The UPLIFT Access blog and monthly newsletter will feature disability concerns, programming, and reflections, giving UUs a space to find accessible resources for their congregations and communities.

What are UPLIFT’s plans?
As UPLIFT enters its seventh year, the public discourse and political landscape are extremely fragile. In the best of times, queer, trans, and BIPOC communities are at serious risk of not getting the care they/we need. In these times, it’s those very lives that are being targeted and whose rights are being called into question. Unitarian Universalism has a tremendous opportunity to show the world what love looks like in public. My hope for UPLIFT is that it will continue to grow as a public platform, organizing space, and spiritual oasis for the most marginalized among us. This will require evolving beyond the conventional tools of email and blogs and expanding to podcasts and live broadcast social media to reach people more effectively.

How can people support or join UPLIFT?
Visit these links:

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