Via JMG: GOP Intro's Bill Banning Same-Sex "Ceremonies" On Military Bases

GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamp has introduced a bill which allows military chaplains to refuse to conduct same-sex marriages. Which they already can. But the bill also bans the use of military facilities for such events.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network

"Here they go again with another round of resistance tactics that have already been rejected by Congress and the American people. There is no need for the so-called 'protections' in this bill or the proposed regulations. No chaplain today is being required or pressured to marry anyone, straight or gay. Period. The bill's ban on use of military facilities and chaplains officiating at ceremonies for gay and lesbian service members is nothing more than plain, old-fashion discrimination. There is no place for that prejudice in our armed forces or in our country," said Sarvis.

Human Rights Campaign

Rep. Huelskamp and other right wing Republican Members of Congress appear to have missed the memo from military leaders who say that open service is working just fine. Instead, in their compulsive need to use our brave men and women in uniform as political pawns, these Members of Congress have invented issues that don’t exist in order to score some points. These antics coming from Rep. Huelskamp shouldn’t be a surprise as he was the one forced to admit on the floor of the U.S. House last summer that he wanted to strip funding for training materials that he hadn’t even read.

Labels: bigotry, DADT, GOP, military

reposted from Joe

Via AmericaBlogGay:

Dan Savage on gay marriage: Religious right on last ropes:

"Dan makes an interesting point: The gay-bashing wing of the GOP has pretty much lost the GOP presidential primary. Bachmann, Perry, Cain are all out, and Santorum is on his way out.  They were the true far-right evangelical candidates, and they couldn't even win the GOP nomination, let alone the general election"

"'On a side note, I've written before about how good Dan is on TV representing our community and our issues.  I cannot think of anyone who is better.  Watch this 3 minute segment (Current isn't able, legally, to post more than 3 minutes of any one show).  You'll see what I'm talking about".

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 27, 2012

Forgive and Forget

To forgive does not necessarily mean to forget. Sometimes to forget is not wise, but to forgive is wise. And it is at times not easy. It can, in fact, be quite challenging. It will come as no surprise that one of the most difficult people to forgive can be yourself. Yet with patience and gentle determination, it can be done.

- Allan Lokos, "Lighten Your Load"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 22, 2012

What Kind of Mind?

When you check your mind, do not rationalize or push. Relax. Do not be upset when problems arise. Just be aware of them and where they come from; know their root. Introduce the problem to yourself: “Here is this kind of problem. How has it become a problem? What kind of mind feels that it's a problem?” When you check thoroughly, the problem will automatically disappear. That's so simple, isn't it?

- Lama Yeshe, "Your Mind is Your Religion"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via JMG: MILESTONE: Every Company On Fortune's Best 100 List Protects Gay Employees

Google is the nation's best company to work for according to the 2012 edition of Fortune Magazine's annual rankings. And for the first time, every company in the list's top 100 offers sexual orientation non-discrimination protections.

"It's been gathering strength over the 15 years that we've done the survey," said Milton Moskowitz, a co-author of the list. Similar progress has been made in benefits for same-sex domestic partners, which are now offered by 89 of the 100 companies listed, up from 70 five years ago. "It's not surprising to me that the places that are ranked the best to work are also the ones that are going to respect and value their employees," said Michael Cole-Schwartz, communications manager at the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that advocates on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

RELATED: About 60% of Fortune 500 companies currently offer domestic partner benefits. That's almost double the number from ten years ago.

 
Reposted from Joe

via jmg: Freedom To Marry Issues Impressive List: American Mayors For Marriage Equality

A Freedom To Marry press conference including Mayor Bloomberg and many others is underway at this writing. Video to follow, hopefully. If your mayor does not appear on the list, send him/her this statement to join.

Labels: activism, Annise Parker, Freedom To Marry, LGBT rights, marriage equality, Michael Bloomberg, NYC

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Sex-Act Morality Flow Chart

(Via - The Friendly Atheist)

Labels: atheism, religion, sexuality

reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

The Nature of Anger

Because we imagine anger is never a good thing, it is easy to think we should practice simply not being angry. But that approach is too general and abstract. It’s important for each of us to be precise, to be real, to be personal and honest, to find out exactly what my anger is. To do that we need to ask ourselves lots of questions about its actual nature.

- Nancy Baker, "Precious Energy"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via JMG: Lesson For NOM: Hate Doesn't Pay

The three most virulently anti-gay candidates finished four-five-six last night. The three relative moderates on LGBT rights finished far ahead. Rick Perry, whose campaign was sunk by a disastrous anti-gay commercial, finished behind "Other." While we can't expect the same result in a place like South Carolina, the New Hampshire rankings do not bode well for that state's marriage repeal campaign.

Labels: 2012 elections, GOP, New Hampshire, NOM

Via JMG: Positive Marriage News From WA

The prospective vote count on Washington state's marriage bill looks very positive.

The Legislature is on the verge of having enough support to make Washington the seventh state to approve gay marriage, according to a tally by The Associated Press. A same-sex marriage bill is expected to be introduced by the end of the week. The AP reached out to all 49 state senators over the past week and found that more lawmakers are firmly supporting gay marriage than opposing it, by a margin of 22-18. The measure needs 25 votes to pass the Senate. The House is widely expected to have enough support, and Gov. Chris Gregoire publicly endorsed gay marriage for the first time last week.

Labels: LGBT rights, marriage equality, Washington state

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Gay People: Haiti's Scapecoats

This partially animated clip tells how Haitian gays were scapegoated as the cause of the devastating earthquake which occurred two years ago today.

Labels: earthquakes, Haiti, LGBT rights, natural disasters

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: "Functional HIV Cure" Trial Advances

Via press release:

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced today the initiation of two new Phase 2 clinical studies (SB-728-1101 and SB-728-902, Cohort 5) in its program to develop a "functional cure" for HIV/AIDS. Sangamo's ZFP Therapeutic® approach (SB-728-T) generates T-cells that are resistant to HIV infection using its zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology to permanently disrupt the DNA sequence encoding CCR5, a co-receptor used by HIV to enter cells. The company expects to present data from its SB-728-T HIV clinical trials at appropriate medical meetings in 2012.

Most interesting: "In addition to safety, the study will evaluate the effect of escalating doses of Cytoxan on SB-728-T engraftment, the effect of SB-728-T treatment on viral load following HAART interruption." In other words (I think), they'll be looking at whether patients can cease taking meds after the treatment.

Labels: HIV/AIDS, medicine, science

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Coalition Of Religious Leaders Issues Letter Denouncing Gay Marriage: "Help! The Gov't Won't Pay Us To Oppress You!"

From a letter issued today by the heads of the Salvation Army, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Hispanic Christian Conference, the Lutheran Missouri Synod, the Mormon Church, the Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (Plus other lesser-known religious hate groups.)

By a single stroke, every law where rights depend on marital status—such as employment discrimination, employment benefits, adoption, education, healthcare, elder care, housing, property, and taxation—will change so that same-sex sexual relationships must be treated as if they were marriage. That requirement, in turn, will apply to religious people and groups in the ordinary course of their many private or public occupations and ministries—including running schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other housing facilities, providing adoption and counseling services, and many others.

So, for example, religious adoption services that place children exclusively with married couples would be required by law to place children with persons of the same sex who are civilly “married.” Religious marriage counselors would be denied their professional accreditation for refusing to provide counseling in support of same-sex “married” relationships. Religious employers who provide special health benefits to married employees would be required by law to extend those benefits to same-sex “spouses.”

Religious employers would also face lawsuits for taking any adverse employment action—no matter how modest—against an employee for the public act of obtaining a civil “marriage” with a member of the same sex. This is not idle speculation, as these sorts of situations have already come to pass. Even where religious people and groups succeed in avoiding civil liability in cases like these, they would face other government sanctions—the targeted withdrawal of government co-operation, grants, or other benefits.

Read the entire letter.

Labels: bigotry, Catholic Church, hate groups, LDS, LGBT rights, marriage equality, religion, Salvation Army

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: CALIFORNIA: Avis Sued For Offering Discounts To Gay Groups

An Arizona woman has filed suit against Avis, alleging that the car rental giant violates California's law against sexual orientation discrimination when if offers discounts to LGBT groups. Dave Rice reports at San Diego Reader:

Lynn Evenchik claims that Avis’ practice of offering discounts to members of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association and National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce constitutes a violation of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits businesses from offering discounts to customers based on sexual orientation. Evenchik paid $311.36 to rent a car from Avis at San Diego International Airport for a period of one week in July of 2011.

She later learned that members of the aforementioned groups received discount codes entitling them to 20 to 25 percent off standard rental rates due to marketing agreements Avis had entered into with the organizations. “These unfair and unlawful business practices result in many consumers who are not affiliated with those organizations paying substantially higher rental rates than those made available to gay and lesbian renters,” the complaint states.

The suit calls for Avis to pay damages to anybody who rented a car since the discount offer began.

Labels: business, California, lawsuits

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Nancy Pelosi Calls Out Homocons

"Oh, but what about them? He [Barney Frank] chooses a party that supports his values. They've chosen a party that supports their income — a party that denigrates them and treats them with disrespect." - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, on the attacks made on Frank by the likes of GOProud. Hit the link for the Advocate's cover profile on Pelosi.

Labels: Barney Frank, GOProud, homocons, Nancy Pelosi

reposted from Joe

Via JMG:

Canada: We Take It Back

After worldwide outrage poured into Ottawa, the Canadian federal government is backtracking on the invalidity of gay marriages by foreign visitors. Things aren't quite settled, however.

The federal government will consider changing the law to ensure non-residents married in Canada can obtain divorces, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Thursday afternoon. Wading into a controversy that has quickly blown into an international cause célèbre, Mr. Nicholson made assurances the government “has no intention of reopening the debate on the definition of marriage.” [snip] Mr. Nicholson's statement gave immediate hope to married same-sex couples who are seeking a divorce but appeared to have no prospect of obtaining a one in Canada. However, it left one central question unanswered: Does the government consider their marriages to be legal, or not?

Lambda Legal, Freedom To Marry, the ACLU, and GLAD have issued a joint statement.

No one’s marriage has been invalidated or is likely to be invalidated. The position taken by one government lawyer in a divorce is not itself precedential. No court has accepted this view and there is no reason to believe that either Canada’s courts or its Parliament would agree with this position, which no one has asserted before during the eight years that same-sex couples have had the freedom to marry in Canada. [snip] The message for same-sex couples married in Canada remains the same as it is for same-sex couples validly married here in the United States: take every precaution you can to protect your relationship with legal documents such as powers of attorney and adoptions, as you may travel to jurisdictions that don't respect your legal relationship. There is no reason to suggest that Canadian marriages of same-sex couples are in jeopardy, or to advocate that people try to marry again elsewhere, as that could cause these couples unnecessary complications, anxiety, and expense.

Sorry about that, American Family Association. Snork!

Labels: ACLU, Canada, Freedom To Marry, GLAD, Lambda Legal, LGBT rights, marriage equality

reposted from Joe

Via AmericaBlogGay:

Pelosi nudges Obama on gay marriage, while White House fights off GOP accusations

From HuffPost:

In a February cover story with The Advocate, a national gay and lesbian news magazine, Pelosi declined to give specifics on conversations she may have had with Obama on the issue. Instead, she said she has been focused on pressing the Democratic National Committee to fund efforts to reject state-level anti-marriage ballot measures. "There are more ways to get your voice heard than just speaking," she said. 

Pelosi added, "But I hope the president would just say he supports equality in marriage."

The Advocate story is here. HuffPost goes on to note that the White House is at pains to explain why Republicans are now saying the President has the same position on marriage equality as Romney, Santorum and Gingrich. That's not something the White House wants to hear the GOP say as we approach the election, as it's sure to be sore point with gay voters.

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 13, 2012

How to Surrender

In the Shin Buddhist tradition, as we listen to the teaching we are made to realize that we can never surrender ourselves. Resistance comes from the deepest center of our karmic selves. That’s why the Buddha Amida’s compassion says, “Tai, you don’t have to surrender.” When I hear that, when I understand that I can’t do it because it’s not my nature—that it’s like saying, “Fly to the sky”—then I realize that I don’t have to surrender, yet, naturally and spontaneously, the surrender takes place by virtue of true compassion.

- Taitetsu Unno, “Even Dewdrops Fall: An Interview with Taitetsu Unno”
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 12, 2012

The Fifth Precept: Not Using Intoxicants

To refrain from taking intoxicants is one of the primary vows that laypeople may take and that monastics have to uphold. One of the main reasons for not becoming intoxicated is that this can—and often does—lead to breaking other vows or straying from one’s integrity. Another reason for not becoming intoxicated is that for many, intoxication obscures the clarity of mind—the clarity to understand and rest in one’s true nature moment to moment.

- Lama Palden, "The Fifth Precept"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection