Rainbow Umbrella

FUUSN’s Rainbow Umbrella serves to protect and celebrate all LGBTQ+ lives in our beloved community and beyond. 

The Rainbow Umbrella started in 2021 as – just as it sounds – an umbrella for all things LGBTQ+ at  FUUSN. For many years, our former Welcoming Congregation committee struggled to maintain a presence in our congregation that believed “oh, we already did that. We’re welcoming to the LGBTQ community.” The Reverend Erin Splaine had recruited a team that was dedicated to covering the basics of LGBTQ education and support, especially FUUSN’s participation in the Boston Pride parade. In 2019, Erin and Jacki Rohan did a walk-and-talk about the concept of the  🌈⛱️ which kicked off in 2020, mainly on Zoom and FUUSN’s social media. 

We’ve embraced responsibility for FUUSN’s observation of The Five Practices of Welcome Renewal, which are the UUA guidelines for Welcoming Congregations: 

FUUSN completed the first Practice in 1994, becoming one of 800 Welcoming Congregations in the Unitarian Universalist Association.

The second Practice of Welcome Renewal is incorporating Welcoming Worship Services into our ordinary calendar of worship every year. Services during LGBTQ+ Pride Month or any other day of observance, an LGBTQ marriage ceremony, naming ritual, or remembrance ceremonies may also fulfill this objective. Attention to binary language in weekly worship has increased in the community (especially among the musicians and other worship leaders) and the majority of congregants display pronouns on their nametags. We have been observing Trans Day of Remembrance since at least 2014, reading aloud the names of transfolx who were murdered in the prior year, the most outstanding instances being 

• (2020) Covid year public candlelight vigil on front steps led by Erin Splaine and Anne Watson Born 
• (2021) Sunday Morning Worship led by Erin Splaine and Anne Watson Born
• (2023) Vigil led by Parisa Parsa and Anne Watson Born with local press coverage
• (2024) Vigil led by Rev Joel Miller and Anne Watson Born

  

We have also been celebrating Visibility in many ways for years with spectacular examples being 

• (2023) Trans Day of Visibility Service at Boston College led by DRE Devin Schmueli ● (2024) Visibility Sunday Worship/drag Purim spiel starring FUUSN friend and drag artist Matthew “Jean Chandler” Miller as Queen Esther, Parisa Parsa as Mordechai and Jacki Rohan as Haman 
• (2025) TDoV celebrated in Sunday Worship by Reb Debra Haffner with a meditation and a trans flag on the chancel 
• Decades of Pride parades, including 50+ of us at Boston Pride for the People 2025 

The third Practice of Welcome Renewal is an annual recognition and celebration of the Welcoming Days of Observance. These days and seasons are important to LGBTQ+ folx because they bring visibility and affirmation after generations of invisibility and erasure. Days of Observance are shared in our private Facebook group by Jacki Rohan and on the listserv by Linda Ross as well as during occasional coffee hours. 

The fourth Practice of Welcome Renewal is an annual opportunity for our congregation to engage in Religious Education protecting and celebrating our queerly beloved, such as

• Transition to All-Gender toilets 
• Promotion of gender stickers on name tags 
• Special attention and Respect for our children’s chosen pronouns 
• Zoom webinar – Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Pronouns – co-hosted with Over-60s, reaching 40+ FUUSNites, led by Sandra Teare and Jacki Rohan
• Support of FUUSN youth leadership of Newton Celebration of Queer Culture, and representation at that event 
• OWL Courses offered to at least one cohort (K-1, 4-5 and 7-8) per year
• Recruitment and training of our annual Boston Pride Team 
• At least monthly education posts in our private Facebook group, mostly from UUA social media. 

The fifth Practice of Welcome Renewal is to support a Welcoming Project. To remain current, WCs make a sizable donation to a local and national organization, campaign, or project that uplifts the dignity of LGBTQ+ communities. Over the years we have given to organizations such as Boston Pride 4 the People and Trans Religious Unitarian Universalist Together (TRUUsT). In 2025, we “split the plate” with Gender Multispecialty Service (GeMS), the first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program in the United States (and it’s nearby at Boston Children’s Hospital)

In addition to maintaining this checklist, we have many ideas for movies, book discussions, more worship services, great stories for all ages and other educational programs. We will continue awareness of Observance Days and participate in Newton and Boston Pride festivities (which resumed in 2022). We are integrating younger folx with new ideas and building new leadership, and are considering new ideas to work with other FUUSN groups again.

Join us! Our Team Rules are simple: Sign up for the emails, Read the emails, Volunteer when you can, Share your ideas, No pressure, That’s all! 

To join, email the Rainbow Umbrella team.