Via JMG: Ten Out Olympians Win Medals

Ten openly gay athletes won medals at the London Olympics. Seven of them took the gold. Cyd Ziegler at SB Nation has the recap:

GOLD: Seimone Augustus [above center], USA, Basketball. The U.S. women's basketball team was arguably the most dominant team in any sport at these Olympics.
GOLD: Carl Hester, Great Britain, Equestrian. Hester and his two teammates won Great Britain's first-ever Team Dressage gold. Hester finished fifth overall in the individual competition.
GOLD: Marilyn Agliotti, Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel, Kim Lammers, Maartje Paumen, Netherlands, Field Hockey. The Dutch women beat Argentina, 2-0, in the gold medal match. Paumen and Dirkse van den Heuvel scored the team's two goals.
GOLD: Megan Rapinoe, USA, Soccer. The Americans beat Japan, 2-1, in the gold medal match. Rapinoe had a key pass in the game. She also had two big goals in the semifinal match. Coach Pia Sundhage is also openly lesbian.
SILVER: Judith Arndt, Germany, Cycling. Arndt was the first out athlete to win a medal in London, taking silver in the road race time trial.
BRONZE: Edward Gal, Netherlands, Equestrian. Gal was on the bronze-medal team for Team Dressage; He finished ninth overall in the individual event.
BRONZE: Lisa Raymond, USA, Tennis. Raymond and partner Mike Bryan won the mixed doubles bronze medal.

Ziegler adds: "If Team Gay was a country, it would have finished 31st overall with seven medals, tied with Mexico, Ethiopia and Georgia. They would have beaten the medal count of such countries as Jamaica, Ireland, Argentina and India. They would have finished 21st overall for most golds (four), tied with Iran, Jamaica, Czech Republic and Korea."

Labels: gay athletes, London Olympics, sports

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: REI Endorses Marriage Equality

Major national camping and sporting supplies retailer REI has endorsed marriage equality. The company is headquartered in Washington state. Via press release from Washington United, here is the statement from REI president Sally Jewell:

REI is taking a position in support of marriage equality—an issue that is important to the co-op as an inclusive organization and a welcoming place to work and do business. A referendum on this issue will come before Washington State voters in November after passage through the Washington State Legislature earlier this year; marriage equality is also gaining momentum nationally. Why is this important to the co-op? Let me begin my answer with a personal perspective. A few weeks ago, my husband Warren and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary. We’ve been on a journey through life together since our first date on my 18th birthday, raising our two children, changing jobs, moving to various places, and witnessing the challenges and joys of our relationship and those of our parents, three of them through end-of-life.

For heterosexual couples, it is very easy to take for granted the legal and societal benefits of marriage—health care benefits, retirement benefits, insurance, death benefits, healthcare decisions, child-rearing and custody, and many more, not to mention the meaning of the commitment of marriage that was so vivid to us as we introduced each other as husband or wife for the first time. As executrix of my mother’s estate, the legal benefits of marriage in estate and health issues became even clearer to me over the past year. Marriage equality is important to the co-op because the benefits, legal clarity and societal understanding that Warren and I have enjoyed these past 34 years should be available to any two people who want to express their love and make a permanent commitment to each other that is so clearly provided for in the legal definition of marriage.

Jewell's statement was delivered via blog post today to REI's 11,000 employees. REI has 110 physical stores in 30 states and is the nation's largest online retailer of camping and outdoor recreational equipment. I recommend a note of thanks via REI's contact page.

Labels: good work, marriage equality, Washington state

Reposted from Joe

GOP Translator

Via JMG: Gayest Closing Ceremony EVAH

Pet Shop Boys, George Michael, openly bisexual Jessie J, and a full stadium singalong with Freddie Mercury on center-stage screens. I don't think we could have asked for much more.

Labels: Britain, dance music, gay artists, George MIchael, LGBT culture, London Olympics, Pet Shop Boys, pop music, Queen, sports

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: "Ex-Gay" Group PFOX: It's Fascist To Stop Us From Our Fascist Torture Of Gay Kids

Parent & Friends Of "Ex-Gays" are predictably quivering with anger over California's proposed bill to ban the torture and brainwashing of LGBT children. PFOX writes to the bill's main sponsor, CA Sen. Ted Lieu:

Sponsoring legislation endorsed by the gay lobby to ensure that children only receive gay-affirming therapy is an act of childhood endangerment and an unconstitutional attempt to deny parental rights everywhere, but especially for parents in California and those in your Torrance district. Your bill will turn California into a nanny state by usurping the civil rights of parents who support their child's right to receive therapy for unwanted same-sex attractions, especially when that child has been sexually molested. This smacks of fascism and ex-gay bashing. As parents of gays and ex-gays, we are ashamed of your willingness to take action against parents, children, and the family in order to support gay activists. It is people like you who endanger children, and not their parents, whom you wish to dictate on how they raise their own children. California is not a socialist state and our children do not belong to the government, subject to the ideology of the state over the objections of their parents.

PFOX's letter is illustrated with a CDC graph on AIDS, of course. Last week the bill passed out its Assembly committee and must be approved by the full chamber before heading back to the Senate (where it's already been approved) for concurrence. It then would head to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown, who has as yet not indicated his stance on the bill.

RELATED: Several major "ex-gay" figures have recently confessed that "reparative therapy" does not work, earning them the condemnation of their former colleagues in child abuse.

Labels: "ex-gay", brainwashing, California, LGBT youth, PFOX, Regina Griggs, religion, still totally gay, torture

Reposted from Joe

Via AmericaBlog Gay:

Is it right to out an anti-gay evangelical leader who's a closet case?

Youbetcha.I laud Azariah Southworth (for his name, first of all, and) for even worrying about the outing. It's what separates us from the bad guys, be they Republican or evangelical (or both) - we actually think and worry about our actions. He was 100% right to out this young man who is a...

 

Read the whole entry »

 

Me too... if someone wants to be in the closet and sys nothing of harm, OK... but the moment they work against GLbT rights and yet live a closeted  gay life... it is open season.

Via One Million Strong Against Mitt Romney in 2012 / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma August 12, 2012

What You're Made Of

So we may well ask, what exactly are we? This is a question that, in this meditation, we can consider experientially rather than through discursive thought. Rather than try to work out an answer in logical terms, we simply ask the question, and sit, and listen patiently for the heart’s intuitive response.

- Bodhipaksa, "What You're Made Of"

Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through August 14th, 2012
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member

Via Washington Blade: Dems approve marriage-equality inclusive platform

A committee of more than 100 Democrats unanimously approved on Saturday a version of their party’s platform that includes a plank endorsing marriage equality as well as other pro-LGBT language.

The full platform committee, which consists of around 120 Democrats, gave the OK to the manifesto following a meeting in Detroit, Mich., that was chaired by retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, the first woman to reach the rank of three-star general, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. During the several hour long meeting, members offered views on principles to advocate for within the party and proposed amendments to the platform.

Language on marriage equality — which is being included in the Democratic Party platform for the first time — was accepted without amendment and without significant discussion.

Read the full article here

Thank you President Obama

JMG Quote Of The Day - Bristol Palin

"While I’m excited and thankful to be returning to Dancing With The Stars, not everyone is thrilled I’m coming back. When the new contestants participated in a panel discussion for the Television Critics Association’s summer tour, the critics’ disdain for me was obvious. While they asked many questions (or, really, just a few questions over and over), only one stands out in my mind: Would I mind dancing with a gay dance partner? [snip] In their simplistic minds, the fact that I’m a Christian, that I believe in God’s plan for marriage, means that I must hate gays and must hate to even be in their presence. Well, they were right about one thing: there was hate in that media room, but the hate was theirs, not mine." - Bristol Palin, who says she'd be happy to have a gay dance partner with no civil rights.

Labels: abstinence education, Bristol Palin, Dancing With The Stars, LGBT rights, reality shows, religion, Sarah Palin

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma August 11, 2012

The Undoing of Desire

Buddhism teaches us that desire, for all the agony and ecstasy, is no match for the truth.

- Joan Duncan Oliver, "Drink And A Man"

Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through August 13th, 2012
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member

2 fro JMG: Ryan

ACLU Denounces Paul Ryan

The morning the ACLU sent out a blistering denouncement of Rep. Paul Ryan's track record on LGBT rights and civil liberties. Via press release:

In response to Mitt Romney’s announcement of his vice presidential pick of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the American Civil Liberties Union Liberty Watch 2012 campaign this morning released a brief report that reveals an appalling civil liberties record for Ryan.

The report finds that Ryan, the congressman representing Wisconsin’s 1st District, holds almost uniformly harmful views on five key civil liberties issues including a humane immigration policy, LGBT equality, reproductive rights, torture and indefinite detention and fair voting access.

The report is based on the white paper released by ACLU Liberty Watch 2012. “Paul Ryan may end up a heartbeat away from the presidency but he’ll be light years from civil liberties,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. “Paired with Romney’s already-abysmal record on civil liberties, Ryan’s positions only take this ticket further from the vision of our founding fathers.”

Read the ACLU's brief on Ryan.

Labels: ACLU, civil rights, DADT, GOP, LGBT rights, marriage equality, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan

 

Tweet Of The Day - Mitt Romney

Labels: 2012 elections, GOP, Medicare, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Social Security, Veepstakes

Reposted from Joe

Via AmericaBlog Gay:

Pope no longer opposed to condoms, kind of

Good, but at the same time, whatever. Telegraph:After decades of fierce opposition to the use of all contraception, the Pontiff has ended the Church’s absolute ban on the use of condoms.He said it was acceptable to use a prophylactic when the sole intention was to “reduce the risk of...

Read the whole entry »

Via AmericaBlog Gay:

What is Paul Ryan's position on gay rights?

Absolutely awful. He voted once for ENDA, then turned around and voted against it (likely when the religious right got a hold of him). That's it. Otherwise he's been terrible on everything.Ryan is expected to be Romney's VP choice at an announcement today in Virginia.From Paul Schindler at...

 

Read the whole entry »

Via BeliefNet:

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Without love we could not survive. Human beings are social creatures, and a concern for each other is the very basis of our life together. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma August 10, 2012

In Dialogue with Our Desires

Although desires can be remarkably stubborn, they share a goal—happiness—and this can form the common ground for an effective dialogue: If a desire doesn’t really produce happiness, it contradicts its reason for being.

- Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "Pushing the Limits"

Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through August 12th, 2012
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member

Via America Blog Gay:

German court gives tax benefit to gay couples

CNN:Germany's constitutional court has strengthened the rights of gay and lesbian couples, giving them a same tax benefit as heterosexual married couples.The ruling, which came Wednesday, comes as the country is mired in an escalating debate on the status of homosexual partnerships.The...

 

Read the whole entry »

Via America Blog Gay:

French Catholic church says gays are pedophiles, tries to veto marriage in France

The Catholic church. That bastion of pedophilia, and pedophile-enablers - to this day - now claims to be worried about the welfare of children. That's why the Catholic church has yet to fully fess up to its role in enabling the rape of children across the world for decades, if not millennia. ...

Read the whole entry »

 

 

My comment: "how dare they!"