Welcome to the Action Center Weekly Update. Each week, we will provide a brief analysis of critical issues in this political moment, share immediate actions you can take, and provide helpful resources to deepen knowledge and practice of our collective work to side with love.
Nothing is inevitable. All justice movements are powered by ordinary people who come together to defeat oppression and build a loving world. You are not alone. We have power. Together we can practice and win a just and loving world where all of us thrive.
Remember we build strong movements when we take action together. Organize teams and networks that can take these actions together. For support on practical organizing skills and support check out our Organizing School and Skill Up resources.
Gender & LGBTQ Justice
Every body is sacred. Side With Love unapologetically affirms that trans people are divine, that abortion is a blessing, and that no one is disposable. Attacks on identity is a part of a divide and conquer tactic that relies on the belief that one group's safety comes at the expense of another group's safety. Solidarity is the moral and strategic mandate of our time, and we must rise to challenge these attacks and build communities of care and safety for all.
The Update:
Pro-trans activists are pushing back against anti-trans legislature in many parts of the United States. Numerous organizations, including some transgender members of the military are fighting to maintain their rights and the ACLU is suing Trump over passport restrictions. Relentless and disciplined organizing, with a regular re-evaluation on multiple fronts, underscored by anticipation of attacks is the way through.
“Transgender, gender-nonconforming, nonbinary, and intersex people (TGNCNBI) might be wondering what they should know about various identity documents following the sex and gender executive order issued by Trump on January 20, 2025. As various federal agencies take steps to implement the discriminatory Executive Order, [Lambda Legal has] compiled this resource to share basic information, review things you may want to consider moving forward, and offer additional resources available to help the TGNCNBI community.”
Learn:
Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures 2025
Learn more about the anti-LGBTQ legislation that is moving in your state using the ACLU’s tracking site, and take action by contacting your state legislators and demanding the protect the rights LGBTQ+ members of your communities. Use this script generator tool to help you contact your representatives and tell them not to support the anti-trans bills being considered
Join:
The Gathering: Fortifying Ourselves for the Long Road Ahead
Monday, March 10, 2025 8:00 PM - 9:15 PM ET (Note the time zone!)
Join Side With Love for this monthly call to action and community. Each month, all are invited to receive spiritual grounding for the work ahead, political analysis from our justice partners, and calls to collective action as we organize together to block anti-democratic forces and build a just and loving world. Our launch will be led by Side with Love Staff Nicole Pressley and Rev. Cathy Rion Starr with Katia Hansen sharing about the immigration context, and Rev. Lane-Mairead Campbell sharing lessons on showing up for and with trans folks in Western New York. bēheld will ground us with live singing.
Watch/Listen:
Recording & Resources from Combatting Anti-Trans Legislation 101 Training
As we continue to resist anti-trans legislation at the state and local levels, we encourage you to watch this training from March 2022 featured Sam Ames, then Director of Advocacy & Government Affairs for The Trevor Project; Rev. Erin Walter from Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry; and Rev. Lisa Garcia-Sampson from UU Justice Ministry on North Carolina.
Decriminalization & Immigration
Criminalization and dehumanization are a political and spiritual project. We must dismantle the false idea that safety for some must come at the expense of safety for others. As people of faith, we cannot affirm the worth and dignity of all while privileging the well-being of a chosen few. We proclaim a future where care and safety are abundant because our relationships are cultivated through mutuality, not domination.
Migrant detention and deportation. The school to prison network and mass incarceration. Unceasing police violence toward Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities. Bills making protest and resistance movements illegal. Laws criminalizing poverty, gender identity and expression, sex work, abortion, accessing and providing health care. All of these forms of criminalization are used by the state to disrupt, disempower, and dehumanize our communities.
The Update:
While ICE continues to rapidly deport people they bring into custody, across the country, communities are building networks of protection by with Know Your Right trainings, distributing Red Cards, and Rapid Response and Community Defense Networks for immigrants and others under attack. Congress is busy too. Our partners at UUSJ say this about the congressional budget resolution: “This effort is a blank check of up to $200 billion to President Trump to fund his mass deportation agenda at the cost of defunding crucial and lifesaving programs that millions of Americans across the country depend on such as SNAP, CHIP, and Medicaid.”
Read and Act:
UUSJ has detailed the impact of Congress’s Budget Resolution on immigrant detention: “This effort is a blank check of up to $200 billion to President Trump to fund his mass deportation agenda at the cost of defunding crucial and lifesaving programs that millions of Americans across the country depend on such as SNAP, CHIP, and Medicaid.” Read on, and then Take action to Oppose immigration harms in the Budget Reconcialition process (See the specific list of Senators and Representatives who need to hear your concern)
Act:
Use 5 Calls to Oppose H.R. 32, the No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act. HR 32 is likely up for a vote this week. It is an extreme Republican attempt to punish cities and states that refuse to act as ICE’s personal deputies. This bill would strip federal funding from cities and states that won’t assist with mass deportations—including funding for school meals, public transit, disaster relief, and public health programs.
Learn:
Read the Interfaith Immigration Coalition's letter that the UUA signed onto for faith based organizations and denominations on sanctuary jurisdiction policies. The letter comes in advance of a March 5th House Oversight hearing intended to attack cities with policies of noncooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Join:
Join The Gathering, a new monthly virtual event from Side With Love, to strengthen your spirit, understand the threats to democracy, and take meaningful action alongside others.
Our launch will be led by Side with Love Staff Nicole Pressley and Rev. Cathy Rion Starr with Katia Hansen sharing about the immigration context and more.
Monday, March 10th: Register now
Watch/Listen:
Protecting Migrant Communities in the New Trump Era - watch or listen to this episode of the Block and Build podcast with guest Marisa Franco from Mijente
Climate Justice
A just and loving world is a flourishing world. If we are to realize a world with no fossil fuels, where clean energy is a human right, and all beings thrive, we need new systems, norms, approaches, and ways of being to bring that world into existence.
The Update:
Ruja Benjamin encourages us to “remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within”. As the world feels increasingly more like one we can’t live within, reimagining a world where all communities thrive is an act of joyful resistance. Even as climate disasters threaten our communities and attacks on renewable energy increase, there is hope in the struggle. Energy Democracy provides a radical reimagining of our energy systems that gives the power back to the people. Engaging with Energy Democracy is a powerful way to not just know that another world is possible, but to build towards that world by building power in our communities.
Act:
Donate to a local Energy Democracy movement, the Energy Democracy Project, or the Climate Justice Alliance
Utilize 5 Calls, an app and website that offers you information about how to contact your elected officials, to decry the administration’s recent cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Read:
People’s Utility Justice Playbook and People’s History of Utilities
Learn:
Ten Principles for Energy Democracy - Climate Justice Alliance
Join:
“What Now for Energy Democracy? Preparing for the Road Ahead” with the Energy Democracy Project. Each session will provide tools, stories, and calls to action to build momentum for Energy Democracy and keep us focused in a time of chaos.
What Now? Preparing for the Road Ahead: Part I - March 5th
What Now? Preparing for the Road Ahead: Part II - March 19th
Watch/Listen:
What does Energy Democracy Mean to You?
Side With Love’s Clean Energy as a Human Right Series: Reimagining with Energy Democracy