JMG Photo Of The Day :

NBC News reports on today's tribal wedding in Michigan:

Dexter McNamara, chairman of the 4,600-member Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians in northern Michigan, wed Tim LaCroix, 53, and Gene Barfield, 60, of Boyne City. After McNamara read the couple's vows and led the ceremony in English, a member of the tribe followed and conducted a tribal ceremony in their language. "How could the world be better? How could the world be better? … I'm just full of joy and happiness and I love my husband," Barfield said. "We’re so unbelievably grateful to the tribe and so full of respect for their position in this.”

The couple met 30 years ago when they were stationed at Orlando's Naval Training Center.
UNRELATED: My family briefly lived on that base when we first moved to Orlando.  I learned to drive on the deserted access road around the base parade grounds, the one place my mother knew I wouldn't crash into other cars. Not long after that, I was dropping swabbies off at the front gate after meeting them at the Parliament House. Good times.

Labels: gay weddings, LGBT History, Michigan, Native Americans

posted by Joe

Via JMG: More Gay Sniping In Venezuela

 

"If I were gay I'd take ownership of it with pride and shout it to the four winds and I would have no problem loving whoever I had to love with my heart. Because the worst homophobe is one who is gay and discriminates against his own. It's similar to a foreman in a slave-owner's farm. A black traitor who whips an African man's back. That's the worst homophobe: He who denies his identity and discriminates against his equals. We introduced a constitutional amendment to acknowledge their existence and the supreme respect the nation has towards our sexually diverse brothers and sisters - and our opponents and the right called for a vote against that amendment." - Interim Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, firing back at homophobia charges by opposition candidate Henrique Capriles by again hinting that Capriles is gay. At the link, Andres Duque points out that Capriles did not oppose the above-cited amendment.  The election is April 14th.
RELATED: Maduro also claims that Hugo Chavez is now "face-to-face with Christ" and therefore influenced the selection of a South American pope.

Labels: 2013 elections, Henrique Capriles, Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela

Reposted from Joe

Via Gay Politics Report

• New pope blamed devil for marriage equality push
• 
  Pope Francis, elected this week to lead the Roman Catholic Church, once forcefully opposed legislation allowing same-sex couples to marry in his native Argentina, saying the effort was "a move by the father of lies," a biblical reference to the devil. The new pope also once called adoption by gays "discrimination" against children. In 2003, however, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio said the church should speak with "respect" and "understanding" toward individuals when discussing its teachings on sexuality. LGBT advocates have called on the Church under Francis to tone down its anti-gay rhetoric, which they said harshened under Pope Benedict XVI. The Huffington Post (3/13), The Washington Post/The Fix blog (3/14)     

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Internal peace is an essential first step to achieving peace in the world. How do you cultivate it? It's very simple. In the first place by realizing clearly that all mankind is one, that human beings in every country are members of one and the same family. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 15, 2013

Keep Your Balance

Just as a person mired in quicksand cannot help another until he has himself reached firm ground, our ability to help others depends chiefly on keeping our own balance.

- Andrew Olendzki, "Keep Your Balance"

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

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Real love is not based on attachment, but on altruism. In this case, your compassion will remain as a humane response to suffering as long as beings continue to suffer. - His Holiness the Dalai Lama More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 14, 2013

Recognizing Yourself in Others

Compassion is not condescension, but a leveling of the playing field, a recognition of yourself in others and an acceptance that their stress is your stress, that their happiness is your own. The gulf between us all is imaginary, born of insecurity and fear.

- Stephen Schettini, "What to Expect When You're Reflecting"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 15th, 2013
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Via JMG: Bad News For Southern Baptists

Right Wing Watch reports that a survey just done by the polling arm of the Southern Baptists Convention shows broad support for LGBT rights across multiple issues. LifeWay Research, however, is focusing on the minority of respondents who believe that businesses should be able to turn away gay people.

“Clearly, Americans believe the prerogative exists for individuals such as clergy or photographers to deny services for same-sex marriage,” said Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research. “However, the level of agreement changes with scenarios that could be interpreted as more basic rights such as housing and employment.”  Consistent in all scenarios of the survey, men are more likely than women to agree these individuals should have the right to refuse services, rental agreements or employment -- as are Americans calling themselves “born-again, evangelical or fundamentalist Christian.”

Hit the second link for the full survey results.

Labels: LGBT rights, religion, Southern Baptists Convention, surveys

posted by Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 10, 2013

The Simplicity of Renunciation

We don't have to let go, we simply have to not hold on.

- Joseph Goldstein, "Empty Phenomena Rolling On"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 11th, 2013
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 9, 2013

What Emotions Reveal

When we meditate with the idea of getting rid of our emotions, we are actually empowering the very forces that we seek to escape. On the other hand, when we can use the arising of emotion to examine our underlying sense of identification, we tap the transformative potential of sublimation.

- Mark Epstein, "Shattering the Ridgepole"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 10th, 2013
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Via JMG: How DOMA "Defends" Marriage

Visit the pro-gay March 4 Marriage page on Facebook.

Labels: DOMA, LGBT rights, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma;

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 6, 2013

How We Speak to Ourselves

The Buddha saw that we are always engaged in relationships, starting with that most significant relationship: the one with ourselves. On the cushion we notice how we speak to ourselves—sometimes with compassion, sometimes with judgment or impatience. Our words are a powerful medium with which we can bring happiness or cause suffering.

- Allan Lokos, "Skillful Speech"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 7th, 2013
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Via Beliefnet - Buddhist Wisdom:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The good shine from afar Like the snowy Himalayas. The bad don't appear Even when near, Like arrows shot into the night. - Dhammapada 21, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via JMG: PFLAG China Calls For Marriage

The Chinese chapter of PFLAG has issued a public letter calling for marriage equality. The letter has been sent to members of the National People's Congress. China Daily reports:

"Some of our children have been living with their partners for nearly 10 years. They love each other. But they cannot sign their names legally when their partners need an operation," said the letter, which was written by PFLAG China (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of China) and represented more than 100 gay parents. The organization said it will communicate with deputies from South China's Guangdong province who are able to promote the legalization of gay marriage during the NPC this year.  The letter underlines the problems that gay couples in China face, such as adoption, inheritance and purchasing properties. It calls for early amendment of the Marriage Law to include the right of marriage for gays.

PFLAG China was founded in 2008.

Labels: China, marriage equality, PFLAG

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 5, 2013

Wisdom's Questions

When it’s time to suffer, you should suffer; when it’s time to cry, you should cry. Cry completely. Cry until there are no more tears and then recognize in your exhaustion that you’re alive. The sun still rises and sets. The seasons come and go. Absolutely nothing remains the same and that includes suffering. When the suffering ends wisdom begins to raise the right questions.

- Seido Ray Ronci, "The Examined Life"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 6th, 2013
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	When you are completely clear, there is no subjective distortion; when you are completely pure, there is true perception. But even if you are thus through and through, this is still now the transcendental key. When the wind and waves have died out, the ocean of mind is as is; when you get to the bottom of the ocean of mind, for the first time you see the black pearl. - Tzu-te More Buddhism Quotes >>

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 Gay Poltics Report:

• Nobel Peace Prize winner condemns LGBT elected officials
   
• Former president of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa last week lashed out at openly LGBT elected officials, saying they deserve to be separated from the rest of the national parliament "behind a wall." "They have to know that they are a minority and must adjust to smaller things," Walesa said during a television interview. Parliamentary leaders responded by temporarily moving two openly gay and transgender members to the front row, a position of honor. The Victory Fund’s Chuck Wolfe called the comments, "as sad as they are outrageous," given Walesa’s history as a champion for democracy. The Huffington Post/The Associated Press (3/3), ABC News/The Associated Press (3/4), GayPolitics.com (3/4)     

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 1, 2013

Basic Goodness

When we use this term 'basic goodness' it indicates some fundamental possibility. Life is possible. Situations are possible. And anybody can start to gain some kind of insight and appreciation of their lives. That’s what we call 'sacred.' It doesn’t mean something dramatic, but something very simple. There’s a sacredness to everyone’s life.

- Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, "A New Place, A New Time"

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