Re: [UUPoly-L] Welcoming Congregation & poly

KN Gier <jwncrow@hotmail.com> · Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:09:03 -0000

Linda,

I just did a bisexuality and biphobia workshop in my congregation for our WC certification process.  I used the purple book, but also bits from the bisexuality curriculum recently released by Interweave.  The Interweave curriculum explicitly mentions polyamory in context to bisexuality and in the broader sense of "we like to say that in many situations, you're either Thing A or Thing B, but Group C shows other options".  The poly stuff in there is fleeting, but at least it's there.  I believe you can get a copy of the Interweave curriculum booklet here: http://www.interweavecontinental.org/index.php?title=Image:Bicurriculum.pdf

We're also doing a session on Mother's Day called "Non-traditional Families", which will almost certainly cover polyamory in addition to same-sex couples, single parents, and what have you.  Not having the purple book in front of me, I can't tell you if that's something out of the WC program or something we made up to supplement the WC stuff (we're the sort of congregation that takes the UUA resource, hacks it apart, and rebuilds it to our specifications).  If there's something in the program about family rights and family law for same-sex partners and their families, though, that might be somewhere to look.  

Good luck,
Kimberly

> From: slyypper@hotmail.com
> To: uupoly-l@uupa.org
> Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:00:24 -0400
> CC: tcurtin@comcast.net; artistsoph@gmail.com
> Subject: [UUPoly-L] Welcoming Congregation & poly
> 
> 
> Hi all, my name is Linda, I attend the UU fellowship in Mohegan Lake, New York, and I am in a poly triad with the lovely Tom & the brave Sophia.  
> 
> My fellowship is one of the few in the Metro NY district that hasn't gone through the Welcoming Congregation curriculum.  I'm on the planning committee for WC  and we're launching the curriculum on this coming Sunday March 30.  
> 
> Already I am fielding questions about the relevance of poly to this curriculum from people whom I thought would understand but don't. It is obviously a tough sell to a group of straight marrieds-with-children who may accept the existence of bisexuals in the abstract but not of poly bisexuals in the concrete.  
> 
> I have two concerns here: my own out-ness and the curriculum itself.  I do want to be out to my fellowship:  I've been attending 7 years, I was the fellowship's president in 06-07, and I have had some conversations with our minister about this, she is generally supportive.  
> 
> I can see where it will be possible to work in some poly resources to the Bisexual/biphobia workshop, and what about the rest of the book?  Are there places in this big purple workshop book where I can integrate poly or sex-positive materials?  Any suggestions?  For my part in the presentation this Sunday, I'm reading the bullet points from the bisex/biphobe workshop page, following on with part of an essay by Wendy-O Matik about radical love.
> 
> Thank you ....
> 
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