Adult Faith Development and QUAAC are excited to collaborate in offering a 4-part series to discuss the 2024-2025 UU Common Read, Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families. 

Read on for more details and register before the deadline of September 14.

Register Here!

THE BOOK

Every year, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) chooses a book as the annual Common Read. Congregations across the country read the same book and engage in dialogue and learning around how the material can broaden their perspective and be applied in their own lives and the life of their congregation. 

The UUA chose Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families as the 2024-2025 Common Read. The book centers the voices and experiences of trans and nonbinary people and the families to whom they belong. It lifts up stories of challenge, resilience, and joy in authenticity. 

The book offers life stories and portraits of trans and nonbinary people, alongside their partners, parents, children, siblings, and chosen family members. Through interviews and photo portraits, the subjects of this book invite readers into their real lives—their revelations, challenges, joys, and networks of support. This UU Common Read invites participants to tell their own stories and deepen understanding of how gender identity has shaped their lives. Participants explore what it means to live authentically and how connections among us help us thrive.

THE PROGRAM

We will have small groups participate in four workshop-style sessions that take place weekly between September 21 and October 20. Each session will be for 2 hours with time for a break. Sessions will be offered once per week with additional week planned in case the need arises to reschedule one of the weeks or if the group wishes to end with a potluck.

Participants will be put in small groups with no more than 10-12 people with at least one facilitator. Groups will meet the same day and time each week over the course of the program. There will be options to join an in-person, online or hybrid group. 

You will have the option to select if you want to be in a mixed cohort that may include a variety of gender identities or a cohort that is solely made up of transgender and nonbinary people. An additional session will also be available for parents/caregivers of trans and nonbinary children if there is interest.

Registration closes on September 14 and participants will be notified of their group and meeting time, date, and location by September 17.

GETTING AND READING THE BOOK

You can purchase a paperback or ebook through Bookshop.org and UUCUC gets a small percentage of your purchase.  

We have about 10 copies in our Library to use during the workshop.