Via Huffington Post: 7 Things Churches Can Do to Make Queer People Feel Welcome

For as long as I can remember, the church, for me, has been a place characterized by shame and hurt. I remember Christian high school friends telling me that I would go to hell for being Queer. I remember hearing sermons from televangelists about the evils of homosexuality, and church leaders pressuring youth leaders to cast out their Queer members. I've heard more talk of "love the sinner, hate the sin," and "God didn't make gay," than anyone should, and I've even received personalized hate mail declaring that "God hates dykes." 

While I've never believed being Queer automatically counted me out, I've been unable to find a church community that I, as a Trans person, could really call home -- a place I could engage in conversations around faith and sexuality, faith and gender. 

Last fall, a co-worker invited me to meet with a group of leaders from her church who were working to make their community more open and affirming. As the Director of LGBTQA Advocacy and Education at the local college, I suppose I was a logical choice, though this colleague knew nothing of my lifelong struggles with faith. 

Through talking with these people about their desires to be inclusive and their belief in God's love extending to all people, I found my mind re-opening to faith, to God. Because of these conversations, I realized that it is possible for Queer people to feel welcome and safe at church. Ultimately, it begins with education and relationships.

Make the jum here to read the 7 things all churches can do to help make Queer people feel welcome.

Via Lizzy the Lezzy

Mrs. Brown for Yes Equality

Barney Frank on the Supreme Court's Gay Marriage Ruling - Late Night with Seth Meyers

Same-sex couples take on the haters outside of the Supreme Court

Via JMG: Sen. Bernie Sanders To Enter 2016 Race

 

Via the Associated Press:

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will announce his plans to seek the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday, presenting a liberal challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton. Sanders, an independent who describes himself as a "democratic socialist," will follow a formal statement with a major campaign kickoff in his home state in several weeks. Two people familiar with his announcement spoke to The Associated Press under condition of anonymity to describe internal planning. Sanders will become the second major Democrat in the race, joining Clinton. He has urged the former secretary of state to speak out strongly about issues related to income inequality and climate change. The former first lady and New York senator is viewed as a heavy favorite in the Democratic primary and formally entered the race earlier this month.

Oh this will be interesting.

Labels: 2016 elections, Bernie Sanders, socialists

Reposted from Joe Jervis

4 Beyonce from Todrick

This Is How Fast America Changes Its Mind

This Is How Fast America Changes Its Mind

By Alex Tribou and Keith Collins
April 26, 2015

 

Eleven years after Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry, the Supreme Court on April 28 will hear arguments about whether to extend that right nationwide. The case comes amid a wave of gay marriage legalization: 28 states since 2013, and 36 overall. Such widespread acceptance in a short amount of time isn't a phenomenon unique to gay marriage. Social change in the U.S. appears to follow a pattern: A few pioneer states get out front before the others, and then a key event—often a court decision or a grassroots campaign reaching maturity—triggers a rush of state activity that ultimately leads to a change in federal law.

We looked at six big issues—interracial marriage, prohibition, women’s suffrage, abortion, same-sex marriage, and recreational marijuana — to show how this has happened in the past, and may again in the very near future.

Awesome interactive map at the  jump here

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día- Flower of the day 29/04/2015

“Enquanto tenta suprir a sua carência ganhando dinheiro, comendo ou comprando coisas, você prejudica prioritariamente a si mesmo. Mas, quando tenta suprir a carência dominando o outro, as coisas complicam. Porque, para dominar o outro, você precisará fazer com que ele se sinta inferior. Esse é um jogo perverso. Você faz o outro se sentir impotente para poder se sentir potente; você joga a culpa no outro para não se sentir culpado. Isso é maldade de verdade.”

Para ler o Satsang completo, acesse: bit.ly/prembaba01

“Mientras intentas suplir tu carencia ganando dinero, comiendo o comprando cosas, te perjudicas prioritariamente a ti mismo. Pero cuando intentas suplir la carencia dominando al otro, las cosas se complican. Porque para dominar al otro, necesitarás hacer que él se sienta inferior. Este es un juego perverso. Haces al otro sentirse impotente para poder sentirte potente, le hechas la culpa al otro para no sentirte culpable. Eso es maldad de verdad.”

"When we try to compensate for our neediness by making money, eating or buying things, we are mainly hurting ourselves. But when we try to compensate for this neediness by dominating others, things get complicated. In order to dominate others, we need to make them feel inferior. This is a perverse game. We make the other feel powerless in order for us to feel powerful; we lay the blame on the other to not feel guilty ourselves. This is true evil. "

Via Daily Dharma

The Task of Repetition | April 29, 2015 If we are to close the gap between ideal and actuality—between the envisaged aim of striving and the lived experience of our everyday lives—it is necessary for us to pay greater heed to the task of repetition. Every wholesome thought, every pure intention, every effort to train the mind represents a potential for growth along the Noble Eightfold Path. - Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, "Vision and Routine" Read More →

Via JMG: Buzzfeed Predicts Win For The Good Guys

Chris Geidner writes at Buzzfeed:

At Tuesday’s marriage arguments over same-sex couples’ marriage rights, the majority of the court appeared to be comfortable with Justice Anthony Kennedy’s understanding of human dignity as including gay people’s equal treatment under the law. While Kennedy, who is considered the key swing vote in the case, did not make any unambiguous statement about the end result of the case, he harshly questioned the state of Michigan’s argument that it should be allowed to exclude same-sex couples from marriage.

At one point, Kennedy commented to Michigan’s lawyer that its law banning same-sex couples from marrying “assumes” that those couples can’t have the same “more noble purpose” as opposite sex couples have for entering marriage. Joined often by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, the lawyer defending marriage bans, John Bursch, faced repeated questions about what other limits states could constitutionally place on marriages and whether the states’ claimed interest amounted to anything more than, as Sotomayor asked, a “ceiling…that doesn’t have logic.”

Geidner notes that Chief Justice John Roberts did not appear to favor either side.

Labels: LGBT rights, marriage equality, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Attorney General Loretta Lynch: Same-Sex Couples Deserve Marriage Rights Now

 

"I am committed – as is this department – to ensuring equal dignity and equal treatment for all members of society, regardless of sexual orientation.  As we argued today before the Supreme Court, same-sex couples deserve that treatment now. " - Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Labels: DOJ, Loretta Lynch, marriage equality, SCOTUS

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día- Flower of the day 28/04/2015

“Em algum momento do seu estudo de si mesmo, você é levado a compreender o poder da escolha. Quando esse poder está a serviço do eu inferior, sua força de vontade é usada para alimentar vícios e maus hábitos. E muitas vezes você se coloca na posição de vítima, como se não pudesse escolher fazer diferente. Nesse ponto se faz necessário iluminar a virtude da autorresponsabilidade para compreender que você está onde se coloca. A partir daí, você começa a compreender as estratégias do eu inferior. Ele precisa da sua energia para continuar vivendo, então ele faz de tudo para mantê-lo preso ao sofrimento, pois é de sofrimento que ele se alimenta.”

Para ler o Satsang completo, acesse: bit.ly/1CviIRC

“En algún momento de tu estudio de ti mismo, eres llevado a comprender el poder de la elección. Cuando ese poder está al servicio del yo inferior, tu fuerza de voluntad es usada para alimentar vicios y malos hábitos. Y muchas veces te colocas en la posición de víctima, como si no pudieras elegir otra cosa. En ese punto se hace necesario iluminar la virtud de la auto-responsabilidad para comprender que estás donde te colocas. A partir de ahí, comienzas a comprender las estrategias del yo inferior. Él necesita de tu energía para continuar viviendo, entonces hace de todo para mantenerte preso al sufrimiento, porque es de sufrimiento que se alimenta.”

"At some moment in our self-study, we are led to understand the power of choice. When this power is at service of the lower self, our willpower is used to feed our addictions and bad habits. Many times, we put ourselves in the position of the victim, as though we could not choose to do anything else. At this point, it’s necessary to illuminate the virtue of self-responsibility to understand that we are exactly where we place ourselves. From here, we begin to understand the strategies of the lower self. It needs our energy in order to survive, so it does everything it can to keep us stuck in our suffering, because suffering is what feeds the lower self."

Via Daily Dharma

The Wise Investigator | April 28, 2015 Effort with wisdom is a healthy desire to know and understand whatever arises, without any preference for the outcome. - Sayadaw U Tejaniya, "The Wise Investigator" Read More →

More Brokenhearted Bahá'is: LGBTs Rejected by Their Faith

The official never-before-published-in-a-major-media-outlet letter (this letter was NOT originally sent to Sean) 

>>>  original posting can be found here  <<<

THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT OF THE SECRETARIAT
9 May 2014
Transmitted by email: ...
U.S.A.

Dear Bahá'í Friend,
Your email letter dated 11 January 2014 has been received by the Universal House of Justice. We have been asked to convey to you the following.
You express concern about the challenge Bahá'ís encounter in understanding and upholding the Teachings in the face of powerful social forces influencing public attitudes towards homosexuality. In this connection, you observe that some Bahá'ís are susceptible to the argument that the Faith must change to keep up with what are perceived to be progressive social values, while some others, despite their firm adherence to the Teachings, are unable to resolve the incongruity between the Bahá'í perspective and attitudes prevailing in the wider society. Your thoughtful analysis of the issues you raise is warmly appreciated.
The contemporary discussion surrounding homosexuality, which began in the West and is increasingly promoted in other parts of the world, generally takes the form of a false dichotomy, which compels one to choose between a position that is either affirming or rejecting. It is understandable that Bahá'ís would be sensitive to acts of prejudice or oppression in any form and to the needs of those who suffer as a result. But to align with either side in the public debate is to accept the premises on which it is based. Moreover, this debate occurs within the context of a rising tide of materialism and consequent reorientation of society, over more than a century, which has among its outcomes a destructive emphasis on sexuality. Various philosophies and theories have eroded precepts of right and wrong that govern personal behavior. For some, relativism reigns and individuals are to determine their own moral preferences; others dismiss the very conception of personal morality, maintaining that any standard that restrains what is considered a natural impulse is harmful to the individual and ultimately to society. Self- indulgence, in the guise of expressing one's true nature, becomes the norm, even the touchstone of healthy living. Consequently, sexuality has become a preoccupation, pervading commerce, media, the arts, and popular culture, influencing disciplines such as medicine, psychology, and education and reducing the human being to an object. It is no longer merely a part of life, but becomes the defining element of a person's identity. At its most extreme, the doctrine aggressively propagated in some societies is that it is abnormal for adolescents to restrain their sexual impulses, unreasonable for young adults to marry without first having had sexual relations, and impossible for a married couple to remain monogamous. The unbounded expression of sexuality in almost any form is thought to be natural and is accepted as a matter of course, the only limitation being to cause no harm to others, while any notion to the contrary is deemed narrow-minded or retrogressive. The question of same-sex marriage arises not simply as an appeal for fairness within a framework of existing values but as another step, presumed to be inevitable, in clearing away the vestiges of what is regarded to be a repressive traditional morality.
The perspective presented in the Bahá'í writings departs sharply from the pattern of thought achieving ascendancy in many societies. Bahá'u'lláh states that the knowledge of God is revealed through His Manifestation, Who has an innate awareness of the human condition and the social order, and Whose purpose is to set forth such precepts as will effect a profound transformation in both the inner life and external conditions of humankind. "No man, however acute his perception," He affirms, "can ever hope to reach the heights which the wisdom and understanding of the Divine Physician have attained." 'Abdu'l-Bahá explains that the human being has two natures, the spiritual or higher nature and the material or lower nature, and that the purpose of life is to gain mastery over the limitations and promptings of one's material nature and to cultivate spiritual qualities and virtues-the attributes of the soul which constitute one's true and abiding identity. Worldly desire is not the essence of a human being, but a veil that obscures it. Adherence to the Teachings of the Divine Educator refines the character and develops the potentialities with which each person is endowed; it liberates the individual and society from lower inclinations that give rise to the ills that afflict humanity.
'Abdu'l-Bahá highlights the distinction between the two worldviews outlined above by contrasting "the political freedom of Europeans, which leaves the individual free to do whatsoever he desires as long as his action does not harm his neighbor" with the freedom "born of obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Almighty." "In the religion of God, there is no freedom of action outside the law of God," 'Abdu'l-Bahá concludes. "Man may not transgress this law, even though no harm is inflicted on one's neighbor. This is because the purpose of Divine law is the education of all--others as well as oneself--and, in the sight of God, the harm done to one individual or to his neighbor is the same and is reprehensible in both cases." Thus, for Bahá'ís, just as the development of a strong and healthy body requires adherence to sound physical practices and disciplines, so too, the refinement of character requires effort to act within the framework of moral principles delineated by the Manifestation of God.
While Bahá'ís hold specific beliefs about human identity, sexuality, personal morality, and individual and social transformation, they also believe that individuals must be free to investigate truth and should not be coerced. They are, therefore, enjoined to be tolerant of those whose views differ from their own, not to judge others according to their own standards, and not to attempt to impose these standards on society. To regard a person who has a homosexual orientation with prejudice or disdain is entirely against the spirit of the Faith. And where occasion demands, it would be appropriate to speak out or act against unjust or oppressive measures directed towards homosexuals.
The House of Justice feels it would be ill-advised to engage in discussions intended to convince those who do not accept the station of Bahá'u'lláh that their views are erroneous; such an effort would ultimately prove fruitless. Shoghi Effendi counseled the friends "to have neither concern for, nor involvement in, the controversies of politicians, the wranglings of theologians or any of the ailing social theories current amongst men." The response of the Bahá'í community to the challenges facing humanity lies not in combating specific issues one by one but rather in making efforts to uplift the vision of their compatriots and to work with them for the betterment of the world. In their involvement in society at all levels, the friends should distinguish between those discourses associated with forces of disintegration, such as those which overemphasize sexuality, where involvement would be unproductive, and those associated with forces of integration, whose aim is unity and the collaborative resolution of social ills, to which they can constructively contribute. They should be mindful that the divisive issues of the day, diametrically opposed to the Teachings but often presented in the guise of truth or progress, exert themselves upon the Bahá'í community and can at times result in those "severe mental tests" that the writings state would "inevitably sweep over His loved ones of the West--tests that would purge, purify and prepare them for their noble mission in life."
Just as Bahá'ís do not impose their views on others, they cannot relinquish their principles because of changing trends in popular thought. The pattern of life to which they aspire, Shoghi Effendi writes, "can tolerate no compromise with the theories, the standards, the habits, and the excesses of a decadent age." Bahá'u'lláh counsels not to weigh "the Book of God with such standards and sciences as are current amongst you, for the Book itself is the unerring Balance established amongst men," and "in this most perfect Balance whatsoever the peoples and kindreds of the earth possess must be weighed...."
To accept Bahá'u'lláh is to accept His Teachings, including those that pertain to personal morality, even if one must struggle to live up to His standard. It would be a profound contradiction for someone to profess to be a Bahá'í, yet reject, disregard, or contend with aspects of belief or practice He ordained.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bahá'u'lláh describes the twin duties "prescribed by God for His servants" to be recognition of the Manifestation and acceptance of all His ordinances. "These twin duties are inseparable," He asserts. "Neither is acceptable without the other." Bahá'ís consciously choose to abide by Bahá'u'lláh's exhortations out of love for Him and assurance in the efficacy of His guidance, not out of blind obedience. "Think not that We have revealed unto you a mere code of laws," Bahá'u'lláh states. "Nay, rather, We have unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might and power." His Teachings are a safeguard for one's true nature and purpose. 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes, "It is essential that children be reared in the Bahá'í way, that they may find happiness both in this world and the next. If not, they shall be beset by sorrows and troubles, for human happiness is founded upon spiritual behavior."

You are, of course, well aware of the explicit Bahá'í standard. Marriage is a union between a man and a woman, and sexual relations are only permissible between husband and wife. These points are laid down in the writings of Bahá'u'lláh, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi and are not subject to change by the Universal House of Justice. Bahá'u'lláh also prohibits certain sexual acts, including homosexual relations; if such statements are considered by some to be unclear, the unambiguous interpretations provided by Shoghi Effendi constitute a binding exposition of His intent. The Guardian's interpretations, made in his role as the authoritative expounder, clarify the true meaning of the Text and are not derived from the scientific knowledge of the time.

Bahá'ís must also be on their guard lest condemnatory attitudes stemming from the public debate take root in their communities. Backbiting and gossip, prejudice and estrangement, have no place.
All recognize the need to transform themselves in accordance with Bahá'u'lláh's Teachings, all struggle in different ways to live a Bahá'í life, and there is no reason that the challenge of being attracted to persons of the same sex should be singled out and treated differently from other challenges. The Guardian made it clear that Bahá'ís with a homosexual orientation should not withdraw from the community and should receive its support and encouragement. The House of Justice sympathizes deeply with those individuals, and their families, who strive in this respect to understand and hold fast to the Teachings while buffeted by the controversy unfolding within their societies.

Enclosed for your study are copies of two letters that touch on related themes. Rest assured of the supplications of the House of Justice at the Sacred Threshold that you may be guided and confirmed by the blessings of the Almighty.

With loving Bahá'í greetings,
Department of the Secretariat

cc:
International Teaching Centre (with enclosures)
Board of Counsellors in the Americas (with enclosures)
National Assembly of the United States (with enclosures)

And there you have it, some truly breaking news! Please share this post widely to hold this faith accountable, and inspire them to get on the right side of history. And kudos to Sean for his bold, brave, heartfelt and at times heart-wrenching interview.



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Bahá'í Bahá'í House of Worship Marriage Equality Supreme Court Bigotry RELIGIÓN Religious Bigotry Sean Rayshel Nicholas Snow Nicholas Snow Live Civil Rights Gay Voices Gay Voices News

 

>>>  original posting can be found here  <<< 

Via #lgbt / FB:

Via The Human Rights Campaign

 

TOMORROW: oral arguments will begin in the landmark marriage equality case Obergefell v. Hodges — the Supreme Court case that could bring marriage equality to all 50 states.

Take action: say ‪#‎LoveCantWait‬ for nationwide marriage equality at hrc.org/lovecantwait

Stay posted: Stay up to date on all breaking news around marriage equality at hrc.org/SCOTUS

Get alerts: text "MARRIAGE" to 30644 for critical marriage equality updates from HRC (SMS & data rates may apply).

Rubio just told 63% of Americans they are "ridiculous and absurd"...

In 2010, for the first time ever, CNN found the majority of Americans (52%) believed same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Not just support same-sex couples who want to marry, but have a constitutional right. 

Those results have been confirmed in poll after poll since. In February, that number jumped to 63 percent.

This weekend, Tea Party Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio told those 63 percent of Americans – 201.6 million Americans, based on recent census numbers – that their beliefs are "ridiculous and absurd."

Make the jump here to read the full article

Via The Master Shift / FB: