Monday, May 25, 2015

VIa Free & Equal / FB:


VIa JMG: IRELAND: Marriages By September


 
Via the Irish Times:
Work will begin this week to give effect to the referendum decision to amend the Constitution with the first same-sex marriages likely to take place as early as September. Tánaiste Joan Burton said legislation would be brought before the Seanad and Dáil as early as possible, with the aim of getting it passed before the summer recess. “That would mean that we would be in a position to have same-sex marriage celebrations, civil ceremonies by, probably, September,” she told reporters at the Africa Day celebrations in the Phoenix Park. The Constitution will be formally amended in the coming days when President Michael D Higgins signs the Marriage Equality Bill into law, and a new sentence will be added to article 41 stating: “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.” To give effect to the amendment, the Oireachtas will enact the Marriage Bill 2015, which will state in law the principle that being of the same sex is no longer an impediment to marriage. It will also make clear that religious solemnisers will not be obliged to solemnise the marriage of a same-sex couple, and that the same prohibited degrees of relationship will apply to same-sex marriages.
RELATED:  In the above map from Freedom To Marry, Finland is shaded red although their law doesn't go into effect until March 2017. Slovenia is shaded light green because although their legislature approved same-sex marriage in March 2015, their bill has not yet been signed into law due to a continuing battle to place the issue to a public referendum.
 
Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via The Guardian: LGBT veterans to get their first federally approved monument


A monument dedicated to LGBT veterans will be unveiled in a national cemetery near Chicago on Memorial Day, in a celebration of the first federally approved monument to LGBT veterans.



Via Deep South Daily: “I am the mother of a gay son and I’ve taken enough from you good people”


Photo by Jamiecat (Flickr/cc)

Read one of the most heartfelt letters a newspaper has ever published.

It seems that a century’s worth of progress has been made for gay rights since the dawn of the millennium fifteen years ago. Back then, not a single U.S. state had marriage equality. The term “marriage equality” was not even a part of the social zeitgeist. But today, marriage equality is the law of the land in all but a handful of states. It looks likely that the Supreme Court will soon rule on a right to marriage for all. And just yesterday, Ireland — traditionally a very conservative, Catholic country — became the first nation to pass (and overwhelmingly so) marriage equality by national referendum.

Even more importantly than marriage, a social revolution has made being an LGBT person more socially accepted — at times even celebrated — than the kids of the year 2000 could’ve ever dreamed. Still, there are constant reminders of the work that remains to be done.
We still see the forces of discrimination and bigotry hard at work to stave off the tide of freedom and acceptance that LGBT people are now experiencing. Evangelicals rally around viciously anti-gay reality show stars — like the Robertson family of Duck Dynasty or the Duggars of 19 Kids and Counting. And that’s why it’s important to remember that, for all these gains, there is still work to be done.

In April 2000, a mother named Sharon Underwood from White River Junction, Vermont wrote one of the most heartfelt and pointed letters to the editor that the Valley News has probably ever received. In the letter, she expressed her righteous anger at the local do-gooders whose moralism had for years inflicted pain and torment on her young gay son. That letter is still prescient today. Even now, it tells the story of thousands of LGBT youth trapped in communities where they still aren’t welcome.



Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día- Flower of the day 25/05/2015

“O mal atrai o mal. O mal em você sente atração pelo mal lá fora. Isso ocorre porque a maldade precisa ser ativada para ser purificada e transformada. E conforme a purificação vai acontecendo, você começa a ver que tudo está absolutamente certo, mesmo quando está errado. Os erros, na verdade, são oportunidades de aprendizado, cura e libertação.”

“El mal atrae el mal. El mal en ti siente atracción por el mal ahí afuera. Esto ocurre porque la maldad necesita ser activada para ser purificada y transformada. Y conforme la purificación va sucediendo, comienzas a ver que todo está absolutamente bien, hasta cuando está equivocado. Las equivocaciones, en verdad, son oportunidades de aprendizaje, cura y liberación.” 

“Evil attracts evil. The malevolence in us feels attracted to the malevolence outside. Evil needs to be activated in order to be purified and transformed. As this purification takes place, we start to see that everything is absolutely right, even when it is ‘wrong.’ Mistakes are in fact an opportunity for learning, healing, and liberation.”

Today's Daily Dharma: Undistorted Experience


Undistorted Experience

When mindfulness is quick enough, the student will experience the moment of consciousness itself. He will see one mind-moment arising and vanishing in clear detail. This is to witness the truth of experience, undistorted by delusion. It is a glimpse of ultimate reality.

- Cynthia Thatcher, "How Long Is a Moment"