A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:
Daily Buddhist Wisdom | |||
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Via JMG: France's First Lady: I Can't Wait To Take Part In My First Same-Sex Wedding
France's First Lady says she is looking forward to being part of the wedding party of gay friends once marriage is legalized.
Valerie Trierweiler, the girlfriend of French President Francois Hollande, has given plans to legalise gay marriage with her personal seal of approval by announcing she will be a witness at one of the first ceremonies. While her partner's commitment to proposed legislation allowing same-sex marriages has been questioned in recent weeks, Trierweiler revealed she had accepted an invitation to participate in the wedding of gay friends. "I'm delighted that I'm going to be a witness at one of the very first marriages for all," Trierweiler said. A law providing for same sex couples to wed and adopt children is expected to be on the statute book by the middle of next year. Its passage through parliament is likely to be stormy however given strong opposition from sections of the opposition right, Catholic bishops and other religious leaders.France's national legislature begins debate on the draft version of the bill in three months.
Labels: France, marriage equality, Socialist Party
Via 2012 Healing the Planet 2012 & Buddha's Teaching / FB:
On
a long journey of human life, faith is the best of companions; it is
the best refreshment on the journey; and it is the greatest property ---The Buddha
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma December 4, 2012
Valuing the Here and Now
Goal-seeking
activity is always the enemy of real peace and contentment. The idea
that what is here and now is less valuable than what’s over there just
past the finish line prevents us from ever being truly content and happy
right where we are. No matter what your ultimate goal is, it’s always
off in the distance. This goes for any goal at all, even the goal of
attaining ultimate inner peace or saving all beings.
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- Brad Warner, "Goalless Practice"
Monday, December 3, 2012
JMG HomoQuotable - Frank Mugisha
"If the law is passed the way it is right now, I would go to jail, and I would be killed. The bill says anyone who commits the offense [and speaks out] against this legislation more than once is a serial offender. And the fact that I’ve already said in Uganda that I’m gay, and that I’m an advocate for LGBT rights, that means I’m promoting homosexuality in Uganda, according to this bill. This legislation, if passed into law, it would automatically make me a serial offender and I would be sentenced to death." - Ugandan activist Frank Mugisha, speaking on Michelangelo Signorile's SiriusXM radio show.
NOTE: There is a chance that the Ugandan Parliament will recess before hearing the Anti-Homosexuality Act due to a ferocious unrelated battle over a bill regarding oil drilling rights.
Via JMG: NORWAY: Princess Secretly Traveled To India To Care For Gay Staffer's Newborns
Reuters reports that Norway's Princess Mette-Marit secretly traveled to India to care for the newborn twins borne by the surrogate mother hired by a gay palace staffer who was unable to get a visa to go himself.
Armed with a diplomatic passport that granted her immediate access, the future queen jumped on a plane in late October when the employee, who is also a friend, and his husband were unable to travel to care for their newborns. "For me, this is about two babies lying alone in a New Delhi hospital," Mette-Marit said in a statement. "I was able to travel and wanted to do what I could." She did not alert Indian authorities and spent several days with the babies at the Manav Medicare Centre, where staff assumed the wife of Norway's Crown Prince Haakon was a nanny. While the princess was away, her name continued to appear in the official palace calendar and her absence from a parliamentary dinner was not explained. A relative of the two fathers eventually took over from Mette-Marit and the fathers received a visa in November, when they brought the babies back to Norway, the palace added.Norway legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, but the above-linked story notes that paying for surrogacy is a highly controversial topic there. (Tipped by JMG reader Carol)
Labels: gay families, good work, India, Norway
Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:
Daily Buddhist Wisdom | |||
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma December 3, 2012
Gifting What is Precious
When
we give, we need to do so with the awareness that our gift will be both
appropriate and helpful. It is not an act of generosity, for example,
to give money to a wealthy person or alcohol to a child. We also give
what we can afford; we don’t jeopardize our own health or well-being. At
the same time, we can give what is precious to us, what is difficult to
give, because of our attachment to it.
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- Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, “Generosity (and Greed) Introduction"
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma December 2, 2012
Integrating Realization into our Lives
Spiritual
realization is relatively easy compared with the much greater
difficulty of actualizing it, integrating it fully into the fabric of
one’s daily life. Realization is the movement from personality to
being, the direct recognition of one’s ultimate nature, leading toward
liberation from the conditioned self, while actualization refers to how we integrate that realization in all the situations of our life.
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- John Welwood, "The Psychology of Awakening"
Via JMG: West Point Hosts First Gay Wedding
A West Point graduate got married today in the first same-sex wedding ever held on the legendary military academy's campus.
Penelope Gnesin and Brenda Sue Fulton, a West Point graduate, exchanged vows in the regal church in a ceremony conducted by a senior Army chaplain. The ceremony comes a little more than a year after President Obama ended the military policy banning openly gay people from serving. The two have been together for 17 years. They had a civil commitment ceremony that didn't carry any legal force in 1999 but had longed hoped to formally tie the knot. The brides both live in New Jersey and would have preferred to have the wedding there, but the state doesn't allow gay marriage. "We just couldn't wait any longer," Fulton said. Guests at the wedding posted photos on Twitter while it was underway and afterward. Fulton said Cadet Chapel on the campus at West Point was a fitting venue.Fulton (left) is the communications director for the military LGBT advocacy group OutServe and I've met her at several grassroots events. She's also the head of Knights Out, an organization for West Point's LGBT alumni. Congratulations to the happy couple!
RELATED: All the right people are already pissed off.
Labels: army, DADT, gay weddings, LGBT History, marriage equality, military, New York state, West Point
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Frank Bruni
"Dear President Clinton, What a year you’ve had, the kind that really burnishes a legend. At the Democratic National Convention, on the campaign trail, in speeches aplenty and during interviews galore, you spoke eloquently about what this country should value, and you spoke unequivocally about where it should head. Such a bounty of convictions, such a harvest of words, except for one that’s long overdue: Sorry.
"Where’s your apology for signing the Defense of Marriage Act? And why,
amid all the battles you’ve joined, and with all the energy
you’ve been able to muster, haven’t you made a more vigorous case for
same-sex marriage, especially in light of your history on this issue?
You fret about your legacy, as any president would. For turning a blind
eye to the butchery in Rwanda, you struggled through a mea culpa of
sorts, and after Barack Obama seemed to lavish higher praise on Ronald
Reagan than on you, you seethed.
"Well, DOMA, which says that the federal government recognizes only
marriages of a man and a woman, is one of the uglier blemishes on your
record, an act of indisputable discrimination that codified unequal
treatment of gay men and lesbians and, in doing so, validated the views
of Americans who see us as lesser people. If our most committed,
heartfelt relationships don’t measure up, then neither do we. If how we
love is suspect, then so is who we are. No two ways to interpret that.
No other conclusion to be drawn." - Frank Bruni, writing for the New York Times.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/12/01/1267231/open-thread-plus-cartoon-of-the-week-12/
"X-Men and Lord of the Rings star Sir Ian McKellen has recorded a video for a New Zealand equal marriage campaign.
"...The New Zealand Marriage Amendment Bill, which would legalise equal
marriage, passed its first reading on 22 August, with a majority of 80
votes to 40 in parliament in support of the change.
"In the
video, Sir Ian said: 'New Zealand gave women the vote before every other
country in the world, the rest of the world has looked towards New
Zealand for social advance and here we are again- this time at the
exciting prospect of two people of the same gender being able to get
married and to join the rest of the population.
"'It will be a popular move, I know, and I’m glad your major political
parties have embraced it, supported too by the younger generation who
see things a lot more clearly than people of my age.
"'My support is with you and I hope that by the time I return to Middle-earth I might even be able to get married there.'..."
"'It will be a popular move, I know, and I’m glad your major political parties have embraced it, supported too by the younger generation who see things a lot more clearly than people of my age.
"'My support is with you and I hope that by the time I return to Middle-earth I might even be able to get married there.'..."
Via JMG: Matt Barber: People With AIDS Are Sinners Who Deserve Their Gruesome Deaths
Just when you think God's Gentle People™ could not possibly behave more repulsively, Christian leader Matt Barber proves you wrong. Deliberately timed for World AIDS Day, obviously.
Reposted from Joe
Labels: AIDS, Christian Love, disgusting, God's Gentle People, hate groups, horrible, Liberty Counsel, Matt Barber, pigs, religion, Sharia Law, theocracy, World AIDS Day
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma December 1, 2012
The Key to Happiness
Grace
is the key to happiness. When bad things happen, if we have confidence
in grace, then we can remain grounded in that and not be overwhelmed by
the soap opera of life. And grace is a circular blessing. The more grace
enters your life, the more grateful you are. The more grateful you are,
the more easily grace seems to enter.
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- Dharmavidya David Brazier, "Let Grace In"
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