Yardley Friends Meeting

06/03/2026

06/03/2026

This month marks 57 years since the Stonewall uprising in 1969, when a police raid of a gay bar in Greenwich Village incited a riot and days of protests, one of the catalysts for the gay liberation movement in the United States. And Quakers were there.

Quakers came out to the streets to give first aid to injured protesters. Then the next year, when gay rights leaders were organizing the first Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade to commemorate the Stonewall uprising, they asked Quakers to teach parade marshalls about nonviolent civil disobedience. Quakers were the first and only religious group to march in that first gay pride parade, and they have done so ever since.

Quakers are not a monolith, and to this day some are not LGBTQ affirming. But many Friends were and continue to be proud allies and members of the q***r community.

06/03/2026

Know a young person who is pro-peace? Meet with them and make sure they have gathered documentation that supports their beliefs. Under new laws, draft registration in the US will be automatic starting in December. This means that youth must work even harder to document their nonviolent beliefs. Be informed. Buy this resource guide and share it with folks in your meeting.

Available at QuakerBooks; revised in 2025.

https://quakerbooks.org/collections/new-arrivals/products/conscientious-objection-is-this-for-you-discerning-a-claim-and-documenting-it-with-selective-service

05/29/2026

05/29/2026

Acting from love in contexts of violence and exclusion.

05/29/2026

Conscientious objection is not passive. It is an active and deliberate engagement with one of the most serious questions a person can face: Would I participate in organized killing if my government told me to? If the answer is no, build the evidence for that answer now.

Stony Run Friends Meeting, a group of Quakers in Baltimore City, created a handy leaflet with practical tips. Visit their website to see it: "Registering With The Selective Service System As A Conscientious Objector To War." And share it with folks you know!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-QAmxpckxhRXLnIGI1yynhHXdh4HLMRIJB5sAWZ2Kc0/edit?tab=t.0