Via JMG: Burned Rainbow Flag Hung Outside Of NYC LGBT Community Center

Staffers at the NYC LGBT Community Center in Manhattan's West Village found a burned and torn rainbow flag affixed to their front wall this morning. Executive director Glennda Testone:

"This morning our building staff arrived and discovered a burned rainbow flag hanging on one of the poster display cases outside our building. We called the NYPD, and they immediately dispatched detectives from the hate crimes unit and our local precinct. They are currently investigating the crime. We at the Center will not stand for anyone who thinks they can come into our community and try to intimidate us. We work hard to create a safe environment and provide a safe space for all LGBT New Yorkers. Hate and intolerance against us will not be accepted in New York, and it is so important the Center is a safe space in our city. It is sad that such incidents still happen in this day and age, but we appreciate the NYPD and especially the hate crimes unit doing everything they can to ensure the safety of all LGBT people in New York."

Testone reports that the perpetrator was captured on the Center's security camera, but she encourages anybody with additional information to call the NYPD at .a repost from JMG

Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Anonymous Soldier

JMG reader and Afghanistan veteran R.D. tells his story today on the blog of conservative columnist David Frum.

"I had a very bad session with my workout partner tonight. He is the person I am closest to in Afghanistan yet even he knows very little about my life. He asked if I was married and I lied, telling him I was divorced. Damn. I hate lying; I can count on one hand how often I have told a lie in the past 20 years. Yet if I told him I was a never-married, 42-year-old male it would have been too risky. If I told the truth I could be fired and go home to face unemployment. Why in the world would any soldier be fired for being honest? Because I am a gay soldier and it is illegal to say so. It is illegal for me to tell not just anyone in the military but anyone in the world – my parents, my siblings – even my best friend.

"Despite repeated studies by the Pentagon over the past 50 years that clearly suggest gays pose no threat to unit cohesion or morale; social conservatives insist that it is so and have passed laws demanding that gay Americans be fired if we are honest – even with our closest friends or family members. Being honest should never be illegal. This law results in gay military members being socially isolated from our peers, our friends and our families so that others will not get to know us lest they discover that we are gay. We could be turned in by anyone. It also means we cannot date anyone – even on our own time and out of uniform. So we can only keep our jobs if we lie, pretend, and remain isolated — celibate and alone. How is a law with such cruel consequences considered Christian? Lying is never good but it is the law so what else can I do? As a result of being so angry I was quiet during the workout and my gym partner expressed concern but I could not tell him why. It would have been illegal."

Read R.D.'s entire essay.

reposted from JMG

Liberalism and Religion - We Should Talk

http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=co...

Shambhala Sun | July 1999
Liberalism and Religion - We Should Talk
By: Ken Wilber

...
The way it is now, the modern world really is divided into two major and warring camps, science and liberalism on the one hand, and religion and conservatism on the other. And the key to getting these two camps together is first, to get religion past science, and then second, to get religion past liberalism, because both science and liberalism are deeply anti-spiritual. And it must occur in that order, because liberalism won’t even listen to spirituality unless it has first passed the scientific test.
...
In one sense, of course, science and liberalism are right to be anti-spiritual, because most of what has historically served as spirituality is now prerational, magic or mythic, implicitly ethnocentric, fundamentalist dogma. Liberalism traditionally came into existence to fight the tyranny of prerational myth and that is one of its enduring and noble strengths (the freedom, liberty, and equality of individuals in the face of the often hostile or coercive collective). And this is why liberalism was always allied with science against fundamentalist, mythic, prerational religion (and the conservative politics that hung on to that religion).
But neither science nor liberalism is aware that in addition to prerational myth, there is transrational awareness. There are not two camps here: liberalism versus mythic religion. There are three: mythic religion, rational liberalism, and transrational spirituality.
...
---end excerpt---

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/a-g...

The Real Gay Agenda

Via JMG: Rock For Equality: Hundreds Rally In CA For Social Security Benefits

Hundreds of activists and politicians rallied in West Hollywood this weekend calling for equality in Social Security benefits. Speakers included Sen. Barbara Boxer and NGLTF head Rea Carey.

State and local officials joined hundreds of people outside the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center in Hollywood on Sunday morning to kick off a national grass-roots campaign demanding equal Social Security benefits for same-sex couples. The rally and march -- dubbed Rock for Equality -- was put together by the center and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in conjunction with the Aids Community Action Foundation, said Jim Key, a spokesman for the center.

At the rally, Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Lakewood), who is a member of the House Subcommittee on Social Security, announced that she would sponsor legislation to provide equal Social Security benefits for same-sex couples. "I don't think it's right that Americans should be treated differently by the country they love because of who they love," she said, triggering thunderous applause and cheers from the crowd. "Right now, same-sex marriage couples pay equally into a system that they don't receive equal benefits from in return," Sanchez told the crowd. "Shame on this country for allowing that to happen." As of now, people in same-sex relationships are denied Social Security survivor benefits from their deceased partners because the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriages or domestic partnerships as valid relationships.

Go here for many more photos of the event. In the clip below, West Hollywood Mayor Abbe Land addresses the crowd.
reposted from JMG

Via JMG: Green Light For Gay Marriage In Portugal

Portugal's Constitutional Court has approved a marriage equality bill recently passed by the nation's legislature. The bill only needs the signature of the president to become law.

Portugal's Socialist-controlled Parliament, led by Prime Minister Jose Socrates, approved the gay marriage bill on February 11. The president still has the option of vetoing the legislation, but Socrates has said he is prepared to overturn the veto. The Vatican has vociferously opposed laws that grant gay couples the right to marry. Pope Benedict has called for the ouster of Socialists in Spain who approved a gay marriage law in 2005, but the church's opposition in the Catholic stronghold of Portugal has been muted. However, Benedict is widely expected to criticize the bill when he visits Portugal next month.

President Silva opposes marriage equality, but his expected veto will likely be overridden.reposted from JMG

Via JMG:

PhoboQuotable - Mike Huckabee

"I think there’s been a real level of being disingenuous on the part of the gay and lesbian community with their goal of civil unions. You don’t go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal. That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let’s go ahead and accommodate those who want who use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them.

"I think this is not about trying to create statements for people who want to change the basic fundamental definitions of family, And always we should act in the best interest of the children, not in the seeming interest of the adults. Children are not puppies. This is not a time to see if we can experiment and find out, how does this work?” - Fox News host and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, speaking at the College of New Jersey.

another repost from JMG

Sarah Palin Wins "Worst Mother in America" Award

The Sarah Palin Network

Via JMG:

HomoQuotable - Greg Quinlan

"We now know that Pepsi has given over a million dollars to the Human Rights Campaign and to another hate group called PFLAG, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays -- an organization that tells parents that their children are born homosexual. Therefore they must accept them and that the only way to love them is to accept, embrace that homosexual lifestyle. This is extremely troubling because now what is happening is that the PepsiCo Corporation is using our money -- whether you're a shareholder or whether you're a customer -- [they're] using your money to promote hate against Christians and other people of faith. " - PFOX "ex-gay" spokesdouche Greg Quinlan, who plans on confronting Pepsi executives at their annual stockholders meeting.

a repost via JMG