Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 2, 2012

The Gift of the Present Moment

Paying attention provides the gift of noticing, and the gift of connecting. It provides the gift of seeing a little bit of ourselves in others, and of realizing that we’re not so awfully alone. It allows us to let go of the burden of so much of what we habitually carry with us, and receive the gift of the present moment.

- Sharon Salzberg, "A More Complete Attention"

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Via JMG: CA Gov. Jerry Brown Signs Bill Banning "Ex-Gay" Therapy For Minors

Last night California Gov. Jerry Brown finally signed the bill that bans "ex-gay therapy" for children under the age of 18.

The bill, SB1172 by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance (Los Angeles County), bars mental health practitioners from performing so-called reparative therapy, which professional psychological organizations have said may cause harm. Gay rights groups have labeled them dangerous and abusive. "This bill bans non-scientific 'therapies' that have driven young people to depression and suicide. These practices have no basis in science or medicine and they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery," Brown said in a statement to The Chronicle.Brown approved the ban after the public release of two other lists of bills signed and vetoed earlier Saturday. Lieu's bill is expected to appear on a new list to be released Sunday.

REACTIONS

National Center for Lesbian Rights: "Governor Brown has sent a powerful message of affirmation and support to LGBT youth and their families. This law will ensure that state-licensed therapists can no longer abuse their power to harm LGBT youth and propagate the dangerous and deadly lie that sexual orientation is an illness or disorder that can be 'cured.'"

Equality California: "Governor Brown today reaffirmed what medical and mental health organizations have made clear: Efforts to change minors' sexual orientation are not therapy, they are the relics of prejudice and abuse that have inflicted untold harm on young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Californians. We thank Senator Ted Lieu and Governor Brown for their efforts in making California a leader in banning this deceptive and harmful practice."

Truth Wins Out: "This is a historic day that protects LGBT youth from child abuse disguised as genuine therapy. We thank Gov. Brown for signing legislation that can serve as a model for similar bills across the nation.”

Human Rights Campaign: "We're grateful to Governor Brown for standing with California's children. LGBT youth will now be protected from a practice that has not only been debunked as junk science, but has been proven to have drastically negative effects on their well-being. We commend Governor Brown for putting children first, and call on all states to take California’s lead on this issue. We will continue our fight against this kind of child abuse, which has been deemed harmful to children by all major mental health, medical, and child welfare organizations."

Courage Campaign: "Governor Brown has shown courage for enacting the first law in the nation to ban 'conversion therapy' for gay people. The Governor's action will protect thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth of California. This law will save lives here and across the nation by ending the torture of young people through the quackery that suggests that gay people can decide somehow not to be gay, which is akin to white people deciding not to be white. Once again, California is a model for the nation."

Labels: brainwashing, child abuse, Jerry Brown, LGBT youth, psychology, religion, torture

Reposted from Joe

New Site: No Homophobes

New Site: No Homophobes

No Homophobes provides live tracking of the above words and expressions on Twitter.

Labels: faggot, internet, language, Twitter

Reposted from Joe

JMG Quote Of The Day - Chris Kluwe

"Which version of 'traditional marriage' would you like to use Mr. Balling? Should we go back to ancient Israel and practice polygamy, with a woman’s only right that to own her own tent? Or should we use the ancient Greek definition of marriage, one more concerned with inheritance than love or procreation, one that would force a woman to divorce her current husband and marry a sibling if that was required to continue the family? Should we force a brother to marry his dead sibling’s wife? Or perhaps we should make arranged marriages with child brides, that’s certainly traditional enough. Wait, I know, let’s go with the one where you have to pay three goats and a cow in order to ensure the woman is yours to keep forever, and you can stone her to death if she cheats on you. That one sounds terrific!" - Minnesota Viking kicker Chris Kluwe, writing in response to an op-ed column published by the Star-Tribune.

Labels: football, FTW, Minnesota, straight allies

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 1, 2012

Nothing Else

If we have ambitions—even if our aim is enlightenment—then there is no meditation, because we are thinking about it, craving it, fantasizing, imagining things. That is not meditation. This is why an important characteristic of shamatha meditation is to let go of any goal and simply sit for the sake of sitting. We breathe in and out, and we just watch that. Nothing else.

- Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, "Do Nothing"

Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through October 3rd, 2012
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma September 29, 2012

The Source Within Us

When we use our attention to touch and open the deeper truth in a person, we not only catalyze the experience of love, we become love. The source of love is revealed to be within us; we no longer have to go looking for it somewhere outside.

- Nicole Daedone, "Love Becomes Her"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma September 30, 2012

The Fabric of the Self

When we turn our attention to our bodies, feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness, we find that we are woven of the quixotic threads of ongoing stories. For only such a self can create and be created. A fixed, intractable one is as good as dead.

- Stephen Batchelor, "A Democracy of the Imagination"

Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through October 2nd, 2012
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Via JMG: SF Plans "End Of Prop 8" Party

Facebook page.

Labels: Proposition 8, San Francisco, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Central Park Gay Marriage Proposal

 

She rowed her girlfriend out from under the bridge as friends secretly gathered overhead for "Operation Rainbow Umbrella." The girlfriend said "Yes" as Central Park visitors applauded and took photos from from the shore. Many more photos here. (Tipped by JMG reader Acacius.)

Labels: Central Park, cuteness, NYC

Reposted from Joe

Tribute to Matthew Shepard, from SF Gay Men's Chorus

Via JMG: Homeland Security Issues Written Guidelines On Delaying LGBT Deportations

Immigration Equality is thrilled:

Immigration Equality today praised the Obama Administration, and specifically the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for new, written guidance that will extend discretionary relief to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) immigrants with U.S. citizen spouses and partners. The new written directive, which was announced in response to a Congressional letter spearheaded by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), marks one of the very first times LGBT families have been recognized within federal immigration policies. The guidelines, which are expected to be distributed soon to field offices across the country, will instruct officers and field agents to recognize LGBT families for purposes of relief as defined by a June 2011 memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton.

Rep. Jerry Nadler reacts via press release:

“I am thrilled that the Obama Administration has taken to heart my concern about the need to explicitly protect LGBT immigrant families from being torn apart by needless and unwarranted immigration enforcement actions. I thank Secretary Napolitano for listening and supporting a policy that protects all American families, both straight and LGBT. With the written guidelines that I requested and which will be issued by ICE, federal immigration officials will finally have the clear direction they need to make responsible and compassionate decisions on family ties in immigration cases.”

UPDATE: The Washington Blade has posted Secretary Napolitano's letter to Nadler.

Labels: DOMA, Homeland Security, Immigration Equality, Jerry Nadler, LGBT rights, Nancy Pelosi, Obama administration

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The happiness we seek, a genuine lasting peace and happiness, can be attained only through the purification of our minds. This is possible if we cut the root cause of all suffering and miseryour fundamental ignorance. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The World of Tibetan Buddhism More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma September 28, 2012

We’re in This Together

People need to see that if you hurt another person, you hurt yourself, and if you hurt yourself, you're hurting another person. And then to begin to see that we are not in this alone. We are in this together. For me, that's where the true morality comes from.

- Pema Chödrön, "No Right, No Wrong"

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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	He who seeks happiness should withdraw the arrow; his own lamentations, longings and grief. With the arrow withdrawn, unattached, he would attain to peace of mind; and when all sorrow has been transcended he is sorrow-free and has realized Nibbana. - Sutta Nipata More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Dharma Beginner shared Nalanda LGBT Buddhist Cultural and Resource Center / FB:

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"The Buddha called suffering a holy truth, because our suffering has the capacity of showing us the path to liberation. Embrace your suffering and let it reveal to you the way to peace."- Thich Nhat Hanh

Via JMG: French President Calls On UN To Support Decriminalizing Homosexuality

 

"France will continue to engage in all these struggles: for the abolition of the death penalty, for women's rights to equality and dignity, for the universal decriminalization of homosexuality, which should not be recognised as a crime but, on the contrary, recognized as a [sexual] orientation. All members countries have the obligation to guarantee the security of their citizens, and if one nation adheres to this obligation, it is then imperative that we, the United Nations, facilitate the necessary means to make that guarantee. These are the issues that France will lead and defend in the United Nations. I say this with seriousness. When there is paralysis... and inaction, then injustice and intolerance can find their place." - French President Francois Hollande, speaking yesterday at the United Nations General Assembly.  (Text via Towleroad)

 

Labels: France, Francois Hollande, gay death penalty, heroes, LGBT rights, Socialist Party, United Nations

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Attentiveness is the path to true life; Indifference is the path to death. The attentive do not die; The indifferent are as if they are dead already. - Dhammapada More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma September 26, 2012

The World as Self

The way we define and delimit the self is arbitrary. We can place it between our ears and have it looking out from our eyes, or we can widen it to include the air we breathe, or at other moments we can cast its boundaries farther to include the oxygen-giving trees and plankton, our external lungs, and beyond them the web of life in which they are sustained.

- Joanna Macy, "Positive Disintegration"

Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through September 28th, 2012
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Via JMG: Pet Shop Boys To Perform Symphony Piece Inspired By Gay Genius Alan Turing

(Tipped by JMG reader Paul.)

Labels: Alan Turing, concerts, gay artists, Pet Shop Boys

Reposted from Joe