Via JMG: Eight Years Of Gay Marriage

And yet, somehow, Massachusetts is still there. Happy anniversary, Bay State. It's damned shame it's taking the rest of us so long to catch up.

Labels: LGBT History, marriage equality, Massachusetts

Reposted from Joe

@RichardBranson comes @Out4Marriage so every couple can marry

Via JMG: NORTH CAROLINA: More Blacks Back Gay Marriage After Obama's Announcement

Public Policy Polling has published a fascinating result out of North Carolina, where support for gay marriage has surged among black voters such the president's announcement.

There's been a noticeable shift in the attitudes of African Americans in North Carolina toward rights for gay couples in the wake of President Obama's announcement last week that he supports gay marriage. Our final poll before the primary last week found only 20% of black voters in the state favoring gay marriage, with 63% opposed. Now 27% express support for gay marriage with 59% opposed, for an overall 11 point shift on the margin.

There's been a similar movement when it comes to the overall idea of providing gay couples legal rights in the form of either marriage or civil unions. Before the primary 44% of African Americans favored one of those with 51% opposed to any sort of legal recognition for same sex couples. Now 55% of blacks support either gay marriage or civil unions with only 39% against any sort of recognition. Obama's words look to be having an impact.

Great news!

Labels: Barack Obama, LGBT rights, marriage equality, North Carolina, polls

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 18, 2012

 

Sitting Still

If we watch our breathing without desiring calmness and without resenting the tension arising from breathing in and out, and experience only the impermanence, the unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness of our breath, our mind becomes peaceful and calm.

- Henepola Gunaratana, "Sitting Still"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via pqmonthly.com

Love in exile: Fighting for the rights of binational couples

www.pqmonthly.com

 

U.S.-born Daniel Clark Orey and his Brazi-born husband Milton Rosa find it easier to live in Brazil because the government recognizes their California marriage license. Because of DOMA, Orey can't sponsor Rosa for a U.S. green card

 

 

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 17, 2012

 

Allegiance to Life

Our pain for the world, and our power to take part in the healing of our world, both come from the same place.

- Joanna Macy, "Allegiance to Life"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBlog Gay:

Religious right hate groups say Obama probably gay 

 

As Right Wing Watch notes, this nut is cited by AFA, FRC and all the rest of their ilk:Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute is an “expert” cited by groups like the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America and the American Family Association, among others in the Religious Right. While his claims have been consistently discredited, Cameron is still a favorite of opponents of...

Freedom

Via JMG: Why Young People Leave The Church

Dan Savage points us to this fascinating story:

When asked by The Barna Group what words or phrases best describe Christianity, the top response among Americans ages 16-29 was “anti-homosexual.” For a staggering 91 percent of non-Christians, this was the first word that came to their mind when asked about the Christian faith. The same was true for 80 percent of young churchgoers. (The next most common negative images? : “judgmental,” “hypocritical,” and “too involved in politics.”)

In the book that documents these findings, titled unChristian, David Kinnaman writes: “The gay issue has become the 'big one,' the negative image most likely to be intertwined with Christianity’s reputation. It is also the dimensions that most clearly demonstrates the unchristian faith to young people today, surfacing in a spate of negative perceptions: judgmental, bigoted, sheltered, right-wingers, hypocritical, insincere, and uncaring. Outsiders say [Christian] hostility toward gays... has become virtually synonymous with the Christian faith.”

Later research, documented in Kinnaman’s You Lost Me, reveals that one of the top reasons 59 percent of young adults with a Christian background have left the church is because they perceive the church to be too exclusive, particularly regarding their LGBT friends. Eight million twenty-somethings have left the church, and this is one reason why.

The author of the piece, Rachel Held Evans, has closed commenting on her post because "I want to keep this a safe place for conversation." Read some of the responses from her Christian readers and you'll see why.

Labels: bigotry, LGBT rights, religion

Reposted from Joe

Via Nalanda LGBT Buddhist Cultural and Resource Center FB:

Nalanda LGBT Buddhist Cultural and Resource Center

Constant awareness
The practice of Dharma should bring you to the point where you can maintain the same constant awareness whether in or out of practice sessions. This is the quintessential point of all spiritual instruction; without it, however many mantras and prayers you recite, however many thousands of prostrations and circumambulations you do, as long as your mind remains distracted none of it will help to get rid of your obscuring emotions. Never forget this most crucial point.

Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

 

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 16, 2012

Buddhanature Mind

What is the Buddha-nature? It is a mind that is open and completely unencumbered. It is empty. And it gives birth to warmth and compassion for other people.

- Reginald Ray, "The Power of Solitude"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via Nalanda LGBT Buddhist Cultural and Resource Center/ Facebook:

 

Nalanda LGBT Buddhist Cultural and Resource Center

‎"We know that all is impermanent; we know that everything wears out. Although we can buy this truth intellectually, emotionally we have a deep-rooted aversion to it. We want permanence; we expect permanence. Our natural tendency is to seek security; we believe we can find it. We experience impermanence at the everyday level as frustration. We use our daily activity as a shield against the fundame...ntal ambiguity of our situation, expending tremendous energy trying to ward off impermanence and death. We don't like it that our bodies change shape. We don't like it that we age. We are afraid of wrinkles and sagging skin. We use health products as if we actually believe that OUR skin, OUR hair, OUR eyes and teeth, might somehow miraculously escape the truth of impermanence".

 

-Pema Chodron

Via Follower of the Buddha / Facebook:

 

 

Follower of the Buddha

November 27, 2010

I am the owner of my karma .
I inherit my karma.
I am born of my karma.
I am related to my karma.
I live supported by my karma.
Whatever karma I create, whether good or evil, that I shall inherit.
 

The Buddha, Anguttara Nikaya V.57 - Upajjhatthana Sutta

 

Tags: Follower of the Buddha

Via www.nytimes.com:

 

For Some, Same-Sex Marriage Is Not Politics, It’s Personal

www.nytimes.com

 

Like many others, politicians are less influenced by party, faith or color on the question of favoring greater legal protections for gays, both liberals and conservatives say.

Occupy Borders (Bi National couples unite) via Equality Texas

“If you don’t know anyone who’s gay, then it’s an alien lifestyle,” said Theodore Olson, the former solicitor general for President George W. Bush who supports same-sex marriage. But, he added, when “you realize that that’s Mary from down the street, she’s a lesbian and she’s with Sally, what would it be like if they couldn’t be together?” people come around.

Via AmericaBlogGay:

GOP, religious right scared about backlash on marriage debate

It's fascinating when both the lead religious right hate group and the head of the Republican party play nice on same-sex marriage. LA Times: Sen. Rand Paul, who said he wasn't sure President Obama's views on marriage "could get any gayer," was rebuked by an influential evangelical leader Sunday. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, appearing onCBS' "Face the Nation," strongly...

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 15, 2012

Participate Fully

Cleaning the bathroom or chopping the onions is no less important than sitting in deep meditation. Grasping this and acting on it is called waking up.

- Janet Jiryu Abels, "Participate Fully"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

CREDO Mobile and The Other 98% shared The 99 Uniting's photo on FB: