Via JMG: Israel Seek Gay Envoys

Israel has posted a request for volunteer gay envoys to promote the nation's diversity.

The Israeli government is launching a program to recruit homosexuals to be unofficial envoys. In a bid to boost its international image, the country's ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs has established a cadre of diverse volunteers who speak about Israel around the world. In a recent post on its website, the ministry encouraged minorities and members of the homosexual community to step forward. Ministry spokesman Gal Ilan said Thursday that the goal was to highlight Israel's diversity. He said when people think about Israel, the homosexual community is often overlooked.

Some have charged Israel with pinkwashing in order to promote gay tourism. From the New York Times:

The growing global gay movement against the Israeli occupation has named these tactics “pinkwashing”: a deliberate strategy to conceal the continuing violations of Palestinians’ human rights behind an image of modernity signified by Israeli gay life. Aeyal Gross, a professor of law at Tel Aviv University, argues that “gay rights have essentially become a public-relations tool,” even though “conservative and especially religious politicians remain fiercely homophobic.” Pinkwashing not only manipulates the hard-won gains of Israel’s gay community, but it also ignores the existence of Palestinian gay-rights organizations.

Labels: gay tourism, Israel, marketing, Palestine

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Via JMG: Frothy: I Hardly Talk About The Gays

Although he's known in the foreign press primarily by the "homohater" label, Rick Santorum says that he's hardly been speaking about the gays. Igor Volsky has the quote at Think Progress:

If you’ve been following me out on the trail, I haven’t been talking a lot about this. Although I strongly believe in it. What I’ve been talking about as I did last night on my acceptance speech where didn’t talk about this issue, I talked about the importance of getting this economy going and talked about my grandfather and coming here for freedom. And this is the fundamental issue in this campaign is whether government is going to be big and obtrusive and telling people how to manage their — their lives or — and are they going to support the basic values of faith and family that allow government to be limited and allow our economy to be strong. Those are the things I talked about and did across Iowa.

The boldest of the lying no longer takes our breath away in the slightest.

Labels: batshittery, fascists, liars, Rick Santorum

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Via JMG: TENNESSEE: Christianists Push Bill To Legalize Bullying Based On Religion

Here we go again, just like we saw in Michigan. Tennessee's WSMV reports on a new bill that is a "top priority" of the Family Action Council.

A proposal by some state lawmakers is already under fire, even before the legislative session begins. They're considering making a change in the law to allow students to speak out against homosexuality, if that's what their religious beliefs call for. Supporters have said this is about protecting the free-speech rights of students who want to express their views on homosexuality. But gay rights groups are calling the idea a "license to bully." Kelly Fussman is the founder of the No Hate Club at Hendersonville High School.

She says she sees examples of bullying every single day. "I've had a lot of friends bullied for just being who they are, whether it's for their sexuality, their gender identity, their religion," she said. Fussman says she is worried about the bill in the legislature that she believes could make the verbal abuse worse. The proposal would alter the state's anti-bullying laws to allow students to speak their religious and political views against homosexuality without punishment as long as the student isn't threatening harm or damaging property.

Labels: bigotry, bullying, education, fascists, hate groups, religion, Tennessee

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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 5, 2012

Breaking the chains that bind us to suffering

One way to handle the impulses that bind us to suffering is through cognitive intervention. If we’re behind the wheel and another driver cuts us off, leans on his horn, or otherwise drives provocatively, we can construct a narrative to explain his aggressiveness: “He’s late for something, and probably not for the first time. He’s desperate to get there, and you know yourself what that’s like!” The same line of creative speculation works in the face of any form of hostility: “She may have just lost her job,” or “He just had a fight with his wife.” These kinds of stories, even if fanciful, offer us some breathing room, interrupting the reaction chain that binds us to suffering.

- Bodhin Kjolhede, "Pain, Passion, and the Precepts"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBlogGay: Pelosi announces immigration decision to defer deportation of gay spouse

Nancy Pelosi's office just informed us that a rather well known gay deportation case has been put on hold. It might have been nice for the administration itself to actually tell us about this.

Pelosi Statement on Anthony John Makk and Bradford Wells 

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on the decision by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to grant deferred action to Anthony John Makk. This afternoon, Pelosi spoke to Anthony John Makk and his husband, Bradford Wells, and informed them of the decision. Leader Pelosi had personally intervened in this case.

“The positive resolution of Anthony’s immigration petition is a personal victory for Bradford and Anthony, and keeps this loving couple together.

“Anthony would have faced deportation because of the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, even though he has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, has no criminal history, has never lived here illegally and is the primary caregiver to his husband. The Obama Administration’s recent efforts to prioritize immigration enforcement for the removal of criminals and others who pose a threat to national helped pave the way for today’s good news. 

More background from our previous reporting on this.

Via JMG: WA Gov. Chris Gregoire: I Will Introduce Bill To Make Gay Marriage Happen

"It is now time for our gay and lesbian citizens to be treated equally and that means marriage." - Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire. Story developing, update here in minutes.

UPDATE: The Seattle Times has more.

Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday said she'll put forward legislation to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples. The proposal will be introduced during the legislative session that starts Monday. If it's approved, Washington would become the seventh state to legalize gay marriage. "It's time, it's the right thing to do, and I will introduce a bill to do it," Gregoire said in a statement. "Our gay and lesbian families face the same hurdles as heterosexual families -- making ends meet, choosing what school to send their kids to, finding someone to grow old with, standing in front of friends and family and making a lifetime commitment," Gregoire said. "For all couples, a state marriage license is very important. It gives them the right to enter into a marriage contract in which their legal interests, and those of their children if any, are protected by well-established civil law."

Washington state currently has an "everything but the name" domestic partners law that was upheld in the bitterly contested Referendum 71 battle.

Labels: Christine Gregoire, marriage equality, Washington state

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ॐ Thich Nhat Hanh Quote Collective ॐ

 

Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes 8

If we can hold our anger, our sorrow, and our fear with the energy of mindfulness, we will be able to recognize the roots of our suffering. We will be able to recognize the suffering in the people we love as well. Mindfulness helps us to not be angry at our loved ones, because when we are mindful, we understand that our loved ones are suffering as well.

–Thich Nhat Hanh

By: ॐ Thich Nhat Hanh Quote Collective ॐ

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 4, 2012

Returning Home

The ultimate goal of the spiritual journey is to realize the union of your mind and ultimate reality. You discover eventually that not only are you in reality, but that you also embody that reality. Your ordinary body becomes the body of a buddha, your ordinary speech becomes the speech of a buddha, and your ordinary mind becomes the mind of a buddha. This is the great transition that you have to make, relinquishing your fixation on the separation of samsaric beings and buddhas. When we can talk about them as ultimately the same, when this actual transformation occurs within an individual, it is a truly great occurrence. It is remarkable because an ordinary, confused being still retains that preexisting continuity between an ordinary being and an enlightened being, in the sense that what you become is what you have always been. At the end of the journey, you are simply returning home.

- Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, "Letting Go of Spiritual Experience"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via JMG: Norway Paper: Santorum The Homohater

Rex Wockner tips us to the headline from Norway's Dagbladet.

Labels: journalism, Norway, Rick Santorum

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JMG Quote Of The Day - Kate Kendell

"In the repellent race to the bottom (no pun intended) it should be no surprise that Santorum did so well in the Iowa caucuses. Mitt Romney is in a major stall, and in a field of class clowns Rick Santorum stands out as particularly cartoonish. [snip] Santorum's win is not a referendum on who he is as a man (inhumane and ignorant), or who he is as a candidate (pandering and mean). It is simply the gasping statement of a thankfully dying breed of Americans -- those who fear, loathe or hate anyone different from themselves, who mistrust or reject the idea that government can and should be a force for good, and who detest even the slightest exposure to information or ideas that challenge their world view." - Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center For Lesbian Rights, via press release.

Labels: 2012 elections, Iowa, Kate Kendell, NCLR, Quote Of The Day, Rick Santorum

Reposted from Joe

JMG HomoQuotable - Dan Savage

"Political reporters? When Elizabeth Santorum says, 'I have gay friends and they support my dad because they agree with him about family issues,' i.e. her dad's opposition to gay people having a families of their own, your immediate response should be a request for the names and phone numbers of some of these gay friends. Because that claim requires checking out before you put it in print or pixels. Reassure Elizabeth you'll quote her friends anonymously to protect them from potty-mouthed gay bloggers, they can talk to you on background or whatever, but tell her that you're going to need to verify the existence of these gay friends.

"Because you're a journalist, not a stenographer. You'll either catch Elizabeth Santorum in a revealing lie—what does it tell us about this moment in the struggle for LGBT equality that even homophobes like Elizabeth and her dad perceive a political risk in being perceived as homophobic?—or you'll land a fascinating interview." - Dan Savage, saying that the media should stop accepting homophobes' claims of having gay friends.

Labels: Dan Savage, HomoQuotable, Rick Santorum

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Via JMG: Urban Dictionary's Word Of The Day

(Tipped by JMG reader Some Teacher)

Labels: language, Santorum, Urban Dictionary

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Watch 'Glee' Star Darren Criss Perform 'Teenage Dream' Live

Via ॐ Thich Nhat Hanh Quote Collective ॐ

Let us walk together and let us generate the energy of peace and happiness and joy. Let us transform this place and this time into the kingdom of God, into the pure land of the Buddha. This is possible. The collective energy of mindfulness will be generated and penetrate into every one of us for our transformation and healing.

--Thich Nhat Hanh--

Via Nalanda LGBT Buddhist Cultural and Resource Center:

 

Wall Photos

 

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

JMG Tweet Of The Day

After an Iowa restauranteur launched a new menu item dubbed "Santorum Salad," you knew it would be about ten minutes before the dish had a Twitter account. Only ten or so tweets so far, but most of them are gold, Jerry, gold!

Labels: Rick Santorum, Santorum, tweet of the day

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Via JMG: Cindy & Meghan McCain Pose For NOH8

Andrew Belonsky reports that the pair previously posed separately, but have just rejoined the NOH8 campaign for a mother/daughter shot. Nice timing too, caucus-wise.

Labels: Cindy McCain, Meghan McCain, NOH8

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Via JMG: Today's Big Lie From The Christian Right

"In the few states where marriage has been redefined to include same-sex couples, various churches and ministries have already been threatened with the loss of their tax exempt status if they refused to perform ceremonies for same sex couples." - Bishop Harry Jackson, writing for Town Hall.

Jackson is repeating the same ridiculous lie put out last month by New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who claimed (also without any proof) that Catholic churches were being threatened with lawsuits for not performing same-sex weddings. They really don't care, obviously, that WE know they are lying. Their audience takes them at their word and that's all that matters. Praise! Glory! Donate!

Labels: bigotry, Harry Jackson Jr., liars, religion

Reposted from Joe

Via Gay Politics Report: Santorum favors dissolving marriages of same-sex couples

• Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, a Republican running for president who has performed well in recent polls in Iowa, said in an interview last weekend that he favors ending the marriages of gay and lesbian couples who legally wed under current state laws. Santorum explained that their marriages would be "invalid" under his proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution. "What exactly happens to the kids in many of those families ... and why would it be a good thing for them and for society if they experienced the government forcibly tearing their parents' marriages apart?" Michelangelo Signorile writes. MSNBC (1/3), The Huffington Post (1/1), GoPride.com (1/1)