A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Science
often leads me to the door of wonder, teaching me to see new things
with my eyes. But practice is what trains me to enter, leaving behind my
sight.
"If you were resting in your ‘I am,’ you would look and you would see
only the perfection of it all. And you would see that what we did in the
’60s is what created Ronald Reagan in the ’80s. You would see the way
polarities work; you’d see the way forces polarize… You’d just see it as
law unfolding right before you."
The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee, WhK)
was founded in Berlin on the 14th or 15th of May, 1897, to campaign for
social recognition of homosexual and transgender men and women, and
against their legal persecution. It was the first such organization in
history. It produced the Jahrbuch fĂźr sexuelle Zwischenstufen (Yearbook
for Intermediate Sexual Types). This, as well as reporting the
committee's activities, carried articles of scientific, polemical and
literary natures. It was publish regularly from 1899 to 1923 (sometimes
even quarterly) and more sporadically until 1933.
The initial focus of the WhK was Paragraph175
of the Imperial Penal Code, which criminalized "coitus-like" acts
between males — the WhK assisted defendants in criminal trials,
conducted public lectures, and gathered signatures on a petition for the
repeal of the law. Signatories included Albert Einstein, Hermann Hesse,
Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Leo Tolstoy. Petitions were
submitted to parliament, in 1898, 1922 and 1925, but failed to gain the
support of the parliament, and the law continued to criminalize all
male-male sexual acts until 1969 and wasn't entirely removed until 1994.
Original members of the WhK included physician Magnus Hirschfeld,
publisher Max Spohr, lawyer Eduard Oberg and writer Max von BĂźlow. Adolf
Brand, Benedict Friedländer, and Kurt Hiller also joined the
organization.
In 1929, Hiller
took over as chairman of the group from Hirschfeld. At its peak, the WhK
had about 500 members and branches in approximately 25 cities in
Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. The committee was dissolved in
1933 when the Nazis destroyed the Institut fĂźr Sexualwissenschaft in Berlin where the WhK was based.
1974 -
On this date the first federal Gay Rights bill is introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Equality Act of 1974,
would have amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act, by adding "sexual
orientation, to the list of protected from discrimination. Gay people in
the United States are STILL waiting for these protections even though
most Americans still believe we are covered.
1981 -
The Reagan administration cancels the White House subscription to The Advocate.
|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|
Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute
"With the
increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful
corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community
is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave
standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming
mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson
Whatever you intend,
whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will
become the basis upon which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop
meditation on lovingkindness, for when you develop meditation on
lovingkindness, all ill will will be abandoned. (MN 62)
Lovingkindness fails when it produces sentimentality. (Vm 9.93)
Reflection
Believe it or
not, lovingkindness is impersonal by nature. The feeling of care for
another is not dependent on the specific qualities of that person but
can be directed to anyone and everyone. This is what makes
lovingkindness unsentimental. You don’t love only if the person is a
family member or a friend. And you don’t love difficult people only if
they deserve it or you have forgiven them. Lovingkindness rises above
the personal.
Daily Practice
See if you can
discern, in your own experience, the difference between a feeling of
lovingkindness that is laced with a sense of self and one that is not.
See if you can sense the difference between the love you have for
someone dear to you and the universal lovingkindness you cultivate while
doing mettÄ practice. Personal connections are sentimental in a good sense, while lovingkindness transcends the personal.
Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech One week from today: Cultivating Compassion
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
Meditators
who are having a difficult time achieving a peaceful state of mind
sometimes start thinking, “Here we go again, another hour of
frustration.” But often something strange happens; although they are
anticipating failure, they reach a very peaceful meditative state.