Guest Blogger Rev. Sean Parker Dennison on Marriage Equality in Illinois

Rev. Dennison and Toni Weaver present the case for marriage equality to a staffer for Rep. McSweeney.

Note:  Members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry and our allies from PFLAG have taken a lead in lobbying local legislators for Marriage Equality in Illinois.  Yesterday Rev. Sean Parker Dennison and PFLAG’s Toni Weaver lead a second round of lobbying in mass visits.  This time to local Republicans, including County GOP chair Rep.Mike Tryon and freshman Rep.  David McSweeney, a certified Tea Partier.  Neither will support the bill in the House but it is critical that they hear our voices.  Word is that Illinois House Executive Committee has set the hearing on the marriage bill for next Tuesday, February 26. Below is the text of the statement read at the district offices by Rev. Sean.

We are here to urge you to take a stand for justice and equality by supporting equal marriage in Illinois. We are here because this issue is the defining civil rights issue of our time. Our country was founded on the ideal that all are created equal and all deserve “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” making the right thing to do very clear—allow our gay and lesbian friends, neighbors, sons, daughters, parents to marry the people they love.

Unitarian Universalists have supported marriage equality—along with full civil rights and protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people for nearly forty years. We long to live in a nation that lives up to the promise of equality and equal protection under the law for all people. We believe that equal marriage is a good first step to that goal.

Equal marriage is not a small thing. The ability to marry confers access to more than 1,000 legal benefits—including health care coverage, hospital visitation rights, family medical leave—benefits that are incredibly important. When these rights are denied, families suffer. And worse, we are complicit in that suffering. And that is unethical, unfair, and wrong.

Finally, we believe in equality and love, not division and fear. We know from our religious experience of worshipping and being together that what unites us as families and as people is much greater than what divides us. We need our leaders and our laws to stand on the side of love and equality if we are to live up to the great principles upon which our state and nation were founded.

Please, support marriage equality in Illinois. Stand on the right side of history. Again today, a study was published that found that it is not just us, but a majority of the people of Illinois, who believe that marriage equality is the right thing to do. We urge you to vote for its passage.

Respectfully,

Rev. Sean Parker Dennison, Minister,

On behalf of the 171 members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry

McHenry Unitarian Universalists, PFLAG Push Legislators on Marriage Equality

With long sought marriage equality legislation due for a key vote in the Illinois Senate on Valentine’s Day, members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry and their long-time allies,  Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians aInd Gays (PFLAG), will visit two local legislators on Monday, February 11 to lobby in support of legalizing same gender marriage.

Several members of both organizations and interested persons from the public will visit the constituent office of State Senator Pam Althoff, 5400 West Elm, Suite 103 in McHenry at 2:30 pm and Rep. Jack Franks, 1193 S Eastwood Drive in Woodstock, at 3:30 pm. 

The Rev. Sean Parker Dennison of the UU Congregation was one of more than 300 religious leaders who signed a letter in support of the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.  The letter was delivered in Springfield on Monday, February 4 by Illinois Unites for Marriage, a coalition of organizations advocating on behalf of the bill.

“As Unitarian Universalists, we have supported full equality for the LGBT community for decades. Love and marriage are not heterosexual privileges, they are human rights,” Dennison explained.  The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) has long endorsed marriage equality and the local congregation has been a vocal supporter of gay, lesbian, and transgender rights.  In 2008 the Congregation voted overwhelmingly to endorse legalizing same gender marriage.

The delegations will be led by the Rev. Dan Larsen, Minister Emeritus of the UU Congregation, local PFLAG leader Toni Weaver, and Patrick Murfin of the congregation’s Social Justice Committee.  Interested members of the public are invited to join.

For more information contact the congregation office at 815 322-2464, Rev. Larsen at 815 338-2234, or Patrick Murfin at 815 814-5645.