Uniting Network, representing the LGBTI members of the Uniting Church, will focus on refugees this year.
The Uniting Network NSW/ACT division invites LOTL readers to join the organisation for any or all major events this Mardi Gras Season. The organisation represents the LGBTI members of the Uniting Church as well as family, friends, and supports.
On Mardi Gras Fair Day, which runs all day on Sunday 21 February at Victoria Park near the University of Sydney, Uniting Network will have a stall.
They will also will be holding an LGBTI Refugee Forum on Wednesday 24 February as part of Mardi Gras’ Queer Thinking series under the banner 'Australia Must Do More.' Members of the LGBTI community, the Uniting Church, refugee action groups, and interested citizens will gather at Pitt Street Uniting Church to hear from experts in the field and testimonies from asylum seekers. Attendees will leave with ideas for immediate and longer term actions to make Australia a haven and a welcoming place for LGBTI refugees. Register for the event here.
Join Uniting Network on Saturday 5 March for the iconic Mardi Gras Parade. March up Oxford Street to say 'LGBTI Refugees Are Welcome Here!' The group will be wearing black to express the sorrow felt and will carry banners, signs, and red and white lanterns (to shine light in the darkness) while also drumming to demonstrate the frustration and anger at the current situation. Meet at Pitt Street Uniting Church in the early afternoon to pray before making your way to the parade marshalling area in Hyde Park.
Uniting Network is proud to proclaim the place of LGBTI people and their contribution to the world: whether refugees to be settled in Australia, or members of the Uniting Church seeking inclusive and enlightened ways to be ‘the pilgrim people on the way to the promised end.’
