Thursday, October 3, 2013
Via the Advocate: Two Same-Sex Couples Married in Colombia
September 30 2013 5:22 PM ET
Two same-sex couples have become the first to be legally married in Colombia, reports LGBT Latino blog Blabbeando.
Colombian attorney and LGBT advocate Germán Humerto Rincón
Perfetti announced Wednesday that a civil court judge had declared
Julio Alberto Cantor Borbón and William Alberto Castro Franco "united in
civil matrimony" following a September 20 ceremony, according to Blabbeando.
On Monday, the nation's leading newspaper published a
front-page article announcing the legal marriage of Elizabeth Castillo
and Claudia Zea, who were also granted a marriage license by a different
civil court judge Wednesday.
"I join you in a legitimate civil matrimony with all of
the prerogatives and rights that civil law grants you and the same
obligations imposed by civil law," said the judge before he pronounced
the couple married, according to Blabbeando's translation of the Spanish-language article from El Espectador. The newspaper's headline read "Marriage Equality Is a Right" and featured a picture of the newlywed couple beaming.
Colombia has been on a long journey to embracing marriage
equality, but last week's rulings seem to clear the way for same-sex
couples throughout the nation to begin receiving marriage licenses.
In 2011, Colombia's Constitutional Court ruled that gay
and lesbian couples could legally register their relationships beginninh
June 20, 2013, if the nation's lawmakers failed to extend them the same
benefits to them guaranteed to heterosexual married couples. When
Congress failed to present any kind of marriage equality legislation,
same-sex couples in Colombia began filing June 21 to register their relationships.
But at that time, it was still unclear whether those relationships
would be recognized as marriages or some other form of union.
Marriage equality advocates with the LGBT group Colombia
Diversa reported that dozens of same-sex couples had attempted to
register their relationships with local clerks since the June 20
deadline passed but were issued a document declaring their "solemn
union," according to Blabbeando. Colombia Diversa argued that
there is no legal structure to recognize a "solemn union" in Colombia's
family code, and since Congress failed to meet the deadline set by the
Constitutional Court, same-sex couples should automatically be allowed
to marry, as it's the only way to guarantee them the same rights and
privileges afforded to opposite-sex couples.
Blabbeando notes that the Colombian inspector
general has been a vocal opponent of marriage equality, fighting the
court ruling so vigorously that the Constitutional Court itself scolded
his staff twice and told Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez that his
office had no legal right to interfere in these cases.
Colombia joins a handful of other Latin American nations that embrace marriage equality, including Argentina, Uruguay, and many regions in Brazil. Some states in Mexico, including the nation's capital, Mexico City, also perform same-sex marriages, and the nation's highest court ruled in 2010 that same-sex marriages performed in marriage equality jurisdictions must be recognized and honored throughout Mexico. Last year,
the Mexican Supreme Court struck down a ban on same-sex marriage in the
southern state of Oaxaca, effectively changing that state's civil code
to say that marriage takes place "between two people" rather than
"between a man and a woman."
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma October 3, 2013
Letting Go
Letting
go of fixation is effectively a process of learning to be free, because
every time we let go of something, we become free of it. Whatever we
fixate upon limits us because fixation makes us dependent upon something
other than ourselves. Each time we let go of something, we experience
another level of freedom.
|
- Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, “Letting Go of Spiritual Experience”
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through October 4, 2013
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma October 2, 2013
The Art of Living
Vipassana
teaches the art of dying: how to die peacefully, harmoniously. And one
learns the art of dying by learning the art of living: how to become
master of the present moment.
|
- S. N. Goenka, "S. N. Goenka, Pioneer of Secular Meditation Movement, Dies at 90"
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through October 3, 2013
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Via JMG: Olympian Bode Miller Slams Russia
"'I think it's absolutely embarrassing that there's countries and there's people who are that intolerant and that ignorant," he said Monday, one of the few athletes willing to take a stand on the subject at the U.S. Olympic media summit featuring Sochi hopefuls. 'But it's not the first time," Miller said. "We've been dealing with human-rights issues probably since there were humans." At 35 and with five Olympic medals to his credit, Miller is trying for his fifth Winter Games. He has, over the years, built a reputation as an unconventional firebrand, unafraid to state his opinion on sports, skiing or society in general. He said the Russian law puts athletes in an awkward position. "I think it's unfortunate when they get stuffed together because there are politics in sports and athletics," Miller said. "They always are intertwined, even though people try to keep them separate or try to act like they're separate. Asking an athlete to go somewhere and compete and be a representative of a philosophy and ... then tell them they can't express their views or they can't say what they believe, I think is pretty hypocritical or unfair."
Labels: Russia, Sochi Olympics, sports, straight allies
Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Ian McKellen
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma October 1, 2013
Immediate Gratification
When
you analyze it, the motivation to 'just feel good right now' is really
just indulging our desires. The motivation to immediately gratify desire
is what has driven most of our actions throughout our beginningless
sojourn in samsara—all it has accomplished is to perpetuate our
confusion, pain, and habitual inability to pull ourselves out of this
mess. This is precisely the problem that Buddhism was invented to solve.
|
- David Patt,“Who’s Zoomin’ Who? The Commodification of Buddhism in the American Marketplace”
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through October 2, 2013
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)