We welcome all to share in worship and the activities of our common life. As part of our evolving struggle to live our testimony of equality, Olympia Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends minutes our commitment to being an open and affirming, safe and nurturing place for everyone to live fully that which the Spirit is leading them to be.
Olympia Monthly Meeting seeks to honor the gender identity and expression of each person, as understood by that person. We extend our loving care to people of all genders, including, but not limited to those who identify as: transgender, genderqueer, gender-fluid, agender, gender non-conforming, two-spirit, women, men, intersex persons, and their families and friends.
While we are at many different places in our understanding and comfort, we recognize that when we embrace the Light within the full spectrum of gender identities of our Meeting, our worship deepens and our community is enriched.
We will continue to educate ourselves, each other, and our communities and take appropriate action to bring about a more equal world.
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Minute of Inclusion – Welcoming Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People (Approved May 13, 2018) (PDF format)
Bayard Rustin was raised by his Quaker grandmother. In high school he protested segregation at a hometown restaurant and was arrested for sitting in the whites only section of a theater. Rustin’s belief in nonviolent action as a means for social change gave him a guiding vision for the civil rights movement. He helped A. Philip Randolph plan a March on Washington in June, 1941. Abraham Muste, executive secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, who had also been involved in planning that march, then appointed Rustin as FOR’s secretary for student and general affairs. Rustin met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1956 after traveling to Montgomery, Alabama, to assist with the boycott of the city’s segregated bus system, and is credited with helping to mold the younger King into an international symbol of nonviolence.
Bayard Rustin was the primary organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
