Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma August 31, 2013

Constant Okayness

It’s not impermanence per se, or even knowing we’re going to die, that is the cause of our suffering, the Buddha taught. Rather, it’s our resistance to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation. Our discomfort arises from all of our effort to put ground under our feet, to realize our dream of constant okayness.

- Pema Chödrön, "The Fundamental Ambiguity of Being Human"

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What I want to be when I grow up: Daniel Orey at TEDxSacramento

Now with 100 hits and  Brazilian Portugese subtitles!

Via JMG: HRC's Chad Griffin Slams Sochi Sponsors

Image via Memeographs.

Labels: Chad Griffin, HRC, Russia, Sochi Olympics

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: IOC Responds To New York's LGBT Pols

The International Olympic Committee has responded to a letter sent them by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other local LGBT elected officials which asked the IOC to publicly condemn Russia's abuses of LGBT people.  Here's the IOC's response in full:

Dear representatives of the state and City of New York,  We would like to confirm receipt of your letter of 9 August to IOC President Rogge. Thank you for having shared with us your concerns and proposals on the important topic of LGBT rights in Russia in the context of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
The IOC agrees that the Olympic Games should be free of any kind of discrimination and I can reassure you that we work hard to make this a reality at each of the games. However, it is important to stress that the IOC remit is limited to the scope of the Games. For instance, the IOC cannot influence national legislation and has to respect the law of any host country.
In regard to Sochi 2014, the IOC is currently in close discussions with the highest government level in Russia and has received a number of assurances, but we are continuing the dialogue with Russian authorities on this important topic. As you will understand, it would be inappropriate and counterproductive to comment publicly on the details of the discussions while they are on-going.
However, we have widely communicated our position which was also published on our website at the end of July. Rest assured that the safety of athletes, spectators and others attending the Games remains a top priority for the IOC and we will continue to work to ensure that this will be the case in Sochi and future editions of the Games. I hope you find this background information helpful. Thank you for your important work and for your commitment to ensuring an environment free of discrimination.

The letter is signed by Christophe De Kepper, Director General of the IOC.

Labels: IOC, LGBT rights, Russia, Sochi Olympics

Reposted from Joe

A letter to the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith about Homosexuality, and his response

Via HRC / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma August 30, 2013

Good Anger

Anger that is motivated by compassion or a desire to correct social injustice, and does not seek to harm the other person, is a good anger that is worth having.

- The Dalai Lama, "The (Justifiably) Angry Marxist"

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Via JMG: Queer Nation Responds To Coca-Cola

Yesterday Coca-Cola issued a statement declaring their support for the LGBT community after Queer Nation staged a protest in Times Square and denounced the company's sponsorship of the Sochi Olympics.  Today Queen Nation responds to Coca-Cola's statement via press release:

Coca-Cola made a horrendous error when it sponsored the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany. This company knows better and it must not sponsor any Olympic Games in Russia as long as Russia’s anti-gay laws remain in force. We also commend Coca-Cola for its Global Mutual Respect guidelines. Unfortunately, they are just that — guidelines. They are not binding. The guidelines close as follows:
“The Company reserves the right to amend this policy at any time. Nothing in this policy says or implies that a contract exists between the Company and its employees or that participation in this program is a guarantee of continued employment with The Coca-Cola Company.”
Coca-Cola’s U.S. non-discrimination policies and benefits packages are binding, and they are to be praised. That is why we demanded that Coca-Cola implement those policies worldwide. The LGBT community has won respect on its own since the 1969 Stonewall Riots. What we demand is equality before the law in every nation around the world. Coca-Cola cannot provide that, but it can and must extend its non-discrimination policies and benefits packages to all of its employees around the world.
And so we reiterate our demands.

Among those demands is a call for Coke to withdraw from sponsoring the Sochi Olympics and for the company to "publish and publicize its LGBT employment policies on its Russian website in Russian and on physical bulletin boards and websites at all Coca-Cola owned and operated facilities."

Labels: activism, business, Coca-Cola, LGBT rights, protests, Queer Nation, Russia, Sochi Olympics

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: CALIFORNIA: Appeals Court Upholds Law Banning "Ex-Gay" Torture For Minors

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the attempt to block California's law that bans "ex-gay" torture for minors.

In resolving two separate legal challenges to the new law, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the arguments of a group of therapists and families who sued to block its enforcement. The three-judge panel was unanimous in upholding the statute, the first of its kind in the nation.
"(It) does not violate the free speech rights of practitioners or minor patients, is neither vague nor overbroad and does not violate parents' fundamental rights," Judge Susan Graber wrote for the court.
The therapists and families sued over the ban, arguing that it violates the free speech rights of therapists to discuss gay conversion with young patients, and families argued that the law tramples on religious freedoms to seek therapy to convert their children from homosexuality. The law barred licensed mental health professionals from using the therapy on those under the age of 18.

Another big loss for the Liberty Counsel! Stand by for the sadz AND threats about SCOTUS.
UPDATE: Courtesy of JMG reader Joe, I've posted the full 42-page ruling to my Scribd account.
UPDATE II: The National Center For Lesbian Rights responds via press release.

NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter, who argued the case on behalf of Equality California in the Ninth Circuit, said: “This decision clears the way for this life-saving law to protect California youth from cruel and damaging practices that have been rejected by all leading medical and mental health professional organizations. The court of appeals ruled in very clear terms that state-licensed therapists do not have a constitutional right to engage in discredited practices that offer no health benefits and put LGBT youth at risk of severe harm, including depression and suicide. We thank Attorney General Kamala Harris, Deputy Attorney General Alexandra Robert Gordon, and the entire legal team at the California Department of Justice for their brilliant and tireless advocacy in defense of these vital new protections for LGBT youth.” “The court's decision today on Senate Bill 1172 is a major victory for anyone who cares about the well-being of our youth. It will directly impact the lives of thousands of young people by protecting them from this horrific practice," said John O’Connor, Equality California executive director. "We thank Sen. Ted Lieu for authoring this bill and Speaker John A. Perez for his bold leadership in getting the law passed."

Labels: brainwashing, California, child abuse, David Pickup, ex-gay, NARTH, Ninth Circuit Court., torture

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: BREAKING: Married Gay Couples To Get Federal Tax Status In Every State

 

Sam Stein reports at Huffington Post:

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Thursday that when it comes to taxes, it will recognize same-sex couples' marriages even if they live in a state that does not. The decision, which was prompted by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, marks the latest political progress for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Prior to this spring, the Internal Revenue Service did not recognize same-sex married couples pursuant to section 3 of DOMA. Once DOMA was overturned in June, the question became: What about same-sex married couples who moved to a state that didn’t recognize their marriage (a couple married in Massachusetts who moved to Arkansas, for example)? Thursday’s ruling by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew provides a uniform policy for the IRS; the state of celebration -- where the wedding took place -- now trumps the state of residency when it comes to federal tax status for same-sex married couples.

Freedom To Marry head Evan Wolfson reacts:

“This announcement makes today a day of celebration and relief for married same-sex couples all over America. At long last, the IRS will treat them as what they are: married. Freedom to Marry commends the administration’s swift implementation of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling for federal equality in an area that will have a direct, tangible impact on families’ financial health. The fact that this new respect applies only to married couples – not those joined by domestic partnerships or civil unions – highlights the need for an America where everyone can marry the person they love in any state, and have that marriage respected at all levels of government.”

Labels: DOMA, feds, IRS, LGBT History, LGBT rights, marriage equality, taxes

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma August 29, 2013

The Best Possible Habit

What is your automatic reflex to life situations, especially difficult ones? Do you think about yourself and how you might profit or escape from a situation? Or do you think about others and how you can help? Progress on the path, and a sign that you’re well prepared for death, occurs when the former changes into the latter, when you default not into selfishness but into selflessness.

- Andrew Holecek, "The Best Possible Habit"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma August 28, 2013

A Powerful Motivation

When I think of the Buddhist precepts, which are ethical precepts, they are all about relationships. I’ve boiled them down to one: vowing to live in a way that is not at the expense of other beings. In a sense it’s very grand and impossible, but it’s also a really powerful motivation.

- Alan Senauke, "Wrong Mindfulness"

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Op-Ed: Activists raise a voice against Baha’i discrimination of gays

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/357048#ixzz2dDzWJIM5

Via JMG: NEW MEXICO: Two More Counties To Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

We're up to five counties in New Mexico:

San Miguel County in New Mexico joins Valencia County as the latest in the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. San Miguel County Clerk Melanie Rivera has confirmed that she will issue new gender neutral marriage licenses later this week, though couples who don’t want to wait can receive a license today: Rivera also stated that couples who did not wish to wait could apply and receive a license today. Until the new licenses arrive Rivera will make the changes to the old forms by hand.

Zoom, zoom, zoom!
UPDATE: More from Albuquerque.

More than 100 people lined up in Albuquerque Tuesday morning as the clerk in New Mexico’s most populous county began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. The clerk opened her office to the excited crowd at 8 a.m., and a mass wedding was planned at noon in Albuquerque’s Civic Plaza. Patricia Catlett, a 61-year-old graphic designer from Albuquerque, and her partner of 25 years, Karen Schmiege, a 69-year-old retired librarian, were the first to get their license in Bernalillo County. “I am so excited, I can’t stand it,” Schmiege said as they signed their papers.
As the couple walked out of the booth where they received their license, the crowd applauded and cheered. The two raised their hands, and the crowd responded by putting their fists in the air. “I want her to take me to Costa Rica,” Schmiege said. “She promised.” Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver began recognizing same-sex unions after State District Judge Alan Malott on Monday declared gay marriage legal, saying New Mexico’s constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Labels: LGBT rights, marriage equality, New Mexico

Reposted from Joe

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Tricycle Daily Dharma August 26, 2013

Waking up to our Responsibility

As Buddhists, we might see the task of preserving the world’s food system as entailed by our commitment to the twofold good: to achieving our own good from a pragmatic concern for our own long-term welfare, and to promoting the good of others from a compassionate concern for those whom our actions may affect, whether they be our contemporaries or generations as yet unborn.

- Bhikkhu Bodhi, "Into the Fire: Food in the Age of Climate Change"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through August 27, 2013
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Greed for Peace

I contemplated my greed for peace. And I did not seek tranquillity anymore.

- Ajahn Sumedho, "A Contemplation"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma August 24, 2013

The Practice of Everything

In reality, everything is potentially a means to awakening. It is simply a matter of seeing this and knowing how to apply each thing in each particular case. Bodhisattvas practice skillful means to help all beings without exception to awaken. There's nothing that can't be part of a program for awakening. Everything is practice.

- Norman Fischer, "Revealing a World of Bliss"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma August 23, 2013

Like an Archer

Like the archer straightening his arrow and perfecting his aim, the practitioner of meditation straightens out the mind while aiming his or her attentional energy at its object. Learning to drop what we’re doing, however momentarily, and to genuinely pay attention in the present moment, without attachment or bias, helps us become clear, just as a snow globe becomes clear when we stop shaking it and its flakes settle.

- Lama Surya Das, "The Heart-Essence of Buddhist Meditation"

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Via JMG: New Mexico County Begins Issuing Marriage Licenses To Same-Sex Couples

Big news! This morning the New Mexico county of Dona Ana began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Via an alert from Progress Now New Mexico:

Same-sex couples in Doña Ana County began receiving marriage licenses this morning after the county clerk announced he was issuing them based on a legal opinion endorsed earlier this year by the City of Santa Fe and a recent filing by the attorney general stating that New Mexico’s laws demanded that the state issue licenses to same-sex couples. County Clerk Lynn Ellins began issuing the licenses at 8:00 am this morning from his office. At ProgressNowNM, we couldn’t be happier for the couples in Doña Ana County – and those across the state who will soon, no doubt, make their way there – who have waited far too long for public sentiment and political courage to evolve far enough to publicly acknowledge their relationships as being just as equal as that of their neighbors.

Progress Now will be posting photos to their Facebook page. (Tipped by JMG reader Elise)
UPDATE: The Las Cruces Sun-News has a quote from the county clerk.

"I am mindful that I took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the State of New Mexico as Doña Ana County Clerk. I am an attorney, and I have read the AG's opinion, and I find it to be sound. After careful review of New Mexico's laws it is clear that the state's marriage statutes are gender neutral and do not expressly prohibit Doña Ana County from issuing marriage licenses to same-gender couples. Any further denial of marriage licenses to these couples violates the United States and New Mexico Constitution and the New Mexico Human Rights Act. Doña Ana County is upholding New Mexico law by issuing these marriage licenses, and I see no reason to make committed couples in Doña Ana County wait another minute to marry."

Labels: LGBT rights, marriage equality, New Mexico

Reposted from Joe