Via JMG: Pro Soccer Player Comes Out

 

Major League Soccer player Robbie Rogers simultaneously came out and resigned from his sport today.  Rogers writes on his personal blog:

Secrets can cause so much internal damage. People love to preach about honesty, how honesty is so plain and simple. Try explaining to your loved ones after 25 years you are gay. Try convincing yourself that your creator has the most wonderful purpose for you even though you were taught differently.
I always thought I could hide this secret. Football was my escape, my purpose, my identity. Football hid my secret, gave me more joy than I could have ever imagined… I will always be thankful for my career. I will remember Beijing, The MLS Cup, and most of all my teammates. I will never forget the friends I have made a long the way and the friends that supported me once they knew my secret.
Now is my time to step away. It’s time to discover myself away from football. It’s 1 A.M. in London as I write this and I could not be happier with my decision. Life is so full of amazing things. I realized I could only truly enjoy my life once I was honest. Honesty is a bitch but makes life so simple and clear. My secret is gone, I am a free man, I can move on and live my life as my creator intended.

Rogers played several seasons for Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew before joining Britain's Leeds United team last year.  In 2007 he played for Team USA in the FIFA World Cup tournament.  In 2008 he competed for the United States at the Beijing Olympics.
UPDATE: Athlete Ally founder and former collegiate wrestling champion Hudson Taylor has issued a statement in reaction to Rogers' announcement.

"I applaud Rogers’ courage and honesty in what continues to be a struggle for gay and lesbian athletes around the world. With yet another athlete coming out and feeling the need to retire, it is time that we, as an athletic community, realize the responsibility we have in making athletes feel comfortable and confident being themselves. Sports participants and fans are central to the greatest civil rights cause of our time, and I urge all members of the sports community to recognize the important role we play."

Labels: coming out, gay athletes, soccer, sports

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Tim Tebow's Hate Date

On the left is how the New York Daily News headlines Tim Tebow's upcoming speech at the church of notorious crackpot and homophobe, Pastor Robert Jeffress, who may be most famous for telling the Values Voters Summit that "70% of all gay men have AIDS."

The wildcat quarterback is slated to speak at the 11,000-member First Baptist Dallas Church’s April 28 Sunday morning service, according to the church’s website. While Tebow is known for wearing his religion on his sleeve and his prayerful onfield gestures have been dubbed “Tebowing,” he’s made a practice of not offending his teammates with his faith. But Tebow’s peace-and-love message could be tested by the megachurch’s evangelical Christian pastor, the Rev. Robert Jeffress. He once accused gay activists of trying to hide “the link between homosexuality and pedophilia.” In November, the preacher warned his flock that President Obama’s reelection “would lead to a rise of the antiChrist.” While endorsing Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential bid in October 2011, Jeffress bashed Islam, Judaism and Mormonism as heretical religions “from the pit of hell.”

After Perry dropped out of the race, Jeffress decided that maybe all Mormons weren't hellbound sinners. He then endorsed Romney.  When a New York City newspaper denounces someone like Jeffress as "anti-Jew," one wonders if Tebow even wants to keep playing here.

Labels: crackpots, football, liars, NYC, religion, Robert Jeffress, sports, Tim Tebow

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 16, 2013

Practice is Planting Seeds

When you plant seeds in the garden, you don’t dig them up every day to see if they have sprouted yet. You simply water them and clear away the weeds; you know that the seeds will grow in time. Similarly, just do your daily practice and cultivate a kind heart. Abandon impatience and instead be content creating the causes for goodness; the results will come when they’re ready.

- Thubten Chodron, “Meditator’s Toolbox”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 17th, 2013
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Via JMG: Gallup Ranks Gayest States

Gallup today issued the results of a poll conducted last year in which they asked over 200,000 people if they "personally identify" as LGBT.   As with all such self-disclosure surveys, the numbers are somewhat skewed by those who decline to out themselves to pollsters.

The percentage of U.S. adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) ranges from 1.7% in North Dakota to 5.1% in Hawaii and 10% in the District of Columbia, according to Gallup surveys conducted from June-December 2012. Residents in the District of Columbia were most likely to identify as LGBT (10%). Among states, the highest percentage was in Hawaii (5.1%) and the lowest in North Dakota (1.7%), but all states are within two percentage points of the nationwide average of 3.5%.
Measuring sexual orientation and gender identity can be challenging because these concepts involve complex social and cultural patterns. There are a number of ways to measure lesbian, gay, and bisexual orientation, and transgender status. Gallup chose a broad measure of personal identification as LGBT because this grouping of four statuses is commonly used in current American discourse, and as a result has important cultural and political significance.

One limitation of this approach is that it is not possible to separately consider differences among lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, or transgender individuals. A second limitation is that this approach measures broad self-identity, and does not measure sexual or other behavior, either past or present.

Gallup observers that while the variation between most states is relatively small, their data does support a conclusion that LGBT people are more willing to self-identify in states that provide anti-discrimination protections.

The states with proportionally larger LGBT populations generally have supportive LGBT legal climates. With the exception of South Dakota, all of the states that have LGBT populations of at least 4% have laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and allow same-sex couples to marry, enter into a civil union, or register as domestic partners. Of the 10 states with the lowest percentage of LGBT adults, only Iowa has such laws.

Fascinating stuff. Hit the link for much more and the second half of Gallup's ranking.

Labels: Gallup, LGBT rights, polls, surveys

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	If you would like to be with me and to find comfort that way, the first thing for you to learn is the right behavior. Go back to your home and learn to do as your parents want, continue to recite your prayers, and work hard in your daily life. At the same time, clean yourself up, put on proper clothes, and don't neglect yourself again. When you've learned this, come back to me and you may be allowed to become one of my followers. - Dhammapada More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 15, 2013

Every Waking Moment

As the present moment can be found any moment, every waking moment can be made a concentrated moment.

- Henepola Gunaratana, "Sitting Still"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 16th, 2013
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Gay Parents Bashed: What Would You Do?

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 February 14, 2013

Valentine's Day Lovingkindness

The practice of lovingkindness is, at a certain level, the fruition of all we work toward in our meditation. It relies on our ability to open continuously to the truth of our actual experience, not cutting off the painful parts, and not trying to pretend things are other than they are. Just as spiritual growth grinds to a halt when we indulge our tendency to grasp and cling, metta can’t thrive in an environment that is bound to desire or to getting our expectations met.

- Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein, "Commit to Sit: Metta"

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Via JMG: LGBT Groups React To SOTU

National Gay & Lesbian Task Force

LGBT people remain acutely vulnerable in the workplace and on economic issues. Too many of us still head to work each day terrified it may be our last, simply because of who we are or who we love. The stories are painful, and the statistics are startling. But this is the reality for LGBT people all across America. To be open and honest about who we are, about our families, often means taking a huge risk in the workplace. Something as simple as sharing with a co-worker what you and your spouse did over the weekend could place your livelihood in peril. But we can change this. The president has the power to issue an executive order banning companies that contract with the federal government from discriminating in employment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This is a direct and immediate action he can take that will help millions of Americans.

Illinois Civil Rights Agenda

Many LGBT leaders and community members had hoped that the President would choose this moment to aid in advancing important policy issues affecting LGBT Americans The President has continually been an advocate for LGBT Americans, as exemplified in his inaugural address this year. Although that is the case, he must use some of his political capital to advance issues such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and comprehensive immigration reform that includes same-gender couples. 

Log Cabin Republicans

As LGBT conservatives, Log Cabin Republicans is pleased with recent progress toward equality for gay and lesbian Americans. As citizens, however, we are fearful of the future that the next generation of gay Americans will inherit. As we fight for equal rights to pass down to this new generation, we must also worry about the economy we are passing down. The Democratic Party's perennial cure-all of big government programs paid for by raising taxes on hard-working Americans has to stop. House Republicans have now put forth and twice passed a fiscal plan, while the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House have yet to show the country anything more than paper-thin rhetoric. If the President truly wants to be an ally to our community, he will not only continue pushing for social equality, but stop with the platitudes and get serious with a plan that addresses our nation's fiscal problems.

OutServe-SLDN

President Obama was very clear tonight in his assertion that lesbian and gay service members and their families must be treated equally by the nation they serve. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta opened the path to equal recognition, benefits, and support to gay and lesbian service members this week. To finish the task, the Supreme Court must strike down the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. Secretary Panetta's successor must enact equal opportunity and non-discrimination policies that protect LGBT troops and ensure America's military can attract and retain America's best. And outmoded, obsolete policies that bar qualified American patriots who are transgender from military service must be eliminated. At OutServe-SLDN, we and our 6,000 LGBT members in uniform stand ready to work with the President, Congress, and the Pentagon to make this vision a reality.

GetEQUAL

President Obama continues to push for a version of immigration reform that focuses entirely on enforcement instead of laying out a progressive vision that would put 11 million people on a pathway to citizenship and would include all of our families. As someone who would qualify for the DREAM Act and who is part of a binational family, I know first-hand that true comprehensive immigration reform must include LGBTQ families, a fair and just pathway to citizenship, and an end to harsh enforcement that separates families. Time and time again, President Obama continues to pay lip service to employment equity, but refuses to take the simple step of signing an Executive Order that would end LGBT discrimination by federal contractors -- and that would prevent taxpayer dollars, including taxpayer dollars from LGBT Americans, from going to discriminatory companies. He had his pen out today to sign other Executive Orders -- it's incumbent on the LGBT community to ask why he decided to put that pen away before protecting 25% of the American workforce from workplace discrimination.

Labels: DOMA, ENDA, LGBT rights, SOTU

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Quote Of The Day - Father Tony Adams

"From the immaculate soles of his Pradas to the jeweled tip of his gold-threaded mitre, Pope Benedict XVI has been a paragon of gilded denial whose brow furrowed briefly when confronted with news of pedophile priests, church cover-ups, condom use in Africa, unruly nuns, plummeting Sunday church attendance and a general lack of new and renewed subscription to a church that has kept its flock in line with the threat that disobedience to the infallible moral teaching of its pope would lead to eternal fire in hell.

"Benedict once said that it would not bother him if the Catholic Church should become drastically smaller in size by the weeding out of dissenters. His 'my way or the highway' approach to pastoral leadership resulted in the silent and almost unnoticed mass exodus of significant numbers of American Catholics who simply stopped getting married in church, stopped going to church on Sunday, stopped feeling guilty about gay sex, artificial birth control, condoms or vibrators, stopped entering the confessional on Saturday afternoon, stopped becoming nuns and priests, and, as was disclosed in startling recent surveys, stopped believing that gay people should not have equality and that other belief systems are not just as good as Catholicism." - Father Tony Adams, writing for South Florida Gay News.

Read the full article.

Labels: Benedict Palpatine, Catholic Church, Father Tony, LGBT rights, pope, religion, Vatican

Reposted from Joe

The State Department has posted a travel advisory for LGBT people

State Department Advises LGBT Travelers

The State Department has posted a travel advisory for LGBT people planning trips to foreign countries.  The notice opens with this:

Attitudes and tolerance toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons vary from country to country, just as they vary among U.S. cities and states. Most LGBT travelers encounter no problems while overseas, but it helps to be prepared and research your destination before you go. There are a number of countries that provide legal protections to those who are LGBT. Unfortunately, there are others that do not, and a significant number that even criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. Persons convicted in these countries could be sentenced to prison, and/or be punished by fines, deportation, flogging, or even sentenced to death. Before choosing one’s international destination, LGBT travelers should carefully consider the laws and biases of their international destination and decide how open one can be regarding one’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Personal judgment and knowledge of local laws and customs before one goes will help ensure your safety.

At the top of the page is this quote from former Secretary Hillary Clinton: "By fighting for the rights of so many others, we realize that gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights."  The State Department goes on to warn against entrapment plots by the police in some countries and offers other advice on safe practices while abroad.

Labels: feds, gay tourism, gay travel, State Department

Reposted from Joe

Via Gay Politics Report:

• Is Obama set to act on workplace discrimination?
   
• President Barack Obama may sign an executive order banning discrimination against LGBT employees of federal contractors if Congress does not act on the issue, the Washington Post has reported. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, responding to the report, said the president prefers a legislative remedy and deflected questions about an alternate course of action. Advocates hope the president will use his bully pulpit tonight to press for employment protections for LGBT Americans. "It would be very helpful for the president to use the State of the Union to assert his strong leadership on this issue by publicly calling on both chambers of Congress to vote on the [Employment Non-Discrimination Act]," said Tico Almeida, president of the LGBT group Freedom to Work. The Washington Post (2/10), Washington Blade (Washington, D.C.) (2/7), BuzzFeed (2/11)     

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

 Tricycle Daily Dharma February 13, 2013

Set Free by Truth

In our nonlucid dreams, we are mired down in the illusion that we are awake, and we suffer by grasping onto everything in the dream as being absolutely "out there." In the same way, we are afflicted during the day by regarding ourselves and everything around us as being separate and disconnected. Imagine the bliss of becoming lucid at all times, perceiving all things as luminous displays of the deepest dimension of our own awareness. This is the truth that sets us free.

- B. Alan Wallace, “Awakening to the Dream”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 14th, 2013
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Worldly afflictions are as extensive as an ocean, noisy and clamorous; but they all arise from the thoughts in your own mind. When not a single thought is conceived, you are liberated from them all. - Ta-t More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Americans Against the Tea Party / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 12, 2013

Noticing What is There

It is inevitable that one will discern unwholesome qualities of mind when one looks openly on what is actually occurring in experience. As many people remark, meditation can be a most humbling experience. But there is never any blame for simply noticing what is there. When something unwholesome is seen in oneself, the determination to change it will arise in proportion to one's understanding.

- Andrew Olendzki, “Changing Your Mind”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 13th, 2013
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Vi JMG: OREGON: Same-Sex Marriage Activists Plan 2014 Ballot Measure

LGBT activists in Oregon say they will work to place same-sex marriage on the 2014 state ballot.

The state’s major gay-rights group, Basic Rights Oregon, made the decision over the weekend to launch a petition drive on Monday to put a measure on the ballot that would allow legal recognition of same-sex marriages. Given the group’s resources and the issue’s high visibility, there is little doubt the group can qualify the measure for the November general election. “I think people are really coming to understand that marriage is unique and special and you don’t want to deny that to anybody else,” said Jeana Frazzini, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon, after the group’s leaders and advisers met Sunday to finalize their decision to proceed.

Two months ago Public Policy Polling found that 54% of registered voters support same-sex marriage. That number will surely increase by November 2014.

Labels: activism, marriage equality, Oregon

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: The Pope's Resignation Letter

 

"In today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is." - Pope Benedict XVI, in his official resignation letter.

Labels: Benedict Palpatine, Catholic Church, Vatican

Reposted from Joe