Growing up with a transgender parent
Sabine Bartlett, a 16-year-old Somerville, Mass., resident who was raised UU, leads an ABC News story about children with transgender parents. (ABC News – 3.27.12)
Details emerge about failed nonprofit
An Indiana newspaper has published two lengthy follow-ups to UU World‘s story about the disappearance of funds belonging to the Rev. Debra Haffner’s Religious Institute when her nonprofit’s fiscal agent abruptly shut down. A March 18 story includes interviews with the Rev. Steve Clapp, whose Christian Community Inc. served as Religious Institute’s fiscal agent. An April 1 story reveals that Clapp was a convicted felon who served time for bank fraud in the 1990s, and provides additional details about Christian Community’s activities. (Journal Gazette – 3.18.12, 4.1.12)
UUs speak out for marriage equality
The Rev. Jay Leach, of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte, N.C., was part of a clergy group that held a rally to oppose a proposed constitutional amendment that would define marriage as only between one man and one woman in that state (includes a news video). (WCNC – 3.26.12)
See also: “Rally against marriage amend draws both sides” (WBTV – 3.26.12)
The Rev. Amy Brooks, of the UU Fellowship of Lake Norman, N.C., and the Rev. Robin Tanner of the Piedmont UU Church, both participated in a rally in Davidson against the proposed constitutional amendment. (DavidsonNews.net – 3.24.12)
Zach Wahls spoke at the GLAAD Media Awards about his two moms and about the experience of having his testimony before the Iowa House Judiciary Committee become an internet sensation. (Includes a video of his speech.) Entertainment Weekly’s PopWach blog also talks about Wahls’s GLAAD Media Awards speech, saying that it “was worthy of another 17 million views.” (Towleroad, PopWatch – 3.26.12)
See also: “How my testimony went viral” (UU World – Summer 2011)
In the congregations
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville had 117 solar panels installed on its roof. (Knoxville News Sentinel – 3.27.12)
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Canton, N.Y., kicked off a $250,000 capital campaign to replace its roof, make improvements in the sanctuary and church kitchen, and replenish the church’s capital reserve fund. (North Country Now – 3.26.12)
A nearly 90-year-old tree is being removed from in front of the South Church in Portsmouth, N.H., because its roots are damaging the historic building’s foundation. (Seacoastonline.com – 3.24.12)
