Via JMG: MISSOURI: Gov Endorses Gay Marriage, Will Recognize Out-Of-State Marriages

Surprising and welcome news out of Missouri.

Gov. Jay Nixon said Thursday that he supports legalizing gay marriage in Missouri during a news conference announcing that homosexual couples married under the laws of other states would be allowed to file combined state tax returns. In an executive order, Nixon directed the Department of Revenue to accept the combined returns as a reaction to the June ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act. That law barred same sex couples who were legally married from receiving any marriage-based federal benefits, such as tax exemptions and Social Security payments. Under state law, couples who file a joint federal return are required to file a combined state tax return. The executive order clarifies that the law applies to all couples, Nixon said.

Nixon: "Many Missourians, including myself, are thinking about these issues of equality in new ways and reflecting on what constitutes discrimination. For me, that process has led to the belief that we shouldn’t treat folks differently because of who they are."

RELATED: Missouri passed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in 2004. A total of 21 states passed such bans from 2004-2006 when Ken Mehlman headed the RNC.

Labels: Jay Nixon, marriage equality, Missiouri

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG:Sen. Mark Kirk Cancels Senate Meeting Space For Anti-Gay Christian Groups

Yesterday I reported that a coalition of anti-gay Christian groups would be meeting today in official US Senate office space to discuss how they might copy Russia's anti-gay pogrom here in the United States. After outcry from LGBT groups, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) has kicked them out of the space. And they are PISSED.

“Shame on you, Senator Kirk, for allowing vocal radical sexual minorities to drown out the voices of the natural family and faith that have made our nation free, prosperous, and stable for more than 200 years,” said Larry Jacobs, managing director of the World Congress of Families in an email to BuzzFeed. “Obviously Senator Kirk doesn’t care about families and children and freedom and has chosen to side with the policies of decline, death and disease promoted by the Sexual Radicals.” A spokesman for Kirk, Lance Trover, told BuzzFeed on Thursday night, “Sen. Kirk doesn’t affiliate with groups that discriminate.”

Late last night the coalition sent out their press release again but with this "correction" at the top: "The Capitol Hill Symposium has been moved to Room #1539 in the Longworth House Office Building (NOT THE Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 562.)" OK, now who's in charge of the Longworth Building? (Tipped by JMG reader Ned)

Labels: hate groups, LGBT rights, Mark Kirk, religion, Russia, Washington DC, World Congress Of Families

posted by Joe

Via JMG Boehner Rescues The Hate Groups

 

A follow-up from Buzzfeed's J. Lester Feder:

The office of House Speaker John Boehner secured meeting space for the World Congress of Families after their original sponsor, Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, canceled their space in a Senate office building following an outcry from LGBT activists, the group’s leader said. World Congress of Families President Allan Carlson praised Boehner’s intervention at in opening remarks at the event, which is focusing on what “pro-family legislators” can learn from foreign laws like Russia’s ban on “promoting non-traditional sexual relationships to minors.” “At least in the House of Representatives people have not succumbed to the great fear” of LGBT activists, Carlson said, likening the situation to developments in Germany, France, and Italy as fascism took hold of Europe. “A great fear seems to be descending over what has been called the world’s greatest deliberative body … ideas are being suppressed, debate is being shut off, and minds are being closed.”

More from Right Wing Watch:

Another speaker, Concerned Women for America’s Janice Shaw Crouse, who is also on WCF’s board of directors, blamed the change of plans on “a group of radicals” – an odd accusation since there had been no organized effort to prevent the event from taking place. Finally, Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute’s Austin Ruse declared that Sen. Kirk’s action made him less friendly to free speech than Russia – whose law criminalizing pro-gay-rights speech has the vocal support of C-FAM and WCF.

RELATED: Ruse, not incidentally, is a columnist for Breitbart, which never identifies his work for anti-gay hate groups. Similarly, Breitbart does not identify columnist Ken Klukowski as a vice president of the KKK-affiliated Family Research Council.

Labels: Austin Ruse, Buzzfeed, GOP, hate groups, John Boehner, LGBT rights, religion, Russia, U.S. House, World Congress Of Families

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma November 15, 2013

Transforming Conflict

Learning how to negotiate conflict demands that we become more present, more fearless. We may need to relinquish the hopeful image of ourselves as remaining serene under all circumstances, like sitting buddhas carved from wood or stone. We have to expect our composure to be compromised as we learn about the possibilities and creative solutions of working directly with the conflict in our relationships. Even, and maybe especially, when things don’t turn out as we want, our engagement with discord refines and teaches us something, altering our life’s very course.

- Diane Musho Hamilton, “Transforming Conflict”

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