Dogmatism in Progressive Spaces

The Unitarian Universalist Church and the Silencing of Debate on Gender Issues

The Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church has long championed free inquiry, moral courage, and respectful dialogue between people of diverse viewpoints and life experiences. However, on gender issues, it has embraced a rigid orthodoxy that suppresses viewpoint diversity, even from progressives within the LGBT and feminist communities. Across congregations, policies, and official trainings, those who raise concerns—whether feminists, lesbians, gay men, or medical professionals—are often ad hominem attacked and silenced rather than engaged with in honest dialogue.

These concerns aren’t rooted in bigotry or hate but in real-world conflicts between rights. Lesbians have reported backlash for organizing women-only events. Sexual trauma survivors have expressed discomfort with biological males in shelters. Parents and clinicians have expressed that they want open discussions and scientific objectivity about youth medical transitions. Female athletes have expressed that they want fairness and safety in sports. These are complex issues that deserve thoughtful consideration, not moral condemnation and censorship.

Healthy organizations welcome debate and nuanced thinking and acknowledge complexity. Dogmatism, by contrast, flattens issues into binaries, such as right versus wrong and ally versus enemy, and demands ideological conformity.

The national UU Church’s approach to gender issues reflects a broader trend. The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) has embraced hardline progressive stances, such as supporting “Abolish the Police,” advancing a binary oppressor versus oppressed worldview, and promoting one-sided forums and resolutions on the Israel-Gaza conflict that have alienated many Jewish members. Those who disagree, or merely express a different viewpoint, have faced ad hominem attacks, censorship, and exclusion. This culture undermines UU’s tradition of intellectual freedom and respect for conscience.

Ironically, those silenced by the UU church and progressive social justice activists are often the very minorities the church and progressives claim to support. For example, most racial and ethnic minorities in the United States do not support UUA proposals such as abolishing the police and language reforms. The result is that despite its rhetoric of inclusion and multiculturalism, UU is one of the most racially monolithic and whitest churches in the United States, with shrinking membership, including racial and ethnic minorities, many of whom feel unwelcome due to extreme political stances and the growing illiberalism.

Nancy Haldeman, a lesbian feminist and longtime UU member disciplined by her congregation for questioning UUA gender orthodoxy, wrote, “This is not the UU Church of the 7 Principles that I joined 25 years ago. It has become a place promoting far-left political issues and no longer honors the ‘free and responsible search for truth and meaning.’”

Outside of UU, Debbie Epstein, a lesbian cultural studies professor, described the fear among feminists and lesbians to speak openly: “I grew up in South Africa under apartheid and was involved in politics from my teens, and not since I left there in the 1960s have I been as scared of speaking out as I am on this issue now. I have seen the toxicity of this debate and how other academics have been treated and that is frightening.”

Within the transgender community, members warn of the harm caused by extreme activism, such as shutting down debate and attacking anyone who expresses a different viewpoint. A Canadian transgender woman wrote, “I’ve found this toxic, in-your-face activism overly confrontational . . . We live in a pluralistic, democratic society, and everyone has the right to express their views on laws or policies that impact their lives.”

Stephen Whittle, a British transgender law professor and founder of the transgender rights organization Press for Change, said, “Trans academics have mostly tried not to ‘no platform’ anybody. Yet extreme voices are making trans people look like the extremists. Sadly, it will have the effect of shutting down debate.”

Public opinion reflects this issue. While most support equal rights for everyone, many are alienated by activist tactics that equate disagreement with hatred. People are not rejecting transgender people. They are pushing back against the extremism and the authoritarianism of ideological enforcement.

Gay journalist and pioneering gay marriage activist Andrew Sullivan has warned that radical and illiberal transgender activism is harming the broader LGBT movement, writing, “We are all now being dragged backward by the loudest, least tolerant voices.” Gay author and gay rights advocate Jonathan Rauch writes that, as with all demographics, the LGBT communities contain members with a wide diversity of beliefs and experiences, and that efforts by radical activists to enforce political and ideological conformity distort that reality, and endanger both the transgender and gay rights movements.

Suppressing dialogue in the name of justice doesn’t strengthen movements; it weakens them. It creates resentment and backlash, silences thoughtful voices, including amongst minorities, and drives away allies. Most people want fairness and compassion. When sincere concerns and different perspectives are attacked as hate, movements lose public support.

If the Unitarian Universalist Church hopes to be a moral force, it must return to its roots of respect for conscience, viewpoint diversity, and open dialogue. Justice is not achieved through coercion, censorship, and dogmatism.