Sunday, January 26, 2014

Via JMG: Marriage Equality Lawsuits Map


JMG reader Jeff took a stab at creating a map that includes the states with active marriage equality lawsuits. Embiggen the image or see it at his site.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

British Headline Of The Day


 
When Margaret Thatcher died last year, a social media campaign succeeded in pushing Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead to #2 on the British single charts. This week there's a similar campaign after a now-suspended member of Britain's far-right UKIP party declared that God was sending floods because of gay marriage.

A Facebook campaign has been launched to get 80s classic ‘It’s Raining Men’ to number one in the UK charts after a UKIP councillor claimed the recent floods were a result of legalising same-sex marriage. Thousands of people have joined the social media campaign following UKIP party member David Silvester’s controversial remarks. "We believe that that show of strength to get a song to Number 1 will create a huge spotlight on our campaign for equality as a whole," explains the Facebook group. For decades now, this song has been used as a gay anthem, we thought it fitted all the better based on UKIP’s comments regarding storms and floods being caused by LGBT people and gay marriage. Let’s get It’s Raining Men to Number 1 to show the power and community of gay people pulling together is stronger than his idiotic views of us, as well as also celebrating the new laws being passed on equal marriage in the UK very soon."
According to the Facebook group, online oddsmakers are giving It's Raining Men a 5/1 shot at being number one in Britain next week. Former Weather Girls vocalist Martha Wash finds the flap rather amusing. From an email passed along by JMG reader Wayne:
First of all I don't know anything about David Silvester, but I did read the article about him and his comments and concluded that as a straight woman who supports the LGBT community, he is totally Daft (as the British would say). While he is entitled to his opinion, I feel he is out of touch with reality. To say that "storms and floods were caused by LGBT people and gay marriage".....Really? He sounds like someone living in the 80's when it was said HIV/Aids was caused by "gay people". I think some people need to buy a clue and realize that everything wrong or bad or catastrophic is not caused by gay people. I support same-sex unions or marriages (depending on where you live) and feel it should be equality for ALL!!! BTW I'm a Christian also and the God I serve is ALL LOVE for ALL People. HE knows who he created. In regards to using It's Raining Men to support this campaign, I have no problem with it. I'm flattered that after all these years, the song is still relevant (even if it is for "storms and floods")!! Lol XO Martha Wash

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Chad Griffin of Human Rights Campaign on Goldie Hawn


#CheersToSochi Coca-Cola ad for #LGBT Russians


HRC Head Chad Griffin On Nigeria Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin joined HuffPost Live today to talk about the situation in Nigeria and Goldie Hawn, who yesterday issued a mortified apology after posting a photo of Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan with the caption, "Met the wonderful president of Nigeria." In the clip below, Griffin blasts NOM's Brian Brown and other American Christians for exporting their hate around the world.





Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: VIRGINIA: Olson & Boies Tell Court To Immediately Rule In Favor Of Marriage


Via press release from AFER:
The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the sole sponsor of Bostic v. Rainey, the federal constitutional challenge to Virginia’s discriminatory Marriage Amendment, issued the following statement regarding U.S. District Court Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen’s order seeking Status Reports from all parties in the case regarding whether oral argument on the issues presented is warranted or whether the Court should rule promptly on the briefs without a hearing: “Every day these discriminatory laws remain in effect is another day gay and lesbian Virginians and their families are harmed and treated as second-class citizens,” said AFER Executive Director Adam Umhoefer. “We urge Judge Allen to proceed immediately to judgment and find Virginia’s laws banning marriage for gay and lesbian couples unconstitutional." The Judge’s order was issued following the compelling Notice from the Office of the Attorney General of Virginia that the Attorney General concluded that Virginia's laws denying the right to marry to same-sex couples violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. If a hearing is deemed necessary, oral argument will be heard at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at 9 a.m. ET on Thursday, January 30, 2014.
Bolding is mine. Zoom, zoom, zoom?

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 26, 2014

The Three Marks

Rather than seeking a sense of peaceful satisfaction with the unfolding of experience, the goal of [preliminary] practice is to produce a state of mind that is highly judgmental, indeed judging this world to be like a prison. This sense of dissatisfaction is regarded as an essential prerequisite for progress on the Buddhist path. Far from seeking to become somehow 'nonjudgmental,' the meditator is instructed to judge all the objects of ordinary experience as scarred by three marks: impermanence, suffering, and no self.
- Donald S. Lopez, "The Scientific Buddha"
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