Via Gay Politics Report:

• GOP insiders want party to ditch marriage topic, poll finds
   
• A National Journal poll of 99 Republican Party insiders finds that just 11% want the GOP to actively oppose marriage rights for same-sex couples. More than a quarter of respondents want the party to support marriage equality, and nearly half said the party should avoid the topic altogether. "We can’t be a party that supports a zone of personal freedom and then try to use federal power to curtail it. Plus, we increasingly look prejudiced, and not a little stupid, on this issue," said one respondent. National Journal/Political Insiders Poll (1/10)     

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The king said: 'Nagasena, he who escapes reindividualization [rebirth], is it by reasoning that he escapes it?' 'Both by reasoning, your Majesty, and by wisdom, and by other good qualities.' 'But are not reasoning and wisdom surely much the same?' 'Certainly not. Reasoning is one thing, wisdom another. Sheep and goats, oxen and buffaloes, camels and asses have reasoning, but wisdom they have not.' 'Well put, Nagasena!' - Milindapanha 32 More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Vida Rz / FB:

Vida Rz shared Karmapa Supporters's photo.

Turning our attention toward light and hopefulness ~ 17th Karmapa

While we are living and remaining in this world, if we only pay attention to darkness and hopelessness, we will not see anything but darkness. But if we turn our attention toward light and hopefulness, then even if we have only a little hope, we will eventually be able to find a way to reach the light. For this reason, the world environment and all the beings in it are not all bad. The beings in the world are not unilaterally vicious, and the external world is not exclusively poisonous and polluted. If we make efforts with a courageous heart, we can transform the world into a pure realm. We can transform the beings in the world so that they become the beautiful and majestic deities present within their minds.

(from: Teachings before a Medicine Buddha empowerment - India, December 2007)

Posted by Kagyu Samye Dzong Venezia

Via LGBT News / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 15, 2013

The Ultimate Reflection

The Buddha exhorted his disciples to reflect on death a lot—to use it as the ultimate prompt to practice now, in this moment; to practice every day. To stoke the fire before it’s too late. To prepare ourselves to make skillful choices in the moment when we leave this body. The same things that impede meditation are those that cloud our view at death: pain and emotional distraction. The better we master these fetters in life, the better chance we have of forgoing them at death.

- Mary Talbot, "How Buddhists Can Prepare to Die"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 16th, 2013
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Ashamed of what's not shameful, not ashamed of what is, beings adopting wrong views go to a bad destination. Seeing danger where there is none, and no danger where there is, beings adopting wrong views, go to a bad destination. - Dhammapada, 22, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 14, 2013

Adversity's Blessing

When empathy spontaneously arises, we sense the power of love as a blessing revealed by adversity. How embarrassing it is to see how preoccupied we have been with our own petty concerns! Seeing how affection stirs people to acts of selflessness inspires us to extend ourselves as well. With loving kindness we see the needs of others and respond.

- Judith L. Lief, "Welcome to the Real World"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 15th, 2013
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 January 14, 2013

Adversity's Blessing

When empathy spontaneously arises, we sense the power of love as a blessing revealed by adversity. How embarrassing it is to see how preoccupied we have been with our own petty concerns! Seeing how affection stirs people to acts of selflessness inspires us to extend ourselves as well. With loving kindness we see the needs of others and respond.

- Judith L. Lief, "Welcome to the Real World"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 15th, 2013
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Via The Other 98% / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 13, 2013

Knowing When to Speak

Saying things you shouldn’t say or speaking much more than is necessary brings a lot of agitation to the mind. The other extreme, complete silence, or not speaking up when it is useful or necessary, is also problematic. Applying right speech is difficult in the beginning; it takes practice. But if you practice every time you talk to someone, the mind will learn how to be aware, to understand what it should or should not say, and to know when it is necessary to talk.

- Sayadaw U Tejaniya, "The Wise Investigator"

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Rachel Maddow On Jeanne Manford

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 12, 2013

Compassionate Action

When we are energized with anger we often do things that worsen our situation. Being compassionate does not mean being passive. We can actively work to counteract injustice and harm, but we do so with compassion, not self-righteous anger. With compassion, our positive efforts can be sustained for a long time and will be effective.

- Thubten Chodron, "Working with Anger"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 13th, 2013
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Via JMG: Buzzfeed Interviews Edith Windsor

Go read Chris Geidner's wonderful interview with DOMA heroine Edith Windsor. No excerpts here, just go read it.

Labels: DOMA, Edith Windsor, LGBT History, LGBT rights

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Those who regard non-essence as essence and see essence as non-, don't get to the essence, ranging about in wrong resolves. But those who know essence as essence, and non-essence as non-, get to the essence, ranging about in right resolves. - Dhammapada 11-12, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 11, 2013

Facing Fear

To willingly reside in our distress, no longer resisting what is, is the real key to transformation. As painful as it may be to face our deepest fears, we do reach the point where it's more painful not to face them. This is a pivotal point in the practice life.

- Ezra Bayda, "Bursting the Bubble of Fear"

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Via I bet this turkey can get more fans than NOM / FB:

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	O monks, even if you have insight that is pure and clear but you cling to it, fondle it and treasure it, depend on it and are attached to it, then you do not understand that the teaching is like a raft that carries you across the water to the farther shore but is then to be put down and not clung to. - Majjhima Nikaya More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via The Advocate: Fighting Back in Brazil

Fighting Back in Brazil

Violence mars Brazil’s ascendance, but activists and the government take action.

BY Neal Broverman

January 10 2013 4:00 AM ET

Hosting the 2016 Olympics and emerging as an economic powerhouse, Brazil is headed swiftly toward a more prominent place on the world stage. But the country can’t shake off an epidemic more indicative of smaller, often poverty-stricken nations: pervasive violence against LGBT people.

Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder Monitoring project in November revealed that among the 265 murders of trans people reported globally in the preceding 12 months, 126 of them were in Brazil, the largest number of any country. It was the only country with triple digits (notoriously biased Pakistan had five reported killings, for example), and according to the monitoring project, it’s only getting worse. In 2008,  57 trans killings were reported in Brazil.

A well-publicized 2011 report from the gay rights organization Grupo Gay da Bahía found attacks and murders on the rise; LGBT people were being bashed once every 36 hours. And last fall at least 15 gay activists in Curitiba, a prominent southern city, received death threats.

“You are going to die, you, your husband, and your son. Your mother is a dyke,” was the phone message left for Toni Reis, president of the Brazilian Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transvestite, and Transsexual Association.

But unlike those in Jamaica, Russia, or Uganda, officials in Brazil are working to curb homophobic violence. After Reis and the other activists reported the disturbing phone calls and emails, the Human Rights Secretariat of Brazil sent several of its people to Curitiba to interview those threatened. The national officials met with local law enforcement, which set up a special committee to investigate the threats (no one’s been arrested yet). Meanwhile, the federal government operates a 24-hour national telephone service for LGBT people to report violence and discrimination, and the federal government is forming “pacts” with the 27 state governments to stem homophobia, which Reis says derives from Christian sources.

“Religious intolerance among some evangelical groups against LGBT people is increasing,” he says, adding that many church leaders actively lobby politicians against gay rights.

Evangelical Protestants, especially, have pushed back against efforts by the Brazilian government to protect the nation’s LGBT people. Last year, even before the Grupo Gay da Bahía report made international headlines, liberal legislators introduced a bill to outlaw anti-LGBT bias, providing jail time for those discriminating or inciting violence against LGBT people. Conservative Christians said the legislation would make it impossible for them to preach against homosexuality, and the bill was watered down as a result of their efforts.

Even with many gay-supportive government leaders, Reis admits, “Progress is slow and impunity continues to reign.”
http://www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2013/01/10/fighting-back-brazil
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Via The Advocate: Minister With Antigay History Chosen for Inauguration Ceremony

Minister With Antigay History Chosen for Inauguration Ceremony

Four years ago Rick Warren's prominent role in the presidential inauguration aroused LGBT ire. Now the choice of Louie Giglio is doing the same.

BY Trudy Ring

January 09 2013 5:50 PM ET

Pastor Louie Giglio

The most LGBT-friendly president in U.S. history will once again have a minister with a history of antigay statements deliver a prayer at his inauguration ceremony.

Pastor Louie Giglio of the Passion City Church in Atlanta, chosen to give the benediction, or closing prayer, January 21 at President Obama’s second inauguration, gave a sermon in the mid 1990s in which he said being gay is a choice and a sin that merits eternal damnation and that Christianity can help gays can become straight, ThinkProgress reports.

In the sermon, available on a Christian website, Giglio says the Bible clearly teaches that “homosexuality is not just a sexual preference, homosexuality is not gay, but homosexuality is sin,” and it is among the factors that “prevent people from entering the Kingdom of God.” He also says, “The only way out of a homosexual lifestyle, the only way out of a relationship that has been ingrained over years of time, is through the healing power of Jesus.”

When the item was posted, Giglio had yet to respond to a ThinkProgress inquiry about whether the sermon represents his current thinking. The Advocate has also asked the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which plans the ceremony, for comment on the choice of Giglio, but there has been no response so far. A “Beliefs” section on Passion City Church’s website describes the church as “conservative and evangelical,” apparently with a literal view of the Bible, as it says, “We believe in the accuracy, truth, authority and power of the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God.”

Four years ago, at Obama’s first inauguration, antigay minister Rick Warren, pastor of a California megachurch, delivered the invocation, or opening prayer. The choice of Warren was much criticized, although his prayer received some praise as a “message of unity.”

Some other news about the second inauguration was more welcome to LGBT audiences: Gay poet Richard Blanco will read one of his works there. He is the youngest inaugural poet, the first gay one, and the first Latino.

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