A U.S. judge appeared sympathetic to a lesbian federal employee's bid to strike down a law denying health-insurance benefits to her spouse, in the first hearing since the Obama administration decided to quit defending the statute.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Via JMG: MINNESOTA: GOP Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch Resigns in Adultery Scandal
Defender of marriage and Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R) has resigned her post in disgrace after allegations of an affair with a Senate staffer. Koch, who is is married with one child, was one of the proponents of Minnesota's 2012 anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment. [Update below]At a Capitol news conference Friday, Sen. Geoff Michel (R-Edina) said Senate staff recently brought up allegations of an “inappropriate relationship between Majority Leader Koch and a Senate staffer.” "We sit here with a lot of humility, sadness, and shock,” Michel said. Michel said multiple staffers reported allegations to Senate leaders. He said he doesn’t know how long the relationship was going on and legally cannot discuss the name of the Senate staffer involved with Sen. Koch. The Edina senator could only specify that it was “inappropriate” a “conflict of interest” and created an “unstable work environment for staff.” On whether or not the relationship was sexual, Michel said "I think there's only two people who could fully characterize that,” but GOP leaders said they never heard the word “sexual” used when the allegations surfaced.And another anti-gay hypocrite bites the dust! Below is a bit of the May vote to place the anti-gay amendment on the 2012 ballot.
UPDATE: Late this afternoon the media learned that while Koch has stepped down as majority leader, she may continue as a state senator. She did say that she will not seek reelection in 2012. Koch was the first female majority leader of the Minnesota Senate and her tenure was the shortest in its history.Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma December 17, 2011
True Vision, True Understanding
The mind and the world are opposites, and vision arises where they meet. When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. When the world and the mind are both transparent, this is true vision. And such understanding is true understanding. |
Friday, December 16, 2011
JMG Asshat Of The Day - Michael Brown
"[Hillary Clinton's] speech, which was hailed by gay activists worldwide, was an exercise in hypocrisy, not to mention an insult to several billion people worldwide. Mrs. Clinton had the audacity to compare religious or cultural objections to homosexual practice to 'the justification offered for violent practices towards women like honor killings, widow burning, or female genital mutilation,' as if the religious and moral objection to men having sex with men is somehow equivalent to the Muslim practice of honor killings or the Hindu practice of burning widows. [snip]"She stated that 'opinions [on homosexuality] are still evolving', just as opinions evolved over time with slavery, and 'what was once justified as sanctioned by God is now properly reviled as an unconscionable violation of human rights.' In other words, if you have an issue with the lewd sexual displays at your city’s gay pride parade, or if you’re not comfortable with a man who dresses as a woman using the ladies bathroom, or if you don’t want to see a kid raised by two lesbians and thereby deprived of having a father, or if you believe that God made men to be with women, then you are the moral equivalent of a slave trader or a slave owner." - Michael Brown, writing for Town Hall.
Via JMG: STUDY: Gay Marriage Improves Health?
A just-published study indicates that gay men who live in states with legalized same-sex marriage may have fewer health problems.
During the 12 months after the 2003 legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, there was a significant decrease in medical care visits, mental health visits and mental health-care costs among gay and bisexual men, compared to the 12 months before the law changed. This led to a 13 percent reduction in health-care visits and a 14 percent reduction in health-care costs. The health benefits were similar for single gay men and those with partners. No reduction was seen in HIV-related health visits by HIV-positive men, which suggests that those in need of HIV/AIDS care continued to use needed health-care services, the researchers said.
Via Huffington: Rosie O'Donnell Sounds Off On David Letterman, Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, And More
"I feel super gay!" says Rosie O'Donnell, bursting with pride and attributing it to the fact that she is newly in love, engaged to Michelle Rounds, and also that she is turning 50 -- the "fuck you 50s" -- and is "not going to lay back and take it anymore" when it comes to speaking out against what s...
Via jMG; Kayak.Com Caves To Florida Hate Group
Right Wing Watch reports that the online travel site Kayak has joined Lowe's in caving to the Florida Family Association.Yesterday the company, citing concerns about “specific content” (which it didn’t identify) admitted that it had joined Lowe's in pulling ads from the show. Kayak later posted an explanation of its actions, but instead of simply apologizing and reinstating the ads, Chief Marketing Officer Robert Birge decided to keep digging, claiming that the blame should go to TLC, which “wasn’t upfront about the nature of the show.” Since the complaints from the Florida Family Association are that the show portrays Muslims as ordinary, peaceful Americans, it’s hard to take Birge’s explanation seriously. The name of the show is, after all, “All American Muslim.” What exactly did Birge expect? Did he want more stereotypical anti-Muslim caricatures, like the FFA did? Birge goes on to say that he’d never actually watched the show before, but now that he’s seen it, he insists that, “The show sucks.”
Via JMG: He Messed With The Wrong Lesbian
Via the Bellingham Herald in Washington state.
A 22-year-old man was arrested for an alleged hate crime against a lesbian couple early Sunday, Dec. 11, after he yelled slurs at them and smashed in the window of a victim's car, but was then pinned to the ground by one of the victims, police said. William Adam Lane confronted the couple outside a bar early Sunday in the 200 block of Chestnut Avenue when he saw them embracing, said Bellingham police spokesman Mark Young. Lane made profane, derogatory comments about the couple's sexuality, but the women "expressed no interest in having a conversation," Young said. Lane then smashed in the rear window of the Toyota they'd arrived in, causing about $600 damage, Young said. One of the women tackled the suspect and pinned him to the ground while she waited for help from a bouncer at the nearby bar.Lane was charged with malicious harassment. Our hero was uninjured.
Via JMG: No Good Deed, Etc...
JMG reader Mike wrote to the Tennessee Equality Project to ask why they'd made no mention of our successful fundraising campaign to pay for the funeral of gay bullying victim Jacob Rogers. With Mike's permission, here's the bulk of their response to him.
We generally do not repost such fundraising efforts because they are not within our organization's control. We typically do not have any way of knowing how those funds will be distributed. With regard to Dan Savage, Joe My God and Towleroad we could not in good conscience condone their efforts out of respect for Jacob and his family. That may seem counter-intuitive on the surface. So allow me to explain.Dan Savage responds: "How many schools in Tennessee has GLSEN worked with? How many calls from Tennessee has Trevor taken? How many cases has the ACLU queer youth project taken on in Tennessee? And how many kids in Tennessee have been reached by the It Gets Better Project?"
Each of these bloggers pledged to donate part of the contributions received for the funeral to other organizations. Had they pledged to only raise money for the family, we might have considered re-posting their efforts. Dan reports that the goal was to raise $5000 for Jacob's funeral. They raised $9000. That means that $4000 will be divided between GLSEN, the Trevor Project, and the ACLU's LGBT Youth Project. Will these organizations spend that received money to confront anti-LGBT bullying and harassment and advance policy and legislation to support that effort in Tennessee? We simply don't know. We do know the past practice of many national groups and celebrities outside of Tennessee. Without mentioning names, many national organizations in 2011 used the passage of the Don't Say Gay bill in the Senate and the workplace discrimination law we call the "Special Access to Discriminate" Act (HB600/SB632) to raise funds for their organizations. We know of several examples where these organizations and individuals received such funds and did not reinvest in efforts to promote safe schools or workplace equality in Tennessee.
TEP has been very careful about providing a positive way to respond to this tragedy without making an "ask" of contributions to TEP or other organizations. TEP's email alert about our petition to the Cheatham County School Board did not include any of our standard links to donate to our organization. We believe that it is unethical and morally wrong to raise funds for TEP or other organizations following the news of a tragedy. I do believe that Mr. Savage, Mr. Towle, and Joe.My.God have good intentions, but we could not condone their approach in this situation.
As noted on all three blogs that day, our donation buttons were yanked once we reached the goal of $5000. But due to the overwhelming response, a total of $9000 had flooded in by the time we updated our posts. Through the accounting office of Seattle's Stranger, $5000 was delivered to the Tennessee funeral home hired by Jacob's grandmother, whom he'd been living with after reportedly being kicked out for being gay. The remainder was divided equally to the above four organizations, also as promised that morning.
Via JMG: San Francisco Asks Appeals Court For Advance Notice On Prop 8 Verdict
Via Ian Millhiser at Think Progress, we learn that the city of San Francisco has sent an unusual request to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Clearly, they fear civil unrest in the event of a decision against equality.
In several prior instances when decisions have been issued relating to the marriage rights of same-sex couples, there have been large gatherings, including protesters, at the courthouses and in the Civic Center area of San Francisco. . . . In any instance where crowds of protesters gather, and particularly where the issue is as emotional and contested as this one, it is helpful for the San Francisco Police Department to be aware of the gathering in advance to plan for and deploy an adequate number of officers to the areas where protests are likely to occur. We would therefore be grateful if the Court could provide advance notice of its intention to issue its decision in this case.View the letter.
JMG Asshat Of The Day - Joe Dallas
"Satan’s strategy is leading humans astray, whether the arena is doctrinal or moral, is to deceive an individual into thinking that what God has forbidden is not really wrong or destructive, but is, in fact, life enhancing. So it was I the garden when Satan tempted Eve; so it may well be with your loved one. The sin of homosexuality is human nature, but the belief that sin is not really sin comes not from human nature alone but from an ancient and evil messenger. [snip]"And as you know, if you took the Bible hard enough you could make it say whatever you want it to, cults can do that, Nazis did that and I’m afraid it’s being done today under the guise of civil rights and gay liberation." - Former Exodus International leader and alleged former homosexual Joe Dallas, who says he wants to be "nowhere near" openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson when God judges him.
RELATED: You can learn more about "gays are from Satan" and "gays are like Nazis" by reading the loving Christian website of Joe Dallas.
Labels: "ex-gay", asshats, brainwashing, con men, Exodus International, liars, religion, scam artists, still totally gay, torture
Via JMG: You Thought You Were Second Class? Romney Has A Third Class For Gays
After suffering national embarrassment at the hands of a gay-married Vietnam veteran, Mitt Romney has issued his new plan for marriage in which gays aren't just second class, some of us are third. The Boston Herald notes: [Romney] expressed support for a constitutional amendment that could create a complex three-tier system of marriage — maintaining marriage rights for straight couples, allowing gays who have already married to remain married, but barring future same-sex marriages. "I think it would keep intact those marriages which had occurred under the law but maintain future plans based on marriage being between a man and a woman,” Romney said.He's talking out of his ass, of course, as this sort of federal plan would never be instituted. Maybe he thinks this makes him look like less of a meanie after that takedown by Bob Garon.
Via JMG: Gingrich Signs NOM's Hate Pledge
Gingrich joins Romney, Santorum, Perry, and Bachmann in vowing to thwart the civil rights guaranteed to LGBT Americans by the U.S. Constitution. The only remaining holdout is Ron Paul.Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma December 16, 2011
Bowing is Just Bowing
Bowing is just bowing. You do it mindfully, in a particular way, aware of the body and mind in the doing of it. The so-called meaning of it is extra. It’s not a symbolic or conceptual act. It’s just another form of sitting practice. You sit, you walk, the bell rings, you get up and bow. To just do what you do with full attention and without much worry is an important part of the method in Zen. |
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma December 15, 2011
How to Become Generous
The movement from ordinary states of self-concern to selfless giving always involves a gradual transformation of character, not a sudden leap. Like any form of strength, generosity needs to be intentionally cultivated over time, and everyone must begin in whatever state of mind they already happen to be. Understanding and accepting who you really are right now is as important as the commitment to become someone more open and generous. Whatever the quality of motivation, when we intentionally reach out to others in giving, some degree of transformation occurs. We become what we practice and do in daily life. |
- Dale Wright, "The Bodhisattva's Gift"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection
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