(Note: I'm blogging today instead of tomorrow because tomorrow I'll be in DC to lobby against the Stupak amendment. Want to get involved? Check out ChoiceUSA to see what's happening in YOUR communities!)

After we lost Question 1 here in Maine I was pretty upset. But, more than being upset, I was kind of at a loss for what to do. I had just thrown myself so entirely into something that I cared about, yes, but that also gave me a real, political community outside of my school. My school is fabulous, and progressive, and a lot of other things, but sometimes we're not very political.

This campaign showed me that, a mere 28 minutes away, there was a community. Sure, they were all a little older than me, and it wasn't like they routinely met or anything. But they were there, and they were accepting, and I'd just spent 18 hours a day for a few weeks with them. I didn't want to lose that.

So I went to church.

I went to the Unitarian Universalist Church in the next town over from me. It turns out that that's where a lot of the folks from the No On 1 campaign go. They hosted our phonebanks, and a lot of the congregation was involved in working on the campaign. So after we lost I went to a candlelight service there where I'm sure very, very interesting things were said. I don't remember any of them since I was focused on not lighting my hair on fire with the candle I was holding while I cried, but I'm sure it was a very, very good service. Really.

I went again, really just for the community and the non-college aspect of it. And as I was awkwardly sitting there before the service began I flipped to the back of the order of service where it talks about being a welcoming congregation.

We welcome and celebrate the participation of all people, regardless fo sexual orientation, sex, ethnicity, family configuration, financial circumstances, or gender identity into the full life and ministry of this church.

Wait, what? I hardly ever see "gender identity" on things that aren't specifically LGBT focused. Sexual orientation is usually there, but not gender identity/expression.

After service that day I went home, and started googling this strange church that seemed to unlikely to try to pray out the gay. And I found website after website extolling how amazing and awesome UUs were. Of course I had reservations. Like so many LGBT folks who have had bad experiences with religion I just wrote it off. I'd once been made to proclaim in front of a large congregation that I was struggling with the evils of homosexuality. I didn't want to go through that again. I was pretty happy in my completely non-religious state. But I was drawn to go back to the church.

So I went again, and people came up to me after the service. They talked to me. They seemed interested in me. Outside LGBT spaces this was the first time I'd just been accepted with little question by a group of people who were very definitely not my age peers.

I don't know if I'll stick with it. Life changes. Right now, though, this is a really good thing for me to have. A really good thing for me to be able to say I am a part of. I'm graduating soon, leaving what is familiar to me. And it's so important, and so nice, to have an open and accepting community that's focus is not on being LGBT but really on being good people. Cos, hey, who doesn't like good people?