Via JMG: WASHINGTON: Federal Court Orders Release Of Referendum 71 Names

Much to the anguish of the anti-gay hate industry, today a federal judge ordered the release of the names on Referendum 71, the 2009 petition attempt to repeal Washington state's domestic partners law.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle said in a ruling Monday that it was unlikely that signers would face threats or harassment. Opponents of the law that expanded gay partnership rights managed to get enough signatures in 2009 to force a vote on the issue. They had pushed in court to keep the names of petition supporters private, arguing that it was a contentious issue and that people could be harassed.

RELATED: Referendum 71 failed by a margin of 53-47, becoming the first ever statewide LGBT rights law to be upheld by a public vote. Today's ruling follows a June 2010 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which voted 8-1 to uphold the constitutionality of releasing the names.

UPDATE: The above-linked article has been updated to report that a DVD containing all 138,000 petition names has been provided to the press. The names were released despite a promised appeal of the decision. You should check out the comments and their replies.

Labels: feds, Referendum 71, Washington state

reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

 October 17, 2011

Christianity and Buddhism

Perhaps an important difference between Buddhism and Christianity is that, within the Christian tradition, there is usually a subject you are contemplating, whereas in Buddhism, especially with the formless practices, you are really opening the mind in and of itself; you are not contemplating a particular subject or figure. Ultimately, we are looking to simply open the mind and lay bare its depths. In Christianity you find that as well, so it’s not an absolute difference but a difference in emphasis.

– Reginald Ray, "The Power of Solitude"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBloggay: Spock is gay

The new Spock, not the old Spock.

I'm impressed he came out.  And how, and why.

Last year, the Times, in profiling him for Angels, noted that “the blogosphere is rife with speculation about his sexuality” but that “he prefers not to feed the rumor mill with either substantiation or dismissal.” That has changed. A little while later in our conversation, speaking of the cultural bipolarity that can see gay marriage legalized in New York in the same year that yet another gay teenager, Jamey Rodemeyer, was bullied and killed himself, Quinto says, “And again, as a gay man I look at that and say there’s a hopelessness that surrounds it, but as a human being I look at it and say ‘Why? Where’s this disparity coming from, and why can’t we as a culture and society dig deeper to examine that?’ We’re terrified of facing ourselves.

Today's NSFW Posting:

Lawrence O'Donnell - The WE DO Campaign

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma: Avoiding Disappointments

 October 15, 2011

Avoiding Disappointments

How do we avoid misguided faith? We practice awareness and non-attachment. Seeing attachment, aversion, expectation, and disappointment as they arise allows the mind to understand and to disengage from them. Awareness breaks the spell; the mind is no longer enchanted when we see the defilement for what it is. When a defilement has no hold on the mind, suffering ceases. Awareness can simply wait and observe the next present moment as it arises. These moments gradually refine faith, and skillful wisdom increasingly arises in daily life.

– Steve Armstrong, "Got Attitude?"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBlogGay: Another teacher caught ranting on Facebook about the gays

I just don't know how you can continue to teach kids when you've publicly stated your disdain for an entire class of those kids. And there this: 

John Paragano, a lawyer and former member of the Union Township Committee, said he had been offended by Ms. Knox’s comments, and questioned her ability to enforce the state’s tough new anti-bullying law. 

“Teachers are at the forefront of that, enforcing that,” Mr. Paragano said. “My concern is that if this teacher has these feelings, is she going to call out the bullying of a gay, lesbian and transgender person?”

Are teachers permitted to be racists and anti-Semites? How about a klansman, can he be a teacher during the day and wear his white hood at night? I find it hard to believe that someone like that would stay for long as a school teacher, First Amendment or not.

Via JMG: Concerned Women Are Concernstipated About Homosexuals On Television

Concerned woman Janet Shaw Crouse longs for the days of nursery rhyme romances. Because all those homosexuals on television are destroying true love. Or something!

Looking back, it’s amazing how much our simple nursery rhymes taught us about life, including the natural progression of relationships. Intuitively, we knew these axioms to be true and passed them down throughout the generations. But these days, as conventional wisdom is increasingly convoluted, it isn’t surprising that many have rejected the order of romance first, marriage second, and finally childbearing, instead creating their own rules of the game. Indeed, gone are the days of Brady Brunch families and June Cleaver-style households; they have morphed into ABC’s “Modern Family“ — a show promoted as “redefining what family means,” and portrayed as “one big straight-gay, multicultural, traditional, happy family.” Hence, every day it seems, a new tide of case studies surfaces on the shores of our Hollywood-esque world of hook-ups, shack-ups, babydaddys, and babymommas, attempting to prove how “liberated” we are, unbound by the shackles of tradition.

Labels: Concerned Women Of America, hags, hate groups

reposted from Joe

Via AmericaBlogGay: Kelsey Grammer thinks the Tea Party is nuts, disagrees with them on gay marriage

Republican Kelsey Grammer was asked last night by Piers Morgan about his allegiance to the Tea Party. 

Says Grammer: “I’m not sure they say anything that I would object to. I’ve just been told that they’re lunatics."

Morgan tells him that most of the Tea Party is opposed to gay marriage. 

"I wouldn't sign on to that. Absolutely. I played several [gay characters]. I guess I'm more Libertarian in that way. I think marriage is up to two people that love each other. And if you find the church that you want to get married in you go right ahead ..In my mind the state of marriage is something that has been endorsed by the idea that it is a sacrament within the context of a faith...the word marriage comes out of the religious side of our experience and our history. So I tend to think our government shouldn't be involved in any way..."

TowleRoad:has the video of the interview as well.

Ron Paul on Gay Marriage