Via JMG: Full Movie: The Laramie Project

Posted to YouTube today in its entirety. Moisés Kaufman and members of New York's Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, Wyoming after the murder of Matthew Shepard. This is a film version of the play they wrote based on more than 200 interviews they conducted in Laramie. It follows and in some cases re-enacts the chronology of Shepard's visit to a local bar, his kidnap and beating, the discovery of him tied to a fence, the vigil at the hospital, his death and funeral, and the trial of his killers. It mixes real news reports with actors portraying friends, family, cops, killers, and other Laramie residents in their own words. It concludes with a Laramie staging of "Angels in America" a year after Shephard's death.

Labels: hate crimes, Laramie Project, Matthew Shepard

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: The Cost Of Gay Marriage Bans

Embiggen or go here.

Labels: LGBT rights, marriage equality

Reposted from Joe
 

Via JMG: Ninth Circuit Likely To Rule Tomorrow On Rehearing Prop 8 With More Judges

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued an alert that a ruling will come tomorrow on whether to rehear Prop 8 with a larger panel of judges. Insiders speculate:

KQED's Scott Shafer said this is almost surely the decision on whether to rehear the case en banc. An en banc panel is made up of 11 judges, chosen at random from the circuit. If the 9th Circuit denies the request, Prop 8 supporters will almost certainly ask the United States Supreme Court to hear the case. Proponents of Prop 8, California's same-sex marriage ban, asked the 9th Circuit for the en banc review in February, after a ruling by a three-judge panel upheld Judge Vaughn Walker's 2010 decision striking down the law as unconstitutional.

Prop 8 Trial Tracker has more on what could happen.

If that happens, Judge Reinhardt’s narrow opinion stands, and the proponents of Proposition 8 can then petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court were to deny review, the Ninth Circuit’s decision would stand, and Proposition 8 would be struck down. Gay and lesbian couples would be allowed to marry in California. If the Supreme Court grants review, there will be briefing and oral argument and a decision next year.

Labels: California, Ninth Circuit Court., Proposition 8

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: NC GOP Platform Endorses Discrimination

Think Progress points us to this just-adopted plank in North Carolina's official Republican Party platform.

Government should treat all citizens impartially, without regard to wealth, race, ethnicity, disability, religion, sex, political affiliation or national origin. We oppose all forms of invidious discrimination. Sexual orientation is not an appropriate category.

The GOP's platform also opposes adoption by same-sex couples.

Labels: bigotry, GOP, LGBT rights, North Carolina

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Mormon Allies March In Salt Lake Pride

Hundreds of straight Mormon allies marched yesterday in Salt Lake City's gay pride parade. Before the drag queens in heels danced across Main Street, more than 300 members of the LDS Church left Utah Gay Pride Parade spectators in tears Sunday morning. One Mormon father turned to the crowd and thanked people for forgiving him. The group, Mormons Building Bridges, said they wanted to send a message of love to the state’s LGBT community, a message they believe is compatible with their faith. Emily Vandyke, 50, carried a sign with the words from an LDS children’s song: "I’ll walk with you, I’ll talk with you. That’s how I’ll show my love for you." Several blocks along the parade route, she embraced a tall woman weeping at the edge of the crowd who said, "Thank you." "I haven’t recognized them as equals," Vandyke said a few minutes later. "They have been invisible to me." Later, parade Grand Marshal Dustin Lance Black, tweeted: "In tears. Over 300 straight, active Mormons showed up to march with me at the Utah Pride parade in support of LGBT people."

Labels: gay Pride, LDS, Mormons, Salt Lake City

Reposted by Joe

Via JMG:

Expressing Support For Trans Contestants

Moments after expressing support for transgender beauty pageant contestants, Miss Rhode Island was crowned Miss USA last night. GLAAD reports:

When asked "Would it be fair if a transgender woman won the Miss USA title," Culpo responded, "I do think it would be fair..." because "there are so many people who have a need to change for a happier life. I do accept that because I believe it's a free country." The crowd erupted with cheers.

Labels: beauty pageants, Miss USA, transgender issues

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 4, 2012

Where Meditation Begins

What it all comes down to is that even if you practice meditation to become a paragon of love and wisdom, all it can do is put you face-to-face with who you are and with what is, which is where all meditation begins.

- Stephen Schettini, "What to Expect When You’re Reflecting"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Time For Change

Via FB:

Via FB:

Via Out Gay FB:

“Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.” ~ Joseph Campbell

Via JMG: On Macy's Website

Free Republic is ever so pissed:

While conservative activists have focused on the promotion of gay marriage by store chains J.C. Penny and Target, Macy's has gone under the culture radar in its partnership with the Obama-allied homosexual group, the Human Rights Campaign. The incoming president of HRC, Chad Griffin is an Obama bundler. You won't see it in Macy's weekly sales circular, and you'd be hard pressed to find it on the front page of the Macy's website, but the Human Rights Campaign is loud and proud in declaring its partnership with Macy's urging customers to purchase "election year" Vote Equality t-shirts with the proceeds going to the Human Rights Campaign.

Labels: gay Pride, HRC, Macy's, retail

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Target Blocks AFA's Hate Mail

Last month we snickered when the One Million Moms bitched that JC Penney was blocking their emails. And now Target is doing the same. Snork! Via the Christian Post:

When Target began selling the pro-gay shirts late May, the American Family Association sent out an alert to supporters, asking them to let Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel "know that a majority of Americans oppose same-sex marriage and are able to use their pocketbooks to voice their opposition to companies that support it." In a recent update, AFA stated, "Target is blocking emails from the AFA Action Alert system." The family group is asking supporters to contact the retailer through other means. Steinhafel says that diversity is a "core value" at the retailer and that Target fosters "an inclusive culture." Family Equality Council is now among a dozen groups that Target partners with.

Target, Macy's, JC Penney, Home Depot.... There sure are a lot of shopping options for loyal gays these days.

Labels: AFA, hate groups, retail, Target

Reposted from Joe

President Obama Celebrates Pride Month

Via Facebook:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 3, 2012

Right Lying

If I’m torn between truth and falsehood, I have to ask myself if the choice I’m leaning toward would be self-serving or selfless, harsh or kind, harmful or harmless. Only then can I know what’s best to do.

- Lin Jensen, "Right Lying"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via Being Liberal FB Page:

Via Gaycitynews.com:

Vargas Llosa: Against Hunting Gays In Latin America | gaycitynews.com

BY KELLY JEAN COGSWELL | 

 

IIn March, 24-year-old store clerk and gay activist Daniel Zamudio was attacked in a public park in Santiago, Chile, beaten intermittently for hours, carved with swastikas, and left for dead. He finally got to a hospital, struggled for three weeks, and then died.

 Observers are calling him the Chilean Matthew Shepard, because the brutal murder has launched a national discussion about LGBT rights. An antidiscrimination law that has been languishing for seven years is even speeding through the National Congress despite conservative lawmakers warning it will lead to same-sex marriage, among other horrors.

On Easter Sunday, the Nobel prize-winning writer, Mario Vargas Llosa, spoke out in an op-ed called “Hunting Gays.” He did more than the usual handwringing denunciation of violence; he published an indictment of all Latin America, whose countries, “without a single exception,” he wrote, repress, persecute, and marginalize queers “with the open and massively enthusiastic support of the general public.”

http://gaycitynews.com/vargas-llosa-against-hunting-gays-in-latin-america/

Via Heterosexuals for Same-Sex Equality on FB: