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Tricycle Daily Dharma February 22, 2014

Seeing Clearly

What does seeing clearly mean? It doesn’t mean that you look at something and analyze it, noting all its composite parts; no. When you see clearly, when you look at a flower and really see it, the flower sees you. It’s not that the flower has eyes, of course. It’s that the flower is no longer just a flower, and you are no longer just you.

- Maurine Stewart, “Our One and Only Commandment”

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Via FB:

THE RITZ

Your Disco Needs You

Via JMG: Photo Of The Day

 

Posted to the Facebook page of Rocco's Little Chicago Pizzeria in Tucson. The restaurant has also posted this: "As a longtime employer and feeder of the gay community, Rocco's reserves the right to eject any State Senators we see fit to kick out. That is all." The photo has been shared over 2000 times and many commenters are vowing to patronize Rocco's.  (Tipped by JMG reader Christopher)

Labels: Arizona, LGBT rights, restaurants, Tucson

posted by Joe Jervis

Homophobic People Die Earlier

People who espouse anti-gay views die younger than those who don't, found a sure-to-be-controversial study in the February issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
"Anti-gay prejudice is associated with elevated mortality risk among heterosexuals, over and above multiple established risk factors for mortality," wrote the researchers, led by Mark L. Hatzenbuehler of Columbia University.

In fact, those who were not highly prejudiced against gay people lived an average of 2.5 years longer than those who were.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/antigay-prejudice-and-elevated-mortality-2014-2#ixzz2tzRiRaec

JMG Headline Of The Day

Via Business Insider:

People who espouse anti-gay views die younger than those who don't, found a sure-to-be-controversial study in the February issue of the American Journal of Public Health. "Anti-gay prejudice is associated with elevated mortality risk among heterosexuals, over and above multiple established risk factors for mortality," wrote the researchers, led by Mark L. Hatzenbuehler of Columbia University. In fact, those who were not highly prejudiced against gay people lived an average of 2.5 years longer than those who were. The researchers acknowledged that the questions represent "a limited range of potential indices of anti-gay prejudice," adding that the effect of such prejudice may actually be larger than they were able to measure. The respondents included in the study were 20,226 heterosexuals who participated in GSS interviews between 1988 and 2008, 4,216 of whom had died by the end of the study period.

Want to live longer? Embrace the gay!

Labels: homophobia, mortality, religion, science

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via The Other 98% / FB:

Via JMG: BREAKING: Oregon AG Says She Won't Defend Against Gay Marriage Suit

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced today that she will not defend the state against the marriage equality lawsuit filed in federal court in October. Rosenblum said that she will continue to enforce the gay marriage ban until the court rules, but adds that the ban "cannot withstand a federal constitutional challenge under any standard of review." Here's a reminder about the suit, which is scheduled to have oral arguments on April 23th:

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene by Portland attorneys Lake Perriguey and Lea Ann Easton on behalf of two gay couples, seeks to have 2004's Measure 36 ruled unconstitutional. It names Gov. John Kitzhaber and Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, as well as a few other officials, as defendants. It argues that one couple—Deanna Geiger and Janine Nelson—should be able to legally marry. The other plaintiffs, Robert Deuhmig and William Griesar, were legally married in Vancouver, B.C., and wish to have their rights recognized in Oregon. The suit is separate from the anticipated $12 million campaign to overturn Measure 36 being orchestrated by Oregon United for Marriage. Volunteers are collecting signatures to put an initiative on the ballot next year.

Rosenblum is a Democrat and Oregon's first female Attorney General. I think I hear some sadz coming 'round the bend!
UPDATE: Freedom To Marry reacts.

“Attorney General Rosenblum is right in refusing to waste taxpayers’ dollars by defending the indefensible anti-marriage law in Oregon. Rosenblum is joined by other attorneys general from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada; and even Republican Governor Brian Sandoval in Nevada, who all came to the same conclusion that the state cannot in good conscience defend a law denying committed same-sex couples the freedom to marry. The rapid momentum for the freedom to marry in states across the country underscores the understanding that the Constitution’s guarantee of the freedom to marry and equal protection under the law apply to gay and non-gay people alike. America – and Oregon – are ready for the freedom to marry.”

UPDATE II: Oregon United reacts. Pay attention to the second paragraph.

“This is tremendous news. The Attorney General has taken a close look at the facts, and came to the same conclusion that courts around the country and freedom-minded Oregonians have: there is no reasonable or legal justification to exclude committed gay and lesbian couples from marriage,” campaign manager Mike Marshall says. “The dramatic increase in Oregonians’ support for the freedom to marry—from 42 percent support in May 2010 to 55 percent support today—mirrors the movement we’re seeing nationally. More and more people understand that no one should be denied the freedom to marry the person they love.”
Oregon United for Marriage also announced today it has gathered enough signatures to to be assured a place on the November 2014 ballot. 116,284 are required but the campaign has gathered more than 160,000 signatures—well over the requirement and more than enough to qualify for the November ballot. Oregon United will hold onto the signatures, pending the outcome of the federal lawsuit.

Labels: Ellen Rosenblum, lawsuits, marriage equality, Oregon

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via HRC: Brian Brown: Stop Harming LGBT Russians

Being LGBT (Gay) in Japan【同性愛者（日本）】日英字幕

Coming out to my sister live on camera!

Via The Other 98% / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 20, 2014

Facing Yourself

Spiritual change is precisely a process that is bigger than you. You don’t control it. You surrender to it. You don’t reinvent yourself through spiritual work. You face yourself, and then you must let go of all the ghastly things you find. But there is no end to these ghastly things. They keep coming. The ego is a bottomless pit of suckiness. And so you finally let go of the self that clings to itself (one definition of ego). True freedom comes when ego goes.

- Shozan Jack Haubner, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Enlightenment"

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Via JMG: Today's Dear Abby Column

 

Pauline Phillips, the original "Abigail Van Buren," died last year at the age of 94.  Here is today's advice from her daughter Jeanne Phillips, who has written the column since 2002.

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I relocated to Florida a little over a year ago and were quickly welcomed into our new neighbors' social whirl. Two couples in the neighborhood are gay -- one male, one female. While they are nice enough, my husband and I did not include them when it was our turn to host because we do not approve of their lifestyle choices. Since then, we have been excluded from neighborhood gatherings, and someone even suggested that we are bigots! Abby, we moved here from a conservative community where people were pretty much the same. If people were "different," they apparently kept it to themselves. I don't feel we should have to compromise our values just to win the approval of our neighbors. But really, who is the true bigot here? Would you like to weigh in? -- Unhappy in Tampa
DEAR UNHAPPY: I sure would. The first thing I'd like to say is that regardless of what you were told in your previous community, a person's sexual orientation isn't a "lifestyle choice." Gay people can't change being gay any more than you can change being heterosexual. From where I sit, you may have chosen the wrong place to live because it appears you would be happier in a less integrated neighborhood surrounded by people who think the way you do. But if you interact only with people like yourselves, you will have missed a chance for growth, which is what you have been offered here. Please don't blow it.

More than 30 years ago, Pauline said the same thing, but a bit more succinctly.

Labels: advice columns, Dear Abby, Florida

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via HimalayaCrafts / FB:

The mind is everything. - Buddha

 

The Fire Tablet (music by Arlen Yanch)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TCObW_jL24&list=RDpriSx7SvZ5Q#t=46

Response to a Post on BUD: I have some observations...

Response to a Post on BUD: 

I have some observations... 
 
I won’t apologize if my mixture seems a bit rich, or harsh to some here. The time for politeness is over. This need for Baha’is to be condescending or tell others to “firm up your covenant” and to constantly school us here over and over about the writings, that trust me we all went to first… is over. I have a reasonable expectation here to be treated just as fairly in a Baha’i community as I am in the real world. It astonishes me that Baha’is do not see this. 
 
There are GLBT people that have every right to be in this religion and expect that that this homophobia should stop. As for me, I have been misled, lied to by important people and institutions, spied upon, that if this had occurred in my professional life I could have sued and retired a very happy healthy and free man. I once let this happen in hopes that I could just hide under a rock, but they came after me anyway. 
 
In so doing, I have noticed a phenomenon when Baha’is encounter the GLBTs in their community; I am ashamed to say that once I was there as well. I wish I could write as well about these things as others here can and do, so please bear with me. There are stages… or Valleys if it were:
 
1. Throw the book at them. At this stage the well-meaning but very fanatical and conservative Baha’i throws every possible quote, paragraph, writing at the GLBT. They labor under the misbelief that if the GLBT just reads one more special paragraph or prayer they will be “cured” and that they will miraculously turn straight. That if you question anything your covenant thingy is infirm... 
 
2. Be kind but firm with them. Not sure to me if this is less or more harsh, this is where the Baha’is are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They pretend to be a friend, they may even treat GLBT colleagues at work “nicely”. But if you are a seeker or become a Baha’i they quickly, perhaps subtly, question your “firmness in the covenant” or even question why you are so angry? They will never include an actual GLBT Baha’i in the dialogue, just those that seek to cure us, thus making the Faith look absurd from the outside. And then when you stand up, and begin to publically ask questions they ask you why then are you a Baha’i? Or suggest that there is something amiss with your covenant thingy.... This is where they ask you if you don’t agree, with what they, the institutions or the writings have to say then why you are a Baha’i? 
 
All these groups are dishonest, inadequate, hostile and violent in their own way towards GLBT people – they will not include GLBT Bs in the dialogue, they will inform on you, they do not allow for you to express your anger or frustration, and eventually they show you the door if you do not agree with them. They will not change or open their hearts. They just judge. They kick you out, but expect you to reform, to change, to return to a community that will never ever accept you anyway now because it is mired in antiquated homophobia that the institutions allow and support.
 
On the other side there seems to be pattern I have seen as well… most GLBT Baha’is do some of this:
Many cower, are ashamed, try, try, try to live like the person in Number 1 above wishes us to do, they fail frequently and eventually leave the Faith. Others live double lives, they marry, and play dangerously on the side because they have been terrorized into thinking that if they must put on a show all is well, yet eventually they find it is impossible, or end of living double lives, and not really part of either world. They buy into the homosexuality is sickness, and remain sick. Because this is what the Faith calls - CURED! Others attempt to make sense of this, they come in contact with healthy outstanding GLBT members and friends of other religions that despite having practically the very same teachings and rules on homosexuality, have made an all-inclusive community anyway. They probably visit these communities with their friends and begin to see a different world, where GLBT people are welcomed and encouraged to become healthy, happy citizens. And in so doing begin to ask the Baha'is why we can't do this as well? Or, they disappear all together
So it is, after living years in Os States (I was born there, pioneered to Central America, went to grad school there, worked 22 yrs there, tried being married, have an amazing son, and gave countless hours of service before I was lied to and then shown the door after marrying the man of my life). Comparing homophobic Baha’i cultish response to GLBT people to how many other religious communities behave, causes me to ask WTH (heck or Hidalgo as someone said) Baha’i Faith is just that.Is this constant berating of GLBT Baha’is doing any of us any good? Is ignoring our pain and frustration doing anyone any good? Is this constant throwing the writings at each other doing any good? 
 
NO!
 
Is it including all of us in dialogue? Is it allowing all of us to be part of your community, in an open welcoming accepting manner? Or are we to continue this outdated, backward homophobic response and keep those terrible, sick weak in the covenant GLBT people out of our Feasts, Firesides, and communities? Sorry, but it really is time that all Baha’is grow a set, mature and realize that there are GLBT people everywhere, and we are not going away, and that we are not scary, immoral evil people, but can and should be included in all aspects of this messed up but beautiful religion. What possible harm would my happy, healthy family be to your nice little polite feast or fireside? So yeah, WTH BF?

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 19, 2014

Abandoning the Transactional Mindset

Even in close relationships, spending time with a friend, even while helping others or doing other good works, if your attention is on what you are feeling, on what you are getting out of it, then you see these relationships as transactions. Because your focus is on how you are feeling, consciously or unconsciously you are putting yourself first and others second. This approach disconnects you from life, from the totality of your world.

- Ken McLeod, "Forget Happiness"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 20, 2014
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