Via Freedom to Marry / FB:

Edie Windsor has been named one of TIME's Top 5 People of the Year! 

 

Don't miss TIME's beautiful tribute to the woman whose love story made 2013 amazing: http://ti.me/1aV3jKY

 

 

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 11, 2013

The Matter of Truth

One finds in Buddhist tradition a distinction between “words” and “meaning,” which are often very different from one another, and we would do well to consider the traditional advice—whether we are looking at statues or interpreting teachings—to pay attention to symbolic meaning and not be limited to literal meaning.

- Rita M. Gross, “The Matter of Truth”

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Is Being Gay a choice?

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 10, 2013

Spiritual Stinginess

We try to turn a profit in practice—to get something from it. We try to get better. We try to get enlightenment. We try to get seen for doing it right. What are we being stingy with here? Wholehearted surrender to the present moment or to what is. Think how stingy we are with that. Think how tightly we hold on. We also imagine that in practicing, what we will “get” will be ours—which is, of course, the greatest delusion of all.

- Sensei Nancy Mujo Baker, "On Not Being Stingy"

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Via JMG: Edith Windsor: Top Ten Finalist For TIME Magazine's Person Of The Year

 

TIME Magazine today released the top ten finalists for Person Of The Year. On the list is Edith Windsor.  Here are the finalists in alphabetical order. 

Bashar Assad, President of Syria
Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder
Ted Cruz, Texas Senator
Miley Cyrus, Singer
Pope Francis, Leader of the Catholic Church
Barack Obama, President of the United States
Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services
Edward Snowden, N.S.A. Leaker
Edith Windsor, Gay rights activist

The 2013 Person Of The Year will be revealed on Wednesday.

Labels: 2013 in review, DOMA, Edith Windsor, Time Magazine

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: BRASIL: 130 Couples Participate In Mass Wedding As Rio Legalizes Gay Marriage

Yesterday Rio De Janeiro became the 14th Brazilian state to legalize same-sex marriage. Over 130 couples married in a mass wedding at the state's Superior Court of Justice.

In mid-May, Brazilian courts determined that public offices that oversee marriages cannot reject gay couples, even though Brazil's national congress has passed no law on the matter. Some public offices had already been accepting marriage applications from homosexual couples, while others denied them. An emotional Viviane Soares Lessa de Faria, 38, smiled at her partner and told news site G1 "I've dreamed of marrying her since I met her." Her wife's 29-year-old son was the couple's best man. For Giuseppe Laricchia, 21, marrying his boyfriend was about guaranteeing rights. "We need to have equality compared with heterosexual couples," he said.

(Via Towleroad)

Labels: Brazil, marriage equality, Rio de Janeiro

 
Reposted from Joe Jervis

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 9, 2013

To Be the Host

The ancient Chinese used the image of the host to describe the observing, stable meditator. Many guests visit the host. Some are invited, and they tend to be kind, charming, and a pleasure to entertain. Others are not invited: they are drunk, unruly, and eat all the food. Or they stand around, staring into space.

- Larry Rosenberg, “To Be the Host”

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Via Being Liberal / FB:

Via JMG: ROME: Famed Street Lit With Rainbow Lights For Gay Teen, Wingnuts Complain

Italy's right wing Fratelli d'Italia party is demanding the removal of rainbow lights hung over Rome's famous Via Del Corso in the memory of a gay teenager.

A rainbow-flag theme has been selected for the traditional lights along the city's main shopping street, the Via del Corso. The lights run for almost a mile long. The lights were chosen by the local council as a stand against homophobia, following the recent suicide of a gay teenager in the Eternal City. "That is how we came up with the rainbow flag idea," said councilor Imma Battaglia, who also heads up a gay rights campaign group. But that decision has not gone down well with everyone, reports AFP.

The company that put up the lights has responded to the furor by saying that the lights are now also dedicated to the memory of Nelson Mandela.

Labels: Italy, LGBT youth, Rome, suicide

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: German President To Boycott Sochi

German President Joachim Gauck has announced that he will not attend the Sochi Olympics in protests of Russia's anti-LGBT pogrom. ESPN reports:

Gauck took the decision to protest human rights violations and the harassment of Russian opposition political figures, Der Spiegel reported Sunday. The magazine said the Russian government was informed of his decision last week. Presidential spokeswoman Ferdos Forudastan confirmed the move to the dpa news agency on Sunday. Gauck's office could not immediately be reached for further confirmation. Forudastan told dpa that there was no set rule saying German presidents had to travel. Former president Horst Koehler did not travel to Vancouver for the Winter Games in 2010. The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) said on its website that Gauck had not been planning to visit to Sochi "according to our knowledge." DOSB director general Michael Vesper told dpa that "(someone) who doesn't travel doesn't automatically boycott something. It's certainly not directed against the German team." Gauck, an outspoken critic of Russia's human-rights record, is yet to visit the country since taking office in March 2012. A planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June 2012 fell through, apparently for scheduling reasons.

The presidency of Germany is largely a ceremonial position. Chancellor Angela Merkel, the actual head of the government, has spoken against any boycott of the Sochi Olympics. (Tipped by JMG reader Str8 Grandmother)

Labels: Germany, LGBT rights, Russia, Sochi Olympics

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 8, 2013

The Sangha

Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are three precious jewels in Buddhism, and the most important of these is Sangha. The Sangha contains the Buddha and the Dharma. A good teacher is important, but sisters and brothers in the practice are the main ingredient for success. You cannot achieve enlightenment by locking yourself in your room. Transformation is possible only when you are in touch. When you touch the ground, you can feel the stability of the earth and feel confident.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, "The Fertile Soil of Sangha"

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Via JMG: RUSSIA: Anti-Gay Social Media Group Posts Reward To Out LGBT Teachers

 

Queer Russia reports:

A new St. Petersburg based antigay group emerged on a popular Russian social network Vkontakte has launched an on-line campaign offering an equivalent of $150 for reporting “confirmed” information on LGBT school teachers. The group aims to stop “gay propaganda to minors” in schools and dismiss gay teachers with the help of local authorities. The announcement published on the group’s page Vkontakte urges people to collect and send in any public information about LGBT teachers who are, “explicitly or implicitly”, open about their own sexual orientation on the internet and to their schoolchildren.
The group refuses to accept any rumors or slander and stresses that the information must be available in the open sources so that the group’s activity does not violate the Russian law on collecting personal data without a person’s consent. The announcement claims that such open information can be “threatening to psyche and mind of children who may be around such people”. The group claims to have connections with the Russian authorities in order to perform dismissals “without any bullying, homophobia or calls to violence”, but still enforcing the “gay propaganda to minors ban law”.

The group claims to have be given the names of six teachers within the first 24 hours of their post.

Labels: bigotry, Russia, social media, St. Petersburg

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Empire State Building Honors Mandela

 

The Empire State Building was lit in the colors of South Africa's flag in honor of Nelson Mandela and the Tea Things are very upset about this.

Labels: Empire State Building, Nelson Mandela, NYC, South Africa

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via The Other 98% / FB:

Via JMG: Matt Barber Writes For World Net Daily: Eric Holder Should Arrest JMG For Anti-Christian Comments Left On His Blog

Matt Barber Writes For World Net Daily: Eric Holder Should Arrest JMG For Anti-Christian Comments Left On His Blog

Liberty Counsel spokesdouche Matt Barber has posted a World Net Daily column in which he calls for Eric Holder and the federal government to take legal action against me for anti-Christian comments made by alleged JMG readers on a post I wrote about a recent abortion rights rally in Argentina, in which feminists spat upon and sprayed paint into the faces of Catholic men outside a cathedral. After describing the incident, Barber writes:

For liberals, although the means may change, the ends remain the same. Still, equally disturbing are a number of comments posted about the incident on at least one award-winning “gay”-activist blog. Ironically, the site, “JoeMyGod,” a serial Christian-defaming cyber-rag, won the award for “Outstanding Blog” in 2011 at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Awards. While Joe Jervis – the blog’s militant atheist and “gay” sadomasochist founder – refused to denounce the Argentinian “hate crimes” outright, he at least begrudgingly admitted: “I really can’t see how this advances the cause of abortion rights.” Ya think? Even so, Jervis, who’s blog has a long history of anti-Christian extremism and violence-charged rhetoric, nonetheless permitted several of his regular posters to not only condone the feminist attacks, but to illegally call for a steep escalation in anti-Christian violence in general (up to and including church bombings, and both the castration and even murder of Christians in the U.S.).

Barber then goes on for several paragraphs to quote these "regular posters" (none of whose user names I recognize) and then he concludes:

Indeed, to borrow from Madonna, it seems Argentina has much to cry for. And so does America. But as for “JoeMyGod,” the question is this: Will GLADD now publicly disavow Joe Jervis for allowing (and perhaps tacitly condoning) such violent (and very likely illegal) rhetoric? Will this self-styled “anti-defamation” group rescind its “Outstanding Blog” award? Don’t hold your breath. Even still, a bigger question remains: Will federal authorities investigate these threats? If it were Christians threatening “gays,” Eric Holder himself would kick-in the door with MSNBC in tow. Every newspaper in America would give it above-the-fold coverage. But it wasn’t Christians threatening “gays.” It was “gays” threatening Christians. And that just doesn’t fit the false “gay victimhood” narrative.

The almost-hilarious hypocrisy here, of course, is that anybody who has EVER endured five minutes on WND knows that they not only allow their own commenters to advocate for the death penalty for homosexuals and that they cheer on violent anti-gay hate crimes, WND columnists themselves have called for executing people who oppose the Christianist agenda, as, for example, when WND's Erik Rush did last year when he declared that journalists should be executed after Mitt Romney won the election. Erik Rush: "Trials for treason and the requisite sentences would apply, and I would have no qualms about seeing such sentences executed, no matter how severe." Earlier this year WND's Erik Rush declared that all Muslims should be murdered and underscored that sentiment with this tweet: "Yes, they're evil. Kill them all." And just last week WND's Erik Rush called for the execution of the president of the United States.
OK, coming back to the world of actual sane people, actual longtime JMG readers are well aware that for the near-decade of this blog's existence, I have posted regular pleas for civility in the comments and have demanded that no one make calls for physical violence against any person or any property for any reason. One of those pleas went up here just a few months ago when I wrote:

As I regularly do, today I again caution you that even the most idle and "jokey" threats of physical harm to any person or property are completely unacceptable on JMG. Also strongly discouraged are expressed wishes of physical harm to others by any means, including natural ones. Please remain aware that JMG comments are often scoured by the enemies of civil equality who look for any opportunity to republish ill-considered reactions to the news reported here. We sometimes see more than 50,000 comments per month and I cannot personally read but a fraction of them. Therefore I must rely on the JMG community to stay self-policing and notify me by email should any comment concern you. Be advised that in many cases these comments are posted by drive-by trolls in order to grab triumphant screen-shots for use elsewhere. You've been remarkably great about observing these very few commenting rules and I thank you for that.

The vast majority of JMG readers have been very good about observing these commenting rules and I thank you for that. And please do continue to alert me if you see any comments like those in today's WND column. As for Matt Barber, I suspected something like this was coming after he suddenly followed me on Twitter a few days ago after years of blocking me from following him. Barber is obviously trying to take revenge on me because I take such delight in cataloging every single loss suffered by the Liberty Counsel. And there have been SO many lately.
One wonders how many tens of thousands of JMG comments Barber had to wade through before he could finally pounce upon the half dozen cited in today's World Net Daily column. One also wonders if Barber didn't plant those comments himself. You'd think Matt Barber would be SUPER busy getting repeatedly smacked down by the Supreme Court or helping the Liberty Counsel with the RICO Act lawsuit which alleges that they abetted the kidnapping of a young girl. Instead, he's got time to troll JMG and cherry-pick a handful of ugly comments. What a sad clown.
NOTE: I've taken down the JMG post cited by Barber rather than deleting the offensive comments. We don't need WND's violently anti-gay readers swarming over here from Barber's link.
NOTE II: It never fails to crack me up when Barber or Porno Pete call me a "leather daddy" or says that I'm "sadomasochistic." Is it the pork pie hat? Where DO they get that?
UPDATE: Barber is pissed that I've blocked his link by taking down my post. Needless to say, if my post was still up, he'd be tweeting "Militant gay refuses to take down post." SNORK!

Labels: abortion rights, Argentina, Christianists, crackpots, douchenozzles, Eric Holder, fuckweasels, gay death penalty, hypocrisy, JMG, JMG community, Liberty Counsel, Matt Barber, religion, World Net Daily

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 7, 2013

A Reorienting Intention

The intentions of Buddha-dharma are remarkably different from the inherited intentions of Western culture, and this tension needs to be sorted out by each and every practitioner in their own life. The basic intention that gets set up in the study and practice of Buddha-dharma is that the whole sense-linked world, samsara, is inherently unsatisfying.

- Mu Soeng, “Dharma for Sale”

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Who Would Jesus Hate?

Via JMG: RUSSIA: Elton John Denounces Anti-Gay Laws From Stage Of Moscow Concert, Dedicates Show To Slain Gay Man

"You took me to your hearts all these years ago and you've always welcomed me with warmth and open arms any time I've visited. You have always embraced me and you have never judged me. So I am deeply saddened and shocked over the current legislation that is now in place against the LGBT community here in Russia. In my opinion, it is inhumane and it is isolating. People have demanded that because of this legislation, I must not come here to Russia. But many, many more people asked me to come and I listened to them. I love coming here.

"I want to show them and the world that I care and that I don't believe in isolating people. Music is a very powerful thing. It brings people together irrespective of their age, their race, their sexuality, or their religion. It does not discriminate. Look around you tonight. You see men, women, young and old, gay and straight. Thousands of Russian people enjoying the music. We're all here together in harmony and harmony is what makes a happy family and a strong society.

"The spirit we share tonight is what builds a future of equality, love and compassion for my children and for your children. Please don't leave it behind when you leave tonight. Each and every one of you please, keep this spirit in your life and in your heart. I wish you love and peace and health and happiness. And this show is dedicated to the memory of Vladislav Tornovoi. - Elton John, reading from the stage tonight at his concert in Moscow.

NOTE: Vladislav Tornovoi was the 23 year-old gay man murdered earlier this year in Volgograd after coming out to drinking companions, who mutilated his genitals with a beer bottle and then set his body on fire.

NOTE II: I transcribed the above from a non-embeddable video posted to Facebook today. I'll post video here as soon as it becomes available.

NOTE III: It should go without saying Elton has certainly put himself at risk, although Russian authorities would likely be very hesitant to move on a star of his caliber. I wasn't crazy about the idea of him going to Russia at all, but I think he handled tonight admirably.

Labels: concerts, Elton John, gay artists, LGBT rights, Moscow, Russia

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Guardan (2007): Ugandan gays demand freedom

Ugandan gays demand freedom

• • Peter Tatchell
  • 
    
  • theguardian.com, Monday 17 September 2007 21.00 BST
  • Jump to comments (34)

Ugandan government ministers are demanding the arrest of the country's lesbian and gay human rights activists. Deputy attorney general Fred Ruhinde and minister of ethics and integrity Nsaba Buturo made the call last month in a series of radio broadcasts heard across country.

They are backed by Christian, Muslim and Bahai religious leaders who are calling for all "homos" to be rounded up and locked away.

Buturo told the BBC that his government opposed equality for gay people and would not decriminalise gay sexual relationships. He branded homosexuality as "shameful, abominable and ungodly ... (and) unnatural". Urging gays to get out of Uganda he warned ominously: "We know them, we have details of who they are."

Buturo then went even further by attending a church-orchestrated anti-gay rally held in the capital Kampala on August 21. It was a de facto show of government support for homophobic religious zealots who denounced homosexuality as "immoral" and paraded with placards urging: "Arrest all homos." The rally was organised by the interfaith coalition against homosexuality, an alliance of Christian, Muslim and Bahai organisations.

The homophobic backlash in Uganda is in response to a new campaign called "Let us live in peace". It is organised by a small group of brave, inspiring Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) human rights activists. They are challenging decades of systematic discrimination and violence suffered by LGBTI Ugandans. Much of this homophobic persecution is incited by President Yoweri Museveni's government, by Kampala's notoriously sensationalist tabloid press and, most shockingly of all, by the Anglican church of Uganda.

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has failed to condemn the homophobic witch-hunt that is being stirred up by Anglican bishops in Uganda. Indeed, he has gone out of his way to embrace and appease them in a desperate bid to stop them splitting from the Anglican Communion. Liberal and gay Ugandans are dismayed by the archbishop's silence and indifference.

The attacks on the LGBTI community in Uganda are symptomatic of the increasing authoritarianism of the government of President Museveni, who seems to be heading in the same direction as President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

President Museveni's regime stands accused of rigged elections, censorship of the media, repression of protests, crackdowns on universities and trade unions, detention without trial and the use of torture. Details of these abuses are documented in my Talking With Tatchell TV interview with Ugandan opposition activists, which you can watch here.

Despite state and church repression, the new LGBTI "Let us live in peace" campaign is defiant. It has been organised a coalition of several LGBTI organisations operating under the name sexual minorities Uganda or Smug.

On August 17, they held Uganda's first ever LGBTI human rights press conference at the Speke Hotel, where speakers called for an end to homophobic discrimination in the legal, education and health systems. Many of those who attended the press conference wore masks and gave only first names, because they were fearful of identification and arrest.

Smug speakers reported that the police are guilty of gross harassment of law-abiding LGBTI people. Officers often demand sexual favours or personal bribes in exchange for release from custody on trumped-up charges.

The Smug campaigners also highlighted the health problems LGBTI people face, particularly HIV/Aids, which often go untreated due to fear of persecution by homophobic doctors and the police. Lesbian and gay people are excluded from Uganda's anti-HIV/Aids prevention and support programmes. Smug declared: "We have had enough of the abuse, neglect and violence."

Smug is led by Victor Juliet Mukasa, a transgender lesbian who is one of Uganda's very few LGBTI activists willing to be identified and speak openly in public. Mukasa was forced to flee temporarily into exile in South Africa in fear of her life after police raided her home in 2005. She has now returned to Uganda to spearhead the new campaign and to pursue a civil lawsuit against the government ministers who sanctioned the raid on her home.

In Uganda, male homosexuality is illegal under archaic laws imposed during the period of British colonial rule. Section 140 of the country's penal code criminalises "carnal knowledge against the order of nature" with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Section 141 bans "attempts at carnal knowledge", stipulating a maximum penalty of seven years jail; while section 143 punishes "gross indecency" between men in public or private and authorises a top sentence of five years.

The Ugandan government openly flouts international human rights conventions that guarantee equal rights and non-discrimination, including the African charter on human and peoples' rights which Uganda ratified in 1986 and has promised to uphold.

The escalating attacks on LGBTI people began in 1999, when a state-owned newspaper reported that President Museveni had ordered the arrest and imprisonment of homosexuals. The New Vision newspaper quoted Museveni as saying: "I have told the Criminal Investigations Department to look for homosexuals, lock them up and charge them."

Five years later, in 2004, government minister Nsaba Buturo ordered the police to investigate and "take appropriate action" against a gay organisation at Makerere University.

The following year, President Museveni signed a constitutional amendment that made same-sex marriages illegal. Article 31 of the constitution now states "marriage between persons of the same sex is prohibited".

The government has also attempted to silence discussion of rights for LGBTI people. The country's broadcasting council fined a radio station for hosting a discussion involving a lesbian and two gay men, where they called for greater understanding of LGBTI people and for the anti-sodomy law to be repealed.

The media is also guilty of rabid homophobia. In 2006 and again this month, the tabloid newspaper Red Pepper outed dozens of alleged lesbians and gay and bisexual men. The paper claimed it was doing this in order to "show the nation how fast the terrible vice known as sodomy is eating up our society". You can read samples of the lurid, shock-horror, gay-baiting headlines and news stories on the OutRage! photo website.

The pervasive "state homophobia," as Human Rights Watch has called it, together with the allied media witch-hunts, make it all the more extraordinary and praiseworthy that members of Smug have taken such a public and defiant stand in defence of LGBTI equality. Their courage is truly inspirational. In defending LGBTI rights against an increasingly authoritarian state, they are ultimately defending the liberties and human rights of all Ugandans - gay and straight. Bravo!

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/sep/17/ugandangaysdemandfreedom