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

Reposted from Joe

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 Global Awakening / FB:

 

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others...
~Gandhi

Via Christians Tired of Being Misrepresented / FB:

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.

- Brad Warner, "Goalless Practice"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 6th, 2012
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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.

Labels: activism, gay death penalty, HomoQuotable, LGBT rights, religion, Sharia Law, Uganda

Reposted from Joe

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

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Hands restrained, feet restrained speech restrained, supremely restrained-- delighting in what is inward, content, centered, alone: he's what they call a monk. A monk restrained in his speaking, giving counsel unruffled, declaring the message & meaning: sweet is his speech. - Dhammapada, 25, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. More Buddhism Quotes >>

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.

- Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, “Generosity (and Greed) Introduction"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 5th, 2012
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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.

- John Welwood, "The Psychology of Awakening"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 4th, 2012
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More stars!

http://makeitequal.org/

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

Reposted from Joe

Via Being Liberal / FB:

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.

Read the full essay.

Labels: Bill Clinton, DOMA, Frank Bruni, HomoQuotable

Reposted from Joe

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.'..."

 

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.

Labels: AIDS, Christian Love, disgusting, God's Gentle People, hate groups, horrible, Liberty Counsel, Matt Barber, pigs, religion, Sharia Law, theocracy, World AIDS Day

Reposted from Joe

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.

- Dharmavidya David Brazier, "Let Grace In"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 3rd, 2012
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Via Being Liberal / FB:

Via Gay Politics Report:

How religion helped win marriage equality

Marriage equality advocates engaged people of faith and religious leaders in successful campaigns to win ballot initiatives this year, a turnaround from four years ago when social conservatives dominated religious discussions over California's Proposition 8. A Washington state coalition distributed thousands of buttons bearing the message, "Another Person of Faith Approves R. 74," sparking conversations in which proponents were trained to speak about the issue in terms of love and commitment rather than "gay rights." Ross Murray, director of religion, faith and values at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, helped train thousands of "conversationalists" to speak about the issue and their own faith, and to listen intently to those who described their difficulties supporting marriage equality. “All of us like to be listened to," Murray said. CNN/Belief blog