Via JMG: CHICAGO: Cardinal George Apologizes

"During a recent TV interview, speaking about this year's Gay Pride Parade, I used an analogy that is inflammatory. I am personally distressed that what I said has been taken to mean that I believe all gays and lesbians are like members of the Klan. I do not believe that; it is obviously not true. Many people have friends and family members who are gay or lesbian, as have I. We love them; they are part of our lives, part of who we are.


"I am deeply sorry for the hurt that my remarks have brought to the hearts of gays and lesbians and their families. I can only say that my remarks were motivated by fear for the Church's liberty. This is a larger topic that cannot be explored in this expression of personal sorrow and sympathy for those who were wounded by what I said." - Cardinal Francis George, in an apology posted on the website of the Archdiocese of Chicago.


George's initial statement caused a firestorm of bad press, with both newspaper editorial boards and national LGBT groups joining to denounce his words. Truth Wins Out last week ran a full-page Chicago Tribune ad demanding George's resignation. Reactions to the apology are below.


Equality Illinois

It appears that the Cardinal has had a chance to reflect on the deeply hurtful and destructive statement he had made on Christmas day in comparing the movement for LGBT equality to the Ku Klax Klan. His apology is important and will go some way toward healing the pain he has caused. However, his actions will speak louder than words, and we will be paying attention to see if his words translate into acts of dignity and respect towards LGBT people," said Bernard Cherkasov, Chief Executive Officer of Equality Illinois, the state's oldest and largest organization advocating for full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Truth Wins Out

"We called for Cardinal George's resignation but we think remorse is a positive step in the right direction," said TWO's Executive Director Wayne Besen. "It is gratifying to see the Cardinal take personal responsibility for the hurt he has caused and we hope this incident leads to improving relations with the LGBT community."

Gay Liberation Network

This is completely disingenuous. No one was challenging the church's "liberty." Even though George himself has done everything he can to prevent legal equality for LGBTs, we have never in turn insisted that the church be forced to perform same-sex marriages, for example, any more than others have insisted that it be forced to perform marriages for divorcees. Furthermore, apologies, in order to be real, need to be issued directly to those wronged. A web posting is about as passive a delivery of an apology as you can get. Cardinal George could have picked up the phone and called an LGBT journalist and had a genuine dialog about the issues. Moreover, his original slam against "the Gay Liberation Movement" sounded like it was directed at the Gay Liberation Network, which has led demonstrations against his support of discrimination on several occasions, and he could have delivered an apology to GLN.

NOTE: Gay Liberation Network says that despite Cardinal George's apology, they will go through with tomorrow's planned noon protest outside Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral.

Labels: activism, Catholic Church, Chicago, gay Pride, religion, Truth Wins Out

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Via AmericaBlogGay:

RuPaul heading to NH to clarify that he is not Ron Paul

Hysterical. I was thinking of this the other day, the similarity of the names RuPaul and Ron Paul, and whether there was any fun to be made of it (but then thought that I'd be accused of mocking trans people, and decided not to). Well, Ru went there, from Politico.

RuPaul explained to POLITICO: "I'm going to N.H. on a mission to spread love and set the record straight: contrary to recent reports, I am NOT Ron Paul. And I am not running for President of the United States. I hope to meet Ron Paul in person so we can be seen together to put the rumors to rest once and for all. And to remind Mr. Paul and all the Republican Presidential candidates ‘if you can't love yourself how in the hell are you going to love somebody else. Can I get an ‘Amen?’"

Via JMG: Buddy Comes Out

Kristy McNichol, the Emmy-winning teen star of the 70s drama Family, has come out at the age of 49. McNichol's butch character Buddy was the subject of much speculation and not a few fantasies among young lesbians of the day.

McNichol, 49, who has lived with her partner Martie Allen, also 49, for the past two decades, decided to make a statement about her sexuality and share this photo because she is "approaching 50" and wants to "be open about who I am." She "is very sad about kids being bullied," her publicist Jeff Ballard tells PEOPLE. "She hopes that coming out can help kids who need support. She would like to help others who feel different."

McNichol retired from acting twenty years ago after her very public battle with bipolar disorder had been splayed across the world's tabloids. (Via - Boy Culture)

Labels: coming out, lesbians, television

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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 7, 2012

Face to Face, Hand to Hand

In a sense, all of Buddhist practice takes place here, in this most intimate realm: here, in the family, shoulder to shoulder with fellow workers, beside each other on the cushion. Even alone in a cave, there is no way out of the sense object we call the body. We meet each other face to face, and so have all our teachers and ancestors met each other. In this way have all the Buddhas taught. Hand to sweating hand.

- Sallie Tisdale, "Washing Out Emptiness"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Being Gay is a Gift from God

Via Gay Poltics Report:

• Bye bye, Bachmann; hello, Santorum
  LGBT advocates watching the Republican nominating process cheered Rep. Michele Bachmann’s sixth-place finish in the Iowa Caucus and exit from the presidential race, but Sen. Rick Santorum’s meteoric rise to nearly win in Iowa has many recalling his long record of anti-gay rhetoric and opposition to LGBT rights. "Michelle Bachmann has one of the worst records on LGBT issues of a presidential candidate in a long time. ... Unfortunately though, her exit from the race still leaves a field full of candidates who want constitutional amendments to ban marriage equality, a return to 'don’t ask, don’t tell' and continued workplace discrimination against LGBT people," said Michael Cole-Schwartz of the Human Rights Campaign. Washington Blade (1/4), On Top Magazine (1/5), USA TODAY (1/4)     

 

• Are social conservatives plotting to stop Romney?: Social conservative leaders are set to meet next week to discuss the presidential field; some invitees say they will strategize about ways to block Mitt Romney from becoming the Republican nominee. Other GOP insiders doubt that’s possible, suggesting it may be too late to unify behind a single alternative to Romney. Politico (Washington, D.C.) (1/4)     

• Santorum questioned about extreme views: Fox News host Bill O'Reilly asked Sen. Rick Santorum how he plans to defend his non-mainstream views on homosexuality, such as his desire to dissolve the existing marriages of same-sex couples. "I’m saying that this is gonna be put on you, that you’re an extremist man, out of the mainstream," O’Reilly said. Towleroad (1/5)     

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 6, 2012

Love Is All Around

So as adults, we need to become newly aware of the love that has infused our lives all along, to turn our attention to it afresh with the eyes of a child. To do so is to become conscious of the tremendous capacity for love that even now permeates our being—to open to it, to be healed by its life-giving energy, and to participate in its power to renew our world. We can awaken to the deepest goodness in ourselves and others. We can learn to recognize and commune with the blessings that have always been pouring forth.

- John Makransky, "Love Is All Around"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

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

Reposted from Joe

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

Reposted from Joe

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

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Urban Dictionary's Word Of The Day

(Tipped by JMG reader Some Teacher)

Labels: language, Santorum, Urban Dictionary

Reposted from Joe