The first woman to head Unitarian Universalists ends term full of historic turns

June 21, 2023

 

The Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray was a high school softball player when she first organized others to act on their moral outrage. A teacher had barred girls from playing third base, catcher or shortstop during gym class. Frederick-Gray enlisted the other girls in class to boycott phys ed softball until their demands were met.

“We were threatened by the gym teacher with failing gym,” she told Religion News Service in a recent video interview. She answered, “You can fail me, but I’m not going to stop until we can play wherever we want to play.” The girls ultimately prevailed.

Today Frederick-Gray, who is nearing the end of her six-year term as the first woman president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, has graduated to issues such as reproductive and LGBTQ rights, employment discrimination and voter suppression, all against the tumultuous backdrop of a pandemic, insurrection, racial reckoning and the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Source: The first woman to head Unitarian Universalists ends term full of historic turns