Minute: Housatonic Meeting on Sexual Orientation

Housatonic Minute
Regarding Friends United Meeting’s
Hiring and Volunteer Policy

Friends United Meeting’s current policy regarding employees and volunteers is inconsistent with Housatonic Friends’ most deeply held values and testimonies. We cite specifically the section which reads:

It is expected that sexual intercourse should be confined to marriage, understood to be between one man and one woman.

We are seriously troubled by FUM policies that discriminate against people based on their sexual practices or orientation. Discrimination, by its very nature, is based on fear and hostility. It carries emotional violence, hurtful and damaging to its victims. It is also spiritually harmful to those who practice it or endorse it.

We question how Housatonic Meeting can continue to be affiliated with FUM as long as FUM retains and advocates this discriminatory policy. We recognize that by our affiliation, we are giving our support to discrimination. We strongly urge the FUM Board to reconsider its personnel policy.

Housatonic Friends Meeting
New Milford, CT
June 8, 2008