Via JMG: Activist Groups React To Mozilla News

Courage Campaign

“Across the country, the LGBT community and progressive activists are heartened by Mozilla’s decisive action to remove Mr. Eich as the CEO of their for-profit and nonprofit ventures. It is a testament to the power of online grassroots organizing. The decision to hold its CEO to the same high standards of inclusion and equality that the company advocates, Mozilla once again reaffirmed its credibility as a thoroughly progressive institution. Let this be a clear message to those at other progressive institutions around the country -- homophobia and bigotry are not progressive values, and will not be tolerated.”

CREDO

“We applaud Mozilla’s announcement and its strong stand for equal rights,” said Becky Bond, CREDO’s Political Director. “Mozilla is not just company, it’s a movement supported by tens of thousands of volunteers around the world. Mozilla is a non-profit organization fighting to keep the web open and free for all of us. They put people above profit, and fight for user choice and privacy. Mozilla’s mission is vitally important to every grassroots movement, including the work that we do here at CREDO.”

NOTE: There have been few public reactions to Mozilla story by LGBT groups, who seem have largely left the issue to grassroots activists. GLAAD has issued a one sentence statement: "Mozilla’s strong statement in favor of equality today reflects where corporate America is: inclusive, safe, and welcoming to all." 

Labels: Brendan Eich, Courage Campaign, Firefox, GLAAD, Mozilla, Proposition 8, technology

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: and...Right On Cue

Labels: Brendan Eich, Bryan Fischer, Christianists, douchebaggery, hate groups, hypocrisy, Linda Harvey, Mozilla, Peter LaBarbera, religion, Tammy Bruce, technology

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma

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Refraining is not Enough | April 4, 2014

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Whenever we find fault with others, whether through anger, contemptuous certainty, self-righteousness, or gossip, it is often based in fear. We may not be aware of our fears, but when we look deeply, we may discover the fear of rejection, loss of control, of unworthiness, or the fear of disconnection. But refraining alone is not enough—by itself it is just behavior modification—and it is neither healing nor transformative. Only through uncovering and consciously entering into the deep hole inside, welcoming the fear with curiosity and compassion, can we ultimately reconnect with the basic wholeness of our true nature.    

 

—Ezra Bayda, “Gossip”

 

Via JMG: Signorile Vs Sullivan

 

Yesterday Andrew Sullivan denounced the campaign against now-former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, declaring that if the Eich controversy represents the gay rights movement today, he no longer wants any part of it. Michelangelo Signorile responded to Sullivan this morning in a post which contends that it wasn't Eich's donation to the Prop 8 campaign that did him in. An excerpt:

Eich only announced he was stepping down after it was revealed late Wednesday that he'd given money to Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign in 1992, and later to Ron Paul's campaign. Suddenly, in addition to defending a CEO who gave money to homophobic efforts, Mozilla would have to defend a CEO who supported Buchanan, a far right extremist and isolationist who's been accused of racist and anti-Semitic attacks, and who also was, rightly, driven off MSNBC -- though that took years longer to accomplish than the few weeks it took to purge Alec Baldwin.
It all just became too much for Mozilla to bear, and who knows what else may have been dug up on Eich? None of this is about government censorship. It's about a company based in Northern California which has many progressive employees, and which has a lot of progressives and young people among the user base of its Firefox browser, realizing its CEO's world view was completely out of touch with the company's --and America's -- values and vision for the future.

Hit the link and read Signorile's full response.

Labels: activism, Andrew Sullivan, Brendan Eich, LGBT rights, Michelangelo Signorile, Mozilla, Pat Buchanan, Proposition 8

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via George Takei / FB:

Well, that was fast. OkCupid's strong stance surely helped. And staffers at Mozilla who'd protested, and company directors who'd resigned as a result of his appointment, can now work in a hate-free zone.

And a quick civics primer: Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. This man donated money to a campaign designed to keep LGBT people from full equality and to deny our families equal rights under the law. He was free to make that choice, but we are free to hold him accountable. If he'd donated money to White Supremacists to help outlaw interracial marriage, there'd be little outcry over his ouster.

 

Mozilla CEO Resigns After Political Gay Marriage Ban Donation

Mozilla co-founder CEO Brendan Eich, who came under fire this week for donating to a campaign to ban gay marriage in California, has resigned.

 

By ABC News

Via JMG: Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich Steps Down

In a statement published this afternoon to her corporate blog, Mozilla chairwoman Mitchell Baker announced that CEO Brendan Eich has stepped down. Baker's statement opens:

Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it’s because we haven’t stayed true to ourselves. We didn’t act like you’d expect Mozilla to act. We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We’re sorry. We must do better. Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He’s made this decision for Mozilla and our community. Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality. Figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard.

Baker concludes:

What’s next for Mozilla’s leadership is still being discussed. We want to be open about where we are in deciding the future of the organization and will have more information next week. However, our mission will always be to make the Web more open so that humanity is stronger, more inclusive and more just: that’s what it means to protect the open Web. We will emerge from this with a renewed understanding and humility — our large, global, and diverse community is what makes Mozilla special, and what will help us fulfill our mission. We are stronger with you involved. Thank you for sticking with us.

Today's move comes ten days after Eich was named Mozilla's CEO. LGBT groups, gay Mozilla staffers, and gay developers immediately called for a boycott of Mozilla over Eich's apparently unrepentant donation to the Proposition 8 campaign in 2008. But when Eich issued a statement expressing solidarity for the LGBT community (albeit without publicly reversing on marriage equality or apologizing for the donation), calls for his resignation and boycotts of Mozilla spread into the anti-gay, Christian, and Tea Party worlds, creating a bizarre and unprecedented situation in which groups that are regularly tearing into each others' throats were suddenly and unwillingly thrust onto the same side. Almost everybody (noted exception: Brian Brown) wanted Eich gone - but for very different reasons.

Today's move will surely satisfy many LGBT activists. But don't think for a minute that this story is over, because the screams of "homofascism" that we regularly hear are now going to grow much louder and the Eich saga will surely echo into future battles. Some of us may even come to view today as having been a Pyrrhic victory as Eich will doubtlessly be canonized by our enemies and his name will become a rallying cry.

As least we'll have the short term amusement of watching hate group leaders who last week called for Eich's head turn swiftly on their heels to scream about the intolerant gaystapo.

Labels: Brendan Eich, California, Firefox, internet, LGBT rights, marriage equality, Mozilla, Proposition 8, technology

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Frankie Knuckles The Whistle Song

Little Kids. Big Questions. | Love

Honey Maid: Love

The Bahá'í Faith and Homosexuality

Bahá'í LGBTs on the Internet,
agitating for full acceptance

The conflicts between the Baha'i Faith and LGBTs (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender persons and transsexuals) are unlikely to go away anytime soon. 

The agenda being pursued by Baha'i LGBTs is simple: full equality for persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities, including same-sex marriage. Some are using the Internet to publicize their goals.

In reading some of their sites, one is struck by the level of anxiety and fear experienced by LGBTs in this faith. That is a real pity, because the Baha'i faith should liberate people from fear and make their lives whole, not trap them in a closet and make them pretend to be what they are not.

Make the jump here to read the full article

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How to be Mindful | April 3, 2014

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Since the sense of self is the embodiment of the absence of awareness, forgetting to observe is inevitable as we try harder to be aware. The problem of how to be mindful is actually resolved not through strenuous effort but by relaxing, allowing, and observing what is already here. Within the framework of relaxation, the sense of self has a diminishing power center, making space for awareness to be revealed.

—Rodney Smith, “From Thought to Stillness”

 

Via Towleroad: Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich Also Contributed To Anti-Gay GOP Candidates

By Daniel Villarreal

  

The Guardian has just revealed that in addition to donating $1,000 to help ban gay marriage in California, new Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich also contributed $1000 during the early 1990s to anti-gay right-wing Republican presidential candidate and $2000 in the late 90s to Texas state Republican congressman Ron Paul, a man who preferred to leave gay marriage up to individual states.

The Guardian notes:

During the AIDS outbreak of 1990, Buchanan said “our promiscuous homosexuals appear literally hell-bent on Satanism and suicide”. A few years earlier he said “homosexuals have declared war on nature, and now nature is exacting an awful retribution”.

In a 2010 article on [gay marriage], Buchanan remarked that "all the great religions have condemned homosexuality and all the great nations have proscribed or punished it" and concluded: "Historically, from the late Roman Empire to Weimar, flagrant homosexuality has been associated with sick societies, decadent cultures and dying civilizations.”

Ever since news of Eich’s anti-gay California contribution has become public, there have been calls for a Mozilla boycott from both pro and anti-gay groups, calls for Eich to step down from Mozilla employees, several resignations of Mozilla board members, even as Eich continues to sidestep questions on his current stance towards same-sex marriage.

http://www.towleroad.com/2014/04/mozilla-ceo-brendan-eich-also-contributed-to-anti-gay-gop-candidates.html

Via JMG: Mozilla CEO Speaks To CNET

Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich has spoken to the tech site CNET in his first interview since controversy erupted over his 2008 donation to the backers of Proposition 8. Eich declined to discuss his personal views or say if he now supports marriage equality, but he repeated last week's expression of sorrow for causing pain to LGBT people. CNET asked Eich if he thinks the furor is an "existential threat" to the company:

I don't know. If it is, the vision of Mozilla will be lost. I don't think anyone else will carry the user-first agenda above all other considerations. I understand big commercial corporations can't do it. They have to ultimately answer to their shareholders. They can have founders with large shares and that can say they're willing to take a hit in order to be long-term thinkers, and I admire that, but in no way can they do what Mozilla does. We bled for the user. We did Firefox when nobody thought the browser was a competitive market or ever would be again. We did Firefox OS when people said there was no need for a mobile OS but there was obviously a gap below the market. And we're doing a user-centric approach to services that involve identity and choice and control of data. Mozilla has to uphold its principles, has to have integrity to advance its mission.

I feel strongly about what's happened, and I feel I'm still the best CEO for the job. I've got lots to contribute and I'll help us turn some corners. The corners that need me as CEO, not just founder or CTO, are a big mobile turn that involves services [and] user identity and agency in the cloud. If we get our message out about inclusiveness and how Mozilla cannot succeed without being truly globally inclusive, then we'll have trouble. I expect I'll be helpful there, too, in the long run. We're in a struggle now, but if we get through it, we'll be stronger for it. That's been true of all our struggles at Mozilla. When we pull everybody together for common mission, that's when we really succeed.

Eich also mentioned that the company is planning to take actions to emphasize its support for the LGBT community, but he gave no specifics.

Labels: 2008 elections, Brendan Eich, California, Firefox, internet, LGBT rights, marriage equality, Mozilla, Proposition 8, technology

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma

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What the Buddha Never Said | April 2, 2014

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'There is no self' is the granddaddy of fake Buddhist quotes. It has survived so long because of its superficial resemblance to the teaching on anatta, or not-self, which was one of the Buddha’s tools for putting an end to clinging. Even though he neither affirmed nor denied the existence of a self, he did talk of the process by which the mind creates many senses of self—what he called “I-making” and “my-making”—as it pursues its desires. 

—Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “There is no self.”

Via Daily Dharma

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Some Space | April 1, 2014

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If we can allow some space within our awareness and rest there, we can respect our troubling thoughts and emotions, allow them to come, and let them go. Our lives may be complicated on the outside, but we remain simple, easy, and open on the inside. 

 

—Tsoknyi Rinpoche, "Allow for Space"

 

Via JMG: First & Last Lines From Noted Gay Novels

Boy Culture blogger Matt Rettenmund has compiled the first and last sentences from nearly 100 well-known gay novels. Andrew Holleran's Dancer From The Dance, for example, opens and closes this way: First: "Ecstasy, it's finally spring down here on the Chattahoochee—the azaleas are in bloom, and everyone is dying of cancer. Last: “Go out dancing tonight, my dear, and go home with someone, and if the love doesn't last beyond the morning, then know I love you." Of all the novels cited, Larry Kramer's opening line in Faggots is the one I remember best: "There are 2,556,596 faggots in the New York City area." Hit the link for an enjoyable time-waster.

Labels: books, gay writers, LGBT History

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Employment Protections Map

 

Lambda Legal notes:

All government employees are protected by the U.S. Constitution against irrational discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In addition, some measure of protection already exists under Title VII based on gender, which has been held to include gender identity and expression. The U.s. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and several courts have interpreted Title VII to protect transgender employees, and the EEOC has interpreted Title VII to cover sexual orientation discrimination. The Supreme Court has held that the EEOC's interpretation of Title VII are entitled to "great deference."

Notice that New York shamefully continues to lack statewide gender identity protections, despite such a bill passing in the state Assembly six times. Maryland will join the 17 states with full LGBT employment protections when Gov. Martin O'Malley signs the transgender rights bill approved by the state legislature last week. There's only one way to turn the entire map green: ENDA.

Labels: employment, ENDA, Lambda Legal, LGBT rights

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: College Football Player Comes Out

 

Outsports reports that NCAA defensive end Mitch Eby came out to his Chapman University teammates earlier this month. Eby first told his two roommates, both also players, then opened up to his head coach, who agreed to allow Eby to address the full team. An excerpt from his speech:

"I came up here today to talk to you guys about something that I've been dealing with for quite a while. It's something personal that I've always thought I could just bury away, but I can't. We live life so worried about how other people view us that we forget about ourselves. I can no longer go on living in fear, repressing myself because of how society may view me. I can no longer lie to my friends, family and teammates. It's time I lived life for myself for a change. With that being said, I am ready to share with you all that I am gay. It has taken me years to accept myself for who I truly am, so it's irrational to expect everybody to unconditionally accept me right away. However, the one thing that I hope that I can count on from each of you, my teammates, is your respect. Your respect as a friend, your respect as a teammate, and your respect as a man."

According to the above-linked report, the team applauded Eby's revelation.  Athlete Ally founder Hudson Taylor reacts via press release:

"Mitch is demonstrating great courage and leadership by publicly coming out as gay while still actively playing college football. While the decision to take this step is a deeply personal one, it impacts countless other young closeted athletes who will wrestle with how to compete and live their lives authentically. Today represents another important step in making sports a welcoming environment for all."

Labels: coming out, football, gay athletes, sports

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma

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The Nature of Anger | March 31, 2014

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Because we imagine anger is never a good thing, it is easy to think we should practice simply not being angry. But that approach is too general and abstract. It’s important for each of us to be precise, to be real, to be personal and honest, to find out exactly what my anger is. To do that we need to ask ourselves lots of questions about its actual nature. 

 

—Nancy Baker, "Precious Energy"