Via The Other 98% / FB:

Via JMG: EL SALVADOR: Gay Marriage Ban Fails

 

An attempt to place a ban on same-sex marriage into the national constitution has failed miserably in El Salvador.

According to Spanish news agency EFE, only 19 out of 84 lawmakers on Friday voted in favor of the ban. The measure, which cleared the chamber in 2012, defines marriage as between a man and a woman and their children. It also sought to prohibit El Salvador from recognizing the foreign marriages of gay couples and bans gays from adopting children. A constitutional amendment requires the approval of two consecutive legislatures; a simply majority (43 votes) during the first reading followed by a supermajority (56).

RELATED: El Salvador is the only Central American country that allows gays to serve openly in its armed forces.

 

Labels: Central America, El Salvador, LGBT rights, marriage equality

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Anti-Gay US Preachers Are In Sochi

Anti-gay American preachers are rallying in support of Vladimir Putin on the streets of Sochi. And the cops are fine with that, of course.

On Friday evening, while huge crowds made their way to the Olympic opening ceremony viewing party, the men warned that “Judgment is coming” and shook hands with anyone who would stop to listen. A few locals did. But more significantly, at a time when discussion of the Olympics is dominated by issues of discrimination, none of the large police presence near the station appeared to approach them. Meanwhile, Friday night brought reports that at least four gay rights activists were arrested in St. Petersburg. One of the three men in Sochi—Larry Craft from Rochester, N.Y.—said that earlier in the day, they had spent a few hours at the police station after their banner got them in trouble. It read, “God bless Putin for his stance on homosexuals.” He said that they were allowed to return to the sidewalk if they promised to put the banner away.

Kraft has been arrested several times, including at Southern Decadence 2012 when nine anti-gay preachers were rounded up during "aggressive" street protests.
UPDATE: Queer Nation reacts.

Labels: Christian Love, LGBT rights, religion, Russia, Sochi Olympics, Vladimir Putin

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Catholics Polled On Gay Marriage

 

From a Univision poll conducted in 12 countries: "Two-thirds of Catholics around the world oppose gay marriage. Only in the United States and Spain do majorities of Catholics support it."  Univision also polled Catholics on contraception, divorce, abortion, and female priests. The full PDF is here.

Labels: Catholics, marriage equality, polls, religion

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 9, 2014

Change Makes All Things Possible

As Buddhists, we work to accept the impermanence and inevitable decay of the physical body. But it’s not enough to accept it as a fact; we can believe in this and still not want it in plain sight. Nagarjuna said, ‘Change makes all things possible.’ It is only because of change that suffering can end—and it is because of change that our bodies fall apart, like all compounded things. We cannot have one without the other, but we try.

- Sallie Tisdale, “Washing Out Emptiness”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 10, 2014
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