Via Gay Politics Report: Over a million petition-signers ask Boy Scouts to drop gay ban

Over a million petition-signers ask Boy Scouts to drop gay ban
  
 Gay scouts and their supporters delivered 1.4 million petition signatures to Boy Scouts of America headquarters this week in a bid to pressure the organization to allow local branches to admit openly gay scouts and leaders. The effort also got the backing of President Barack Obama, who in a pre-Super Bowl interview this weekend said the BSA should change its longstanding policy. Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the group should hold firm and keep the ban in place, and the anti-gay Family Research Council ran a full page-ad in USA Today urging the same. The Dallas Morning News (free content)/The Scoop blog (2/4), CBS News/Political Eye (2/3), Dallas Voice (2/4), Towleroad (2/4)     

Why Homophobia Is Not An Acceptable Life Choice

Macklemore, the first unsigned artist to make it to #1 in over a decade, perfectly frames the world homophobia creates. Give his hit track "Same Love" a listen and see if that doesn't melt your heart in a jiffy. 

 

 

Via Mothers for Sustainable Energy -TheMothersProject.org Colorado / FB:

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	When people speak badly of you, you should respond in this way: Keep a steady heart and don't reply with harsh words. Practice letting go of resentment and accepting that the other's hostility is the spur to your understanding. Be kind, adopt a generous standpoint, treat your enemy as a friend, and suffuse all your world with affectionate thoughts, far-reaching and widespread, limitless and free from hate. In this state you should try to remain. - Dhammapada More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 5, 2013

Investing in Practice

It is essential at the beginning of practice to acknowledge that the path is personal and intimate. It is no good to examine it from a distance as if it were someone else’s. You must walk it for yourself. In this spirit, you invest yourself in your practice, confident of your heritage, and train earnestly side by side with your sisters and brothers. It is this engagement that brings peace and realization.

- Robert Aitken Roshi, “The Teacher in Everything”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 6th, 2013
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JMG Tweet Of The Day - Herndon Graddick

Graddick is the the head of GLAAD.

Labels: football, GLAAD, Super Bowl

Reposted from Joe  

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Cut down The forest of desire, Not the forest of trees. From the forest of desire Come danger & fear. Having cut down this forest & its underbrush, monks, be deforested. - Dhammapada, 20, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 4, 2013

What Meditation Tells Us

Meditation practice helps us relinquish old, painful habits; it challenges our assumptions about whether or not we deserve happiness. (We do, it tells us emphatically.) It also ignites a very potent energy in us. With a strong foundation in how to practice meditation, we can begin to live in a way that enables us to respect ourselves, to be calm rather than anxious, and to offer caring attention to others instead of being held back by notions of separation.

- Sharon Salzberg, “Sticking with It”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 5th, 2013
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 3, 2013

Developing Determination

When you admit to yourself, 'I must make this change to be more happy'—not because the Buddha said so, but because your heart recognized a deep truth—you must devote all your energy to making the change. You need strong determination to overcome harmful habits. But the payoff is happiness—not just for today but for always.

- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, “Getting Started”

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Via JMG: Today In NOM Chutzpah

Jeremy Hooper writes: "Important reminder: March 26 is not only the first day of SCOTUS hearings and the day that NOM plans to march against us—it's also the one year anniversary of us all learning their stated intent to 'drive a wedge between gays and blacks' in order to 'provoke the gay base.' The coincidence sure makes those March on Washington parallels all the more ignoble, huh?"

RELATED: Join the Facebook March 4 Marriage page to keep up with all the developments coming next month.

Labels: Catholic Church, hate groups, LGBT rights, NOM, religion, SCOTUS, Vatican

Reposted from Joe
 

Via Progressive Centralists / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 2, 2013

Illuminating Your Path

For the dharma to become firsthand knowledge—to feel the ‘ouch’ of it—you have to live intimately with it, hold it up to scrutiny, and let it hold you up to scrutiny. In the end, the ball is always thrown back to you: ‘Be a lamp unto yourself,’ says the Buddha. In other words, you must ultimately find the way on your own, by putting your ideas of the truth to the test. Your questions light the way.

- Larry Rosenberg, “The Right to Ask Questions”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 3rd, 2013
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Via Gay Politics Report: Dream of a “Harvey Milk Airport” takes flight in S.F.

Via JMG: NEW MEXICO: Marriage Bill Advances

By a 5-4 vote, yesterday the New Mexico House Public Affairs Committee narrowly approved a bill to place marriage equality to a public vote.

The bill would let voters decide the issue of same-sex marriage, but it also states churches would not be required to recognize the same-sex marriage bill. After hearing very different opinions and personal experiences, lawmakers decided along party lines to pass the bill, which moves it to the next committee. "We should not discriminate. The state should be doing everything possible to encourage people to enter into committed, long-term relationships, especially when there's children involved," Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said. "What happens to those kids? Those kids were not created in that relationship," same-sex marriage opponent Jose Vasquez said. Egolf said he's been contacted by hundreds of people who thanked him for sponsoring the bill.

The bill must pass out of another committee before moving to the full House.  If approved by both state chambers and signed by the governor, marriage equality would appear on the November 2014 ballot.  (Tipped by JMG reader Elise)

Labels: 2014 elections, marriage equality, New Mexico

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Quote Of The Day: MP Helen Grant

"I am a God-fearing woman. My faith is very fundamental to everything I do and think. I am a member of the Church of England, a Christian, and my faith is very, very important to me. I think [same-sex marriage] is absolutely consistent with my beliefs. For me, as a Christian, I see it as about justice, equality, fairness, ending discrimination and opening up marriage to more people on the basis that marriage is a very special institution." - Conservative MP Helen Grant, speaking in advance of Tuesday's second reading of Britain's marriage equality bill.

Labels: Britain, Conservative Party UK, marriage equality

Reposted from Joe

Via ॐ Blue Buddha Quote Collective / FB:

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The Buddha said: "When a person has thoroughly understood the world, from top to bottom, when there is nothing in the world that agitates him anymore, then he has become somebody who is free from confusion and fears and tremblings and the longings of desire. He has gone beyond getting old and beyond birth and death." - Sutta Nipata More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Being Liberal / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 1, 2013

The Simple Act of Attention

Empathy naturally leads to compassionate action. But simple inattention kills empathy, let alone compassion. So the first step in compassion is to notice the other's need. It all begins with the simple act of attention.

- Daniel Goleman, “I Feel Your Brain”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 2nd, 2013
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