EthicalStL.org

Shuron will elaborate on past and present efforts toward housing justice in St. Louis. Since and before the historic Kraemer ruling, St. Louis has provided spatial, economic, social, and cultural restraints and opportunities to advance equity and liberation through housing justice. Housing work has provided incentives for disparate communities to form alliances around changes and policies to better living conditions. This work, legacy, and alliance building continues because of the seemingly insurmountable current housing system that is broken for most: evictions, which affect Black women with children the most, are on the rise while wages remain stagnant; rents are continually rising with no checks on increases; assistance and moratoria have ended; and renter workers are retaliated against for reporting conditions issues. Renter-workers are demanding equity through housing justice and their voices have not and will not go unheeded.
After living under and being evicted by a slumlord, Shuron Danielle Jones (she/her) began organizing around housing with Homes for All - St. Louis in 2019. Jones' work focuses on the research, passage, implementation, and evaluation of legislation and policies that forward renter-worker protections. Shuron assisted in crafting the Four and More for STL Renters campaign to introduce a Right to Counsel, Tenant Bill of Rights, an Office of Tenant Advocacy, and a City-Wide Tenant Union to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. Shuron is also a public researcher, historian, and analyst, focusing on the work, lives, and organizing/advocacy/writings of Radical Queer Black Women in the Midwest from the 1970

It may be hard to keep up with all the "newfangled terminology." When we don’t understand something it's easy to get annoyed with it or dismiss it as not important. What is cisgender? What is nonbinary? What is demisexual? What is "ace"? What is pansexual? Why do pronouns matter so much all of a sudden? What does all of this mean? Approaching the idea of multifaceted (and mutable) identity from a curious, beginner’s perspective with the goal of education and normalization, we will leave Platform with a little more knowledge than we had before and some comfort around shared definitions.

Under Ethical Culture Founder Felix Adler’s leadership, the voices of prominent civil rights leaders were amplified within our congregations. People of color were given space within Ethical Culture to share ideas and advocate for equality. In honor of Juneteenth, we will discuss the connections between our movement and Black history.

Our time together will be set aside to intentionally explore the societal manifestations of imposed gender roles, a primary barrier to self-actualization from a variety of perspectives. We will acknowledge the confluence of powerful change agents–such as community-based activism, scientific advancement, and the preservation of human dignity–and their ability to initiate and maintain a more gentle existence for the gender-expansive community.
Ky A. Miller, MSW, LCSW (they/them) is a non-binary social worker who provides affirming and competent, attachment/trauma-informed psychotherapy to LGBTQ+ children, teens, adults, and their families throughout Illinois and Missouri. In addition to clinical practice, Ky is the director of Community Impact at Light Source (a group therapy practice) and founder of ALIGN, an education, training, and consultation program that enhances providers’ competencies in serving LGBTQ+ clients. Ky’s social activism regarding the rights and humanity of the LGBTQ+ community spans nearly three decades. Committed to enhancing the well-being of people who belong to traditionally marginalized communities, Ky consistently participates in policy change efforts at the local and state levels to ensure gender-expansive individuals experience inclusion and celebration across the lifespan. In 2018, Ky founded the Coalition for the Advancement of Ethical Practices, which focuses on creating policies to protect youth from sexual orientation/gender identity change efforts (or “conversion therapy”).

Summiting ten years of membership, Kyle Nienhaus shares his experiences with the Ethical Society of St. Louis including reflections on personal growth, challenges still to be met, memories of friends along the way, and hopes for our children’s future. Humanist values are human values worth wanting, and Kyle intends to show the “how-come?” and the “what-for?” of that age-old question: “Why?”