Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 11, 2013

The Primacy of Intention

Metta practice is the cultivation of our capacity for lovingkindness. It does not involve either positive thinking or the imposition of an artificial positive attitude. There is no need to feel loving or kind during metta practice. Rather, we meditate on our good intentions, however weak or strong they may be, and water the seeds of these intentions.

- Gil Fronsdal, "May We All Be Happy"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through May 12, 2013
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Via The Cormorant Baker: You will be Assimilated

“We welcome everyone”
“Except gays”
“Oh no. We welcome gays… …except as members”
“And obese people.”
“No, I’m sure that’s not right.”
“Well, I read a blog entry where…”
“Oh yes, I read that too. But we do welcome obese people who want to be thin.”
“Yeah, we welcome everyone, But you’ve got to want to be straight, and thin…”
“…and apolitical, and…”
“This is getting complicated. How about: ‘We welcome everyone, but you’ve got to want to be just like us.’”
“That’s right, and we call it ‘unity in diversity’”
“Yes, we take diversity and turn it into unity.”

Via http://bahaisonline.net/tcb/?p=654

 

Tags: homosexuality, inclusivity, prejudice

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 10, 2013

Inhabiting the Body

As we inhabit our body with increasing sensitivity, we learn its unspoken language and patterns, which gives us tremendous freedom to make choices. The practice of cutting thoughts and dispersing negative repetitive patterns can be simplified by attending to the patterns in the body first, before they begin to be spun around in the mind.

- Jill Satterfield, "Meditation in Motion"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through May 11, 2013
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Via JMG: New ABC Poll Reveals Broad Support On Multiple LGBT-Related Issues

ABC News reports on their latest poll:

Backing is widest and deepest for Collins, with 68 percent of Americans saying they support the NBA center’s decision to announce his sexual orientation. Those who “strongly” support his step outnumber his strong critics by a 3-1 margin.
A substantial 63 percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, also support the Boy Scouts’ plan to begin admitting gay scouts younger than 18, while 56 percent oppose its intention to continue to ban gay adults. Again strength of sentiment favors gay rights, by 16- and 12-point margins, respectively. Both policies go to a vote of the group’s governing council, meeting the week of May 20 in Grapevine, Texas.
Some of these views even overcome political sentiment to some degree. Majorities of Republicans and conservatives, 52 and 54 percent, respectively, support Collins’ step, and 53 percent of Republicans support admitting gay scouts. These groups are much less apt to support admitting gay scout leaders or legalizing gay marriage.
Support’s far higher in other groups. Nearly three-quarters of moderates and independents support Collins, as do more than eight in 10 Democrats and liberals. Than two-thirds or more in each of these groups favor admitting gay scouts, and six in 10 or more oppose continuing to ban gay adults from scouting.
Support for gay marriage, for its part, reaches six in 10 or more in each of these groups, far higher than its support among conservatives and Republicans, 33 percent in both groups.

More details here.

Labels: ABC, Boy Scouts, coming out, gay athletes, Jason Collins, LGBT rights, marriage equality, polls

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Martina Navratilova On ENDA

Labels: employment, ENDA, Martina Navralitova

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Michelangelo Signorile

"For gay men over 40, it's as if we've come back from a war that was far away and distant to most Americans even as it was happening -- not unlike the actual wars we've experienced in this country in the past decade. All of us who were in the trenches of the AIDS war are today dealing with the grief and the survivor guilt, even as the war itself goes on. Many are grappling with deeper scars and something akin to post-traumatic stress. A lot of it is immeshed in all the other issues people face, such as mid-life crises and aging. But as John Voelcker pointed out, unlike for other veterans of other wars, there isn't a Veterans Administration or any built-in support system for the survivors of the AIDS war, nor is there any outlet for mass grieving of the thousands who've died from AIDS similar to the memorials for war dead or terrorism victims." - Michelangelo Signorile, writing for the Huffington Post.

Read Signorile's full essay, which includes mention of tonight's Manhattan panel on AIDS survivorship, where I'm one of the speakers.

Labels: activism, AIDS, Broadway Cares, HIV/AIDS, HomoQuotable, LGBT History, Michelangelo Signorile

Reposted from Joe

When Did You Choose to Be Straight?

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	One act of pure love in saving life is greater than spending the whole of ones time in religious offerings to the gods. - Dhammapada More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 9, 2013

Maintaining a Steady Practice

Now if the practice is so good for us, why is it so difficult to maintain a steady practice? It may be that the notion that practice is 'good for us' is the very impediment—we all know how we can resist what is good for us at the table, at the gym, and on the Internet. This mechanical notion of practice, 'if I practice, then I will be (fill in the blank),' leads to discouragement because it is not true that practice inevitably leads to happiness or anything that we can imagine.

- Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, "Like a Dragon in Water"

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JMG Quote Of The Day - Chris Kluwe

"I love football, I love playing football but at the end of the day, it is a children's game that grown men play. If I can speak out on something, especially something that affects millions of lives and causes young kids to kill themselves - if I can speak out on that and help one of those young kids realize that you don't have to take that step, to me that's worth far more than anything that I could gain from football. I think all that we're asking and all that any athlete is asking, straight or gay, is judge that person by what they can do on the field. Not by who they are, not by what their beliefs are or the color of their skin. Judge them by their playing abilities." - Chris Kluwe, speaking with the Huffington Post.  Kluwe was cut this week by the Minnesota Vikings. (Via Gay Star News)

 

Labels: Chris Kluwe, football, sports, straight allies

Reposted from Joe

The DOMA Project: Our Faces - Families Fight to Defeat DOMA

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	To disregard oneself, this is the best dharma. This is the best service to Buddha's religion. Practicing meditation for life is the best gift. To those sentient beings without protection. - "Hundred Thousand Songs: Selections From Milarepa, Poet-Saint of Tibet" More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 8, 2013

The Other Side of Boredom

When you are really bored, the best thing you can do is sit down and let yourself experience the boredom more fully. It may not be a deep or satisfying state, but at least you are not indulging in the things with which you usually cover up this kind of experience. Your real state of mind is more nakedly exposed, because for the time being there are no distractions. If you can stay with the experience of boredom, you can try to feel your way through into something deeper, truer, and more spontaneous within yourself.

- Sangharakshita, "Staying with Boredom"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through May 9, 2013
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Via JMG:

Via JMG:

RuPaul Revealed: 'Drag Race' Host Talks Gay Rights

Via JMG:

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Subhuti asked the Buddha: "The highest, most awakened mind that you have attained--is that mind the unattainable?" "Yes, Subhuti. With regard to that highest and most awakened mind, I have not attained anything. That mind is everywhere equally. It cannot be attained or grasped, but it can be realized. It is realized through the practice of all good actions when they are done in the spirit of no self and no object of self." - Prajnaparamita More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via JMG: Frank Bruni On The Boy Scouts

"The Episcopal Church wants all aspects of the ban lifted, as does the National Jewish Committee on Scouting, whose former chairman, a Baltimore lawyer named Jay Lenrow, told me that while no troop should be forced to choose a gay leader, no troop should be prevented from doing so, either.

"He noted that our country was founded on a principle of religious freedom; that the Scouts’ bylaws require equal treatment of every religion’s teachings; and that certain denominations — the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), for example — ordain gay and lesbian ministers. By the Scouts’ current rules, those very ministers, fit for the pulpit, aren’t deemed fit to lead a troop.

"Isn’t that as much of an insult to their religions as the ban’s end would be to [Tony] Perkins, [Rick] Perry and their kind? - Frank Bruni, writing for the New York Times.  Hit the link and read his entire piece.

Labels: Boy Scouts, Frank Bruni, gay writers, New York Times, religion, Rick Perry, Tony Perkins

Reposted from Joe