Via JMG: OREGON: Haters Lose Bid To Rewrite Marriage Ban Ballot Measure

Oregon's Attorney General has rejected the "absurd" bid of an anti-gay group to rewrite a proposed 2014 ballot measure to overturn that state's ban on same-sex marriage.

The attorney general's office on Friday announced its final wording on a ballot title -- and it rejected the legal argument from an attorney for the Oregon Family Council that the title should reflect the notion that the initiative would require every governmental agency in Oregon to issue marriage licenses. Basic Rights Oregon, the gay-rights group sponsoring the initiative, has rejected that argument as absurd. It says county clerks would continue to be the only ones issuing marriage licenses if this initiative is approved by voters.

Here is the ballot language approved by the state: "Amends Constitution: Recognizes marriage between couples of same gender; protects clergy/religious institutions' refusal to perform marriages."  Basic Rights Oregon has until July 2014 to collect 116,000 petition signatures.

Labels: 2014 elections, marriage equality, Oregon

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Dan Savage On Margaret Thatcher

"I was living in London—waiting tables, seeing plays, stealing silver, pining after British boys—when Section 28 was being debated. The law prompted Ian McKellen to come out of the closet and it prompted some righteous lesbian parents to tag Thatcher billboard with "Lesbians Mums Aren't Pretending." Coming at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Section 28 instilled panic. It felt like this law might the first of many anti-gay laws to come. Instead Section 28 was the beginning of the end for political homophobia in the UK. Because McKellen wasn't the only gay person to come out in protest. And you know what happens when gay people come out. So thanks for that, Maggie." - Dan Savage, writing for Slog.

Labels: Britain, Dan Savage, LGBT rights, Margaret Thatcher

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	When everything is clean-clear in your own mind, nobody can create obstacles for you. - Lama Thubten Yeshe, "The Bliss of Inner Fire" More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma April 8, 2013

Putting Your Body to Good Use

What should you do to put your body to good use? Most people have no idea. A craftsman who borrows some tools will try to make the best possible use of them while they are available. Your body, too, is actually on loan to you for the time being, for the brief period left before it is taken back from you by death. Had you better not use it to practice the dharma while you can?

- Dilgo Khyentse, "The Day After You Die"

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Vua JMG: Tenth Brazilian State Legalizes Marriage

The Brazilian state of Parana has become the tenth in that nation to legalize same-sex marriage.

According to a count by the office of Rep. Jean Wyllys, Brazil's first openly gay lawmaker, ten states out of twenty-seven now automatically convert such unions into marriage, they include: Alagoas, Bahia, Ceara, Sergipe, Espiritu Santo, Piaui, Sao Paulo, Parana, Mato Grosso do Sul and the Federal District.

Marriages conducted in those ten states are recognized nationwide. (Via Zack Ford)

Labels: Brazil, marriage equality, South America

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma April 6, 2013

An Ever-Present Refuge

Love and compassion make us feel safe because they express the safety of their source—the deep buddhanature within us, the unchanging inner space of primal awareness that cannot be harmed. By receiving unconditional love and compassion from those who’ve awakened before us, we sense that we too can relax into the very source of such love in the unconditioned nature of our minds, our buddhanature.

- John Makransky, "Aren't We Right to be Angry?"

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Via Being Gay Becoming Gray - With Passion, Beauty and a Sense of Adventure / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

 April 5, 2013

Seeing Possibility in Suffering

Being intolerant of suffering, in the Buddhist sense, does not mean that we reject it or fight against it. It means that we stop and look at it, not morbidly, but with faith in the possibility of living a joyful and peaceful life.

- Gil Fronsdal, "Living Two Traditions"

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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma April 4, 2013

Lighten Your Load

Consider the possibility, and I am only saying consider the possibility, that maybe nothing is unforgivable. Maybe there is a way to find forgiveness even for what we have believed for so long to be unforgivable. Explore this mindfully.

- Allan Lokos, “Lighten Your Load”

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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Whoever, with a rod, harasses an innocent man, unarmed, quickly falls into any of ten things: harsh pains, devastation, a broken body, grave illness, mental derangement, trouble with the government, violent slander, relatives lost, property dissolved, houses burned down. At the break-up of the body this one with no disconcernment, reappears in hell. - Dhammapada, 137-140, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu More Buddhism Quotes >>