NCSF has supported our Coalition Partner, Leather & Grace, as they have worked to gain greater tolerance for kinky members and staff of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Unitarian Universalists have a long history of courage in tackling issues around human sexuality, yet the UUA’s current leadership has not responded well to Leather & Grace’s concerns.
“Communication with the UUA has been a struggle since Leather & Grace got off the ground in 2011,” reports L&G’s Moderator, Desmond Ravenstone. “The litany of issues basically comes down to our perceiving a lack of clarity, responsiveness and credibility on the part of the Association’s leadership and their designated liaison.”
In response, L&G’s leadership has selected an outside intermediary, for the purpose of helping negotiate a covenant of right relationship with the Association.
“The UUA appoints Right Relationship Teams at its annual General Assembly, to deal with issues of conflict and miscommunication,” Ravenstone explained. “Based on that model, we recommended that someone be appointed to serve a similar function in our case. But that was rejected, and the bulk of the problems faced by kink-identified UUs still remain. So we’ve taken it upon ourselves to find someone willing to fulfill this task, and to ask the UUA’s leadership to respect our wishes that any further communication be channeled to that intermediary.”
Many difficulties stem from the refusal of their designated liaison to communicate L&G’s questions and suggestions to various UUA departments, compounded by non-committal and evasive answers from UUA leaders to a number of questions. Issues reported by kinky UUA staff, for example, took two years to be resolved. Meanwhile, L&G has repeatedly pointed out a major problem with the criteria for recognizing “related organizations,” which the UUA’s senior administrators have failed to address.
“We will continue our mission of educating and building greater awareness among all UUs,” Ravenstone affirmed. “But our experience with the UUA’s current administration has led to a serious erosion of trust, and it will take sincere effort to repair this breach. We believe the intermediary we’ve found will be able to help. It’s now up to the UUA to take the next step.”