Via JMG: Another Gay Military Homecoming

JMG reader Seattle Mike tips us to this:

Sean Sutton, left, greets his boyfriend of 2 years, U.S. Navy sailor Jonathan Jewell, E5, with a kiss after Jewell returned from a seven month deployment aboard the USS Stennis on Friday, March 2, 2012 in Bremerton, Wash. The USS Stennis returned to its home port in Bremerton Friday, completing a seven-month deployment in which the aircraft carrier launched the last Navy air mission over Iraq and more than 1,000 flights over Afghanistan.

[Photo credit: Joe Dyer]

Labels: DADT, military, Seattle

reposted from Joe

TRAILER: I Do

Clip description:

This new feature length narrative indie film takes a look at the human cost of DOMA (Defense Of Marriage Act), the law that bars same sex couples full federal level rights in America. We're currently running an indiegogo campaign for finishing funds. You can check it out here.

Labels: DOMA, marriage equality, movies

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 7, 2012

The World as a Pure Land

The Pure Land is never apart from this world, and we have the ability to work to alleviate more of the world’s suffering. Thankful for the blessings we receive, we can try to be kinder, more open-minded, and more accepting of one another. And we can work to eliminate barriers between people, so that our togetherness is brought to light and honored.

- Jeff Wilson, "Come Together"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBlogGay:

When Rush Limbaugh went after Robin Tyler’s divorce?

Limbaugh:

RUSH: Other California news out there. We try to keep you posted on things that we discover while we are on location. Did you see that the poster couple for gay marriage in California are getting a divorce? You see that? It's true. It's two women, they were among the first 14 same-sex couples who got married on the day the ban was lifted in California back in June of 2008. I guess the national average, three-and-a-half years, is what their marriage lasted, maybe it's the California average. I'm not sure. But I wonder if they designated one of them the husband so that he gets all the blame and has to pay all the alimony. How does that work? I wonder if we'll find out as the news covers this groundbreaking event, the first divorce of the first gay marriage couple.

Make sure you check out the second column of the AMERICAblog home page where you'll find the current list of Limbaugh advertisers and their Twitter handles.

Via JMG: Delaware Gov: Gay Marriage Is Inevitable

As same-sex marriage springs up all around him, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell says that it will come soon to his state too.

In an interview with Reuters Insider TV, Markell, a Democrat, said he expects that Delaware will take up same-sex marriage legislation "probably within the next few years." Delaware began allowing civil unions -- an institution set up to give the same rights as civil marriage, while reserving marriage for heterosexual couples -- last year. Markell noted that until three years ago it was legal in Delaware "to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation," and said the state was moving towards greater acceptance of homosexuality. "I think it's inevitable," he said of gay marriage.

Labels: Delaware, Jack Markell, marriage equality

Reposted  from Joe

Via JMG: Kirk Cameron: I'm Being Oppressed!

 

"I believe that freedom of speech and freedom of religion go hand-in-hand in America. I should be able to express moral views on social issues – especially those that have been the underpinning of Western civilization for 2,000 years – without being slandered, accused of hate speech and told from those who preach ‘tolerance’ that I need to either bend my beliefs to their moral standards or be silent when I’m in the public square. In any society that is governed by the rule of law, some form of morality is always imposed. It’s inescapable." - Kirk Cameron, quoted by World Net Daily. Cameron adds that he's gotten support from "my gay friends" since the CNN interview aired.

NOTE: To my knowledge, not one person or organization has asked the government to silence Kirk Cameron. His freedom of speech and his freedom to be a batshit crazy fuckweasel has never been threatened.

Labels: asshats, batshittery, crazy people, has beens, homophobes, Kirk Cameron, television

reposted from Joe

Facebook Quote of the Day:

Education and knowledge by themselves do not bring inner peace to individuals, families or the society in which they live. But education combined with warmheartedness, a sense of concern for the well-being of others, has much more positive results. If you have a great deal of knowledge, but you're governed by negative emotions, then you tend to use your knowledge in negative ways. Therefore, while you are learning, don't forget the importance of warmheartedness. - The Dalai Lama

Via ॐ Blue Buddha Quote Collective:

ॐ Blue Buddha Quote Collective

May your spirit soar throughout the vast cathedral of your being.
May your mind whirl joyful cartwheels of creativity.
May your heart sing sweet lullabies of timelessness.

--Jonathan Lockwood Huie--

Via Gay Politics Report:

• 22 Senate Democrats back marriage equality in party platform
   
• A campaign to add support for marriage equality to the Democratic Party platform has gained the support of 22 members of the U.S. Senate, according to the Washington Blade. “Two people who want to enter into a loving committed relationship should be afforded the same legally recognized rights and benefits I enjoy with my wife,” Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said in a statement. While the campaign has gained other high-profile supporters, it’s unclear whether the issue will make it into the party platform, which has traditionally opposed anti-LGBT initiatives while stopping short of offering outright support for LGBT causes such as marriage equality. Washington Blade (3/2), The Charlotte Observer (N.C.)  

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 6, 2012

We Are Not Alone

Sometimes when I’m asked to describe the Buddhist teachings, I say this: Everything is connected; nothing lasts; you are not alone. This is really just a restatement of the traditional Three Marks of Existence: non-self, impermanence, and suffering. The fact that we all suffer means we are all in the same boat, and that’s what allows us to feel compassion.

- Lewis Richmond, "The Authentic Life"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Tell Congress Dump DOMA

A rapidly growing number of Americans now live in states that grant the basic rights and responsibilities of marriage to same-sex couples. But DOMA prevents the federal government from recognizing any of these relationships!

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 5, 2012

Everyday Practice

If we are intelligent enough to understand the instructions and if we have the perseverance, then we can remind ourselves about how to really practice at any given moment during the day. The skilled practitioner is someone who goes to work and then while working also develops spiritual qualities.

- Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, "Keeping a Good Heart"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBlogGay: Robin McGehee on "8, The Play": It was fun (but we shouldn't have to be doing this)

Note from Joe: Robin McGehee is a great friend of AMERICAblog's. We're big fans. She's the amazing activist who helped organized the National Equality March on Washington back in 2009, then founded GetEQUAL. Last night, she was in the audience for AFER's production of "8, The Play." Robin's activism started with Prop. 8, so she sent us her take on last night's event (along with some photos.) 

If you missed the live broadcast, watch it here. It's worth it -- and remember, the haters don't want people to know what happened at the trial. The play begins at 29:51.

____________________________________

From Robin:

If you would have asked me a week ago if I was going to the American Federal for Equal Right's showing of "8" in Los Angeles - I would have replied, "I wish!" I am a full-time mom and professor at the College of the Sequoias in a small town called, Visalia, California. Although I am deeply devoted and in love with what AFER has done for the marriage equality fight in California, and globally for that matter, there is no way I could afford to get in.

Make the jump here ot read the full article

Vote Republican 2012

Via Facebook:

Via JMG: Rick Santorum: If Elected I Will Nullify All Existing Same-Sex Marriages Nationwide

Rick Santorum says that if elected he was ensure that all existing same-sex marriages will be nullified. That's not too surprising actually, but that's a step further than we've heard from the other GOP tools.

There are 18,000 married gay and lesbian couples in California and at least 131,000 nationwide according to the 2010 census, conducted before New York state legalized same-sex marriage in July. Rick Santorum says he'll try to unmarry all of them if he's elected president. Once the U.S. Constitution is amended to prohibit same-gender marriages, "their marriage would be invalid," the former Pennsylvania senator said Dec. 30 in an NBC News interview. "We can't have 50 different marriage laws in this country," he said. "You have to have one marriage law."

Romney also wants a federal constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, but has said he would allow existing marriages to remain legal. The Family Research Council yesterday voiced their support for Santorum's plan to rip apart gay families.

Labels: Christian Love, douchenozzles, evil, fascists, GOP, LGBT rights, Rick Santorum

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Prop 8: The Play

From last night:

Featuring an all-star cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, Kevin Bacon and others, "8" is a play written by Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and directed by acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner. It is a powerful account of the case filed by the American Federation for Equal Rights (AFER ) in the U.S. District Court in 2010 to overturn Proposition 8 [LINK], a constitutional amendment that eliminated the rights of same-sex couples to marry in the state of California. Framed around the trial's historic closing arguments in June 2010, 8 provides an intimate look what unfolded when the issue of same-sex marriage was on trial.

Labels: AFER, Brad Pitt, Dustin Lance Black, Hollywood, Jane Lynch, Proposition 8, Rob Reiner

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Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: GLAAD Is Pissed At Kirk Cameron

GLAAD unleashes via press release:

Kirk Cameron joins former TV stars Victoria Jackson and Chuck Norris in desperately trying to remain in the public eye by using anti-LGBT rhetoric. Last year, Jackson described a kiss between ‘Glee’ characters Kurt and Blaine as ‘sickening’ and Norris wrote on anti-LGBT site WorldNet Daily that the public education system has devolved into "progressive indoctrination camps” that train students to “forcefully defend issues like abortion and homosexuality, as well as become cultural advocates for political correctness, relativism, globalization, green agendas and tolerance for all.” Let’s remember that while these once relevant celebrities try to regain notoriety through advancing ignorance, Hollywood’s elite including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, and Martin Sheen are using their voices and popularity to move America closer to equality for everyone.

Petition here.

Labels: bigotry, GLAAD, religion, television

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 4, 2012

Letting Go of Fixation

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 Tricycle Wisdom Collection