Monday, May 19, 2014
Via JMG: LGBT Groups React To Oregon Ruling
Oregon United
"The importance of Judge McShane’s decision cannot be overemphasized,” said David Fidanque, executive director of the ACLU of Oregon. “Our federal Constitution does not allow any state – or its voters – to deny same sex couples equal protection under the law simply because of who they are and who they love. This type of discrimination is wrong and it’s also unconstitutional.” "Our clients Deanna Geiger & Janine Nelson and Bob Duehig and Bill Griesar are grateful the Attorney General, Governor, Ms. Woodward and Mr. Walruff carefully considered their position and so clearly articulated Oregon’s position that it values our relationships and commitments to each other and our families," said Lee Ann Easton, an attorney at Dorsay & Easton who, with co-counsel Lake Periguey, filed the Geiger case. "They are very pleased the District Court adopted their position along with the Rummell plaintiffs in his decision. With this advancement of civil rights, gay and lesbian Oregonians are now equal under the law.”Freedom To Marry
"Today Judge McShane did the right thing for families, affirming that the denial of marriage to committed same-sex couples in Oregon is unconstitutional. In recognition of the strong support for marriage among Oregonians, no one with legal standing, including our state Attorney General, wanted to go down in history as defending discrimination. Across the country, the courts agree: same-sex couples and their families need the protections of marriage, and anti-marriage laws are indefensible. With over 70 marriage cases now making their way through the courts, today's decision in Oregon underscores that all of America is ready for the freedom to marry."GLAAD
U.S. District Judge Michael McShane stated in his ruling, "Because Oregon’s marriage laws discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, the laws violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution." "Love is in the air in Oregon," said GLAAD President and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis. "This ruling is going to add stability to LGBT couples and families across the state and continue to advance LGBT equality across the country." Hearings were held on April 23, but here were no defendants in court to defend the marriage ban, because the state's Attorney General refused to defend the amendment, saying the ban serves no rational purpose.National Gay & Lesbian Task Force
"We are delighted that Judge Michael McShane has finally brought a decade of uncertainty to a close with his ruling. Thousands of LGBTQ couples will be celebrating today across Oregon and around the nation. We are another step closer to marriage equality everywhere for everyone. This victory would not have been possible without the leadership of Oregon United for Marriage who are: Basic Rights Oregon, Human Rights Campaign, Freedom to Marry, ACLU of OR, ACLU National, SEIU of OR, American Unity Fund, Gill Action, and countless other Task Force Action Fund staff and volunteers."Human Rights Campaign
“Today’s ruling from Judge McShane affirms what a majority of Oregonians already knew: discrimination has no place in our society, much less the state constitution. The plaintiffs and their tremendous attorneys Lake James Perriguey, Lea Ann Easton, Perkins Coie LLP, the ACLU of Oregon and the ACLU, should be incredibly proud of their historic victory. Thanks to their willingness to fight and the decades of work done by groups like Basic Rights Oregon and countless others, America is now one giant step closer to full equality nationwide.”
Labels: ACLU, Freedom To Marry, GLAAD, HRC, LGBT History, LGBT rights, marriage equality, Oregon, Task Force
JMG Quote Of The Day: Judge Michael McShane
- US District Court Judge Michael McShane, in just one of many memorable lines in today's ruling that overturned Oregon's ban on same-sex marriage.
Reposted from Joe Jervis
Via Daily Dharma
You Are Your Own Best Proof | May 19, 2014
In the end, when it comes to spiritual
practice, you are your own best proof. Individual practitioners can
understand from their own personal experience that practice is helping
them to be more understanding, to be more open, to be more at home with
others, or to have a greater sense of ease.
—Thupten Jingpa Langri, “Under One Umbrella”
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Via JMG: Pentagon Recognizes LGBT Pride Month
The Department of Defense issued similar flyers in 2012 and 2013 and all three include the word "transgender" despite the continuing ban on transgender service.
Reposted from Joe Jervis
Via Bilerico: Dallas 'Family Values' Host May Be Daughter of Evangelist Huckster
Remember Amy Kushnir, the male stripper-loving Dallas morning show host who stormed off the set last week after a pearl-clutching tirade about how Michael Sam's gay kiss was being "pushed in [the] faces" of children?
Well, as it turns out, that hypocritical high horse appears to be one that Ms. Kushnir's been riding on for a long time: new information suggests that she's the daughter of infamous snake-oil salesman televangelist huckster "Rev." Robert Tilton.
The "Christian Nightmares" Tumblr page was the first to point out the connection, linking to a 2011 blog post that refers to her as "Amy Tilton Kushnir."
Gay blogger Joe Jervis noted the conspicuous absence of Kushnir's parents in both of her official biographies, so he decided to dig deeper. Jervis writes:
Read more at: http://www.bilerico.com/2014/05/dallas_family_values_host_may_be_related_to_evange.php#uI4S9dUdVHhIlOCb.99Rev. Robert Tilton's first wife, to whom he was married during the ABC-spawned scandal, is named Martha and goes by the unusually spelled nickname Marte. Two weeks ago Kushnir posted a Facebook photo of her mother's birthday party and in the comments a friend of Kushnir's writes, "Happy birthday, Marte!"...Fourteen years ago Charisma Magazine interviewed Marte Tilton and noted that she had four children with Robert Tilton, including a daughter named Amy, then aged 30. According to the Explore Talent site, Dallas television host Amy Kushnir is 44 today. In a 2001 interview with the Dallas Morning News, Marte asked that paper not say where her children live, adding that they have "suffered a lot because of their last name." Marte and Rev. Tilton divorced in 1993, when the television host Amy Kushnir would have been 23.
Via Examiner: Gay marriage isn't uncommon, and it hasn't destroyed society.
Among the anti-gay bigots' mistakes is believing they invented marriage in the first place. They didn't. It's much older and much more diverse than Christianity tells us. All over the world, for as long as we can look back, same sex couples have been pairing off in various ways, and the one thing they all have in common is that they've never destroyed society.
Via Daily Dharma
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A Mirror Reflects Everything | May 18, 2014
This moment is very important—whether the world is empty or not, whether it exists or not, doesn’t matter. Take away your opinion, then what? What is left? That is the point. Take away your opinion—your condition, situation—then your mind is clear like space. Clear like space means clear like a mirror. A mirror reflects everything: the sky is blue, tree is green, sugar is sweet.
—Zen Master Seung Sahn, “Boom!”
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Via http://www.allegiancemusical.com
THE KISS SEEN ROUND THE WORLDWhy Everyone Should Examine Their Reactions To Men Kissing Men
Much has been said about the moment when Michael Sam kissed his boyfriend on national television, as they joyfully and spontaneously celebrated the news of Sam’s drafting by the Rams. They embraced and kissed just like many other happy heterosexual couples do when one of them receives life-changing, great news.
Sadly, many commentators acted with revulsion. Newscasters in Dallas walked off the set in disgust. Conservatives blasted the networks for even airing that moment. And let’s face it, many people cringed in their living rooms. Even some gay people, unused to seeing such affection displayed, worried, perhaps rightfully so, about the backlash.
This much is clear: The world simply is going to have to get used to seeing two men kissing. (The sight of two women kissing unsurprisingly seems to raise fewer hackles among heterosexual men.) The sanitized version of happy gay life shown on popular shows like Modern Family rarely venture into the passionate gay kiss. But it’s naive to believe happy gay couples don’t kiss each other regularly, just like happy straight couples do. To say you stand for equal rights but that you don’t want to ever see or hear about moments of our intimacy is to deny us again a fundamental aspect of our humanity–the expression of that very love. And guess what? Same-sex marriage ceremonies end in a kiss, so if you’re for marriage equality in principle, you’d best be prepared for some homosexual ritual smooching in practice.
If you’re someone who finds yourself repulsed by the idea or the image of two men kissing, ask yourself why that is. Ask how someone else’s love, and how they publicly express it, actually affects your life and the enjoyment of your freedoms and liberty. The visceral negative reaction many experience comes down to what I call the “ick” factor–seeing or thinking about something to which we are unaccustomed, and reacting with an “ick.” There are in fact lots of things in life that make people go “ick.” Broccoli, for example, is simply abhorrent to some. But “ick” is never a sound basis for public policy or law. Your own discomfort is just your own issue, and you can’t and shouldn’t make it other people’s problems.
It wasn’t long ago that the kiss would have been highly controversial if Sam’s boyfriend instead were a white woman. Indeed, the first black/white kiss on network television was on Star Trek between Kirk and Uhura, and it caused quite an uproar. The ick factor then was much higher. Back when I was young, it was illegal for me to marry a white woman, and now I’m married to a white dude. Times change, and so do attitudes. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Sam / boyfriend kiss is that no one complained about it being an interracial one.
I’m fairly sure next time an NFL player kisses his boyfriend on camera, it’s not going to get so many people’s panties in a bunch. Then we can finally start talking about how well they play football, and not whether they happen to be gay. But so long as people think a simple kiss is going to end the world as we know it, we sadly do have to keep talking about it, until we finally kick the “ick” out of our public discourse.
– George Takei
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
JMG Quote Of The Day - President Obama
"This year, the United States celebrates the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, and the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. In doing so, we reflect on lessons learned from our own civil rights struggles and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that the human rights of all people are universally protected.
"At a time when, tragically, we are seeing increased efforts to criminalize or oppress LGBT persons, we call on partners everywhere to join us in defending the equal rights of our LGBT brothers and sisters, and in ensuring they are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve." - President Barack Obama, via press release.
Via JMG: INDIA: Anti-Gay Hindu Nationalist Party Takes Power In Landslide Election
Via the Independent:
India's ruling Congress party admitted defeat this morning as the Narendra Modi wave washed over the country in a scale few had predicted. Initial counting in the country’s general election pointed to a massive victory for his opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the worst ever performance for the Congress. As noisy victory celebrations involving drums and horns broke out outside the BJP’s headquarters in the centre of Delhi where 100,000 traditional Indian sweets had been ordered in preparation, a few streets away at the Congress’s offices, the mood was grey. “We accept defeat. We are ready to sit in the opposition,” Congress party spokesman Rajeev Shukla told reporters. “Modi promised the moon and stars to the people. People bought that dream.”From the Associated Press:
Modi's singular message on the economy has helped him ignore or beat back criticism of his personal life -- including his strong links to a right-wing Hindu nationalist group, as well as his four-decade marriage to a retired school teacher he had never mentioned publicly until last month. Born in 1950, Modi will be India's first prime minister born after the country's violent 1947 partition and independence from imperial Britain. His rise marks a paradigm shift for the secular democracy after decades of welfare policies that have emphasized lifting the country's impoverished. Modi has extolled the merits of trickle-down economics through industrialization. He also has maintained strong links with the conservative, paramilitary Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, which some describe as neo-fascist.From the Voice Of America:
The right-wing Hindu nationalist party will return to its leadership role after 10 years, as the ruling Congress Party conceded defeat Friday. Modi’s critics remain uneasy about how the Hindu nationalist leader will govern a diverse nation with many religious minorities. As governor of Gujarat state, he was criticized for his handling of Hindu-Muslim rioting that killed more than 1,000 people in 2002. India’s Supreme Court cleared Modi of charges that he incited the violence.(Tipped by JMG reader Jamie)
Via JMG: COSTA RICA: Newly Elected President Flies Rainbow Flag Over Casa Presidencial
Just over a week since taking office, President Luis Guillermo Solís made history Friday morning when he became the first Costa Rican leader to raise the rainbow flag of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement on even mast with the Costa Rican red-white-and-blue tricolor on the lawn of the Casa Presidencial. Vice President Ana Helena Chacón hoisted the flag in honor of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, May 17. “This is the house of all Costa Ricans. When we say all Costa Ricans we mean all, without exclusion, without violence, without harassment in absolute respect for the rights of each one,” Solís told a crowd of LGBT leaders and advocates during his brief comments on the lawn.LGBT Costa Ricans enjoy protections in employment, public accommodations, and other areas, but same-sex marriage, gay adoption, and military service remain banned. Perhaps that will change soon.
Via Daily Dharma
The Right Mind | May 16, 2014
If the mind congeals in one place and
remains with one thing, it is like frozen water and is unable to be used
freely: ice that can wash neither hands nor feet. When the mind is
melted and is used like water, extending throughout the body, it can be
sent wherever one wants to send it. This is the Right Mind.
—Takuan Soho, “The Right Mind and the Confused Mind”
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
The Magic of Reflecting | May 15, 2014
Through the magic of reflecting on the
teachings, their force—sometimes clear, sometimes obscure—will cause
ferment in our minds from which we can gradually distill the wisdom of
reflection. This requires discipline, but also bravery—the bravery to
dig deep down to uncover our confusion.
—Lama Jampa Thaye, "How Do We Learn the Dharma?"
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