Via JMG: INDIA: Bollywood Star Might Face Charges For Promoting Homosexuality

Last month Bollywood actor and LGBT ally Aamir Khan hosted a nationally televised forum which examined the plights of gays and transgender people in a nation which recently saw homosexuality recriminalized. The show went viral on YouTube, where it was posted both in Hindi and with English subtitles. And here come the haters:

A court in Chandigarh issued a legal notice to Bollywood actor Aamir Khan, seeking his response by 19 December on a petition alleging that he promoted homosexuality on his popular TV show 'Satyamev Jayate'. Admitting the petition by advocate Mandeep Kaur, the court of civil judge Jaswinder Singh had on Friday issued a notice to Aamir Khan to file his reply by 19 December. In her petition, Kaur alleged that Aamir Khan's conduct on his show 'Satyamev Jayate' was a violation of the Supreme Court order on homosexuality, upholding Section 377 which criminalises homosexual acts. Through the petition, she sought the court's intervention to declare Khan's act a contempt of court.

Kaur has demanded a public apology from Khan but says she has gotten no response.

Labels: Aamir Khan, India, LGBT rights, Section 377

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: AUSTRIA: Conchita Wurst Meets UN Head Ban Ki-Moon During Talks On LGBT Rights

 

Via the Associated Press:

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has joined Austrian cross-dressing pop star Conchita Wurst in calling for an end to bias based on a person's sexual orientation. Wurst teamed up with Ban on Monday on the sidelines of a U.N. conference to deliver their message of tolerance. Ban told reporters that he will continue his fight "against transphobia and homophobia." "I stand strong for equality," Ban said. "We are unstoppable," he added, quoting Wurst's words on the night of her victory at this year's Eurovision song contest.

More from Yahoo News:

The entertainer, sporting a demure dress and black high heels along with the trademark beard, shook hands and joked with Ban and sang for hundreds of cheering officials and diplomats at the United Nations complex in Vienna. "This year I extended benefits to same-sex partners of U.N. staff members... Discrimination has no place in the United Nations," Ban said to applause from officials, dozens of whom crowded round to get a picture with or autograph from Wurst. "When I heard that she won this Eurovision song contest I immediately knew that she was a star of the world," Ban said.

Labels: Austria, Ban Ki-Moon, Conchita Wurst, drag, Eurovision, gay artists, LGBT rights, pop music, United Nations, Vienna

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma

How to Regard All People | November 3, 2014 The myriad dharmas, absolutely everything, are within the nature of all people. If you can regard all people, the bad as well as the good, without grasping or rejecting, free of any clinging, your mind will be like empty space. Thus, it can be called 'great,' maha.    - Huineng, “Prajna”

Flower of the Day: 11/03/14

“What sustains the ego is the idea of ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ This is the root of the dream state. Being identified with the ego, we begin to slip into dreaming. Regardless of whether the nature of the dream is good or bad, dreaming itself ultimately leads to suffering. But if dreaming brings suffering, why don’t we wake up? Why don’t we open our eyes and break with this identification? When we are having a nightmare, even if a part of us wants to wake up, oftentimes we’re unable to do so because a part of us is enchanted with this dream. On some level, we are energetically involved with this story, with our vital energy entangled with the dream.”

Sri Prem Baba