Via Coffee Party Movement / FB: Traditional marriage

"Traditional marriage" is a crock. The only "tradition" they're screaming about is of oppression, discrimination, misogyny and brutality. And ignorance of history (including same-sex unions sanctioned in the ancient church as well as many Native traditions). May the US Supreme Court succeed in taking a bold step towards "a more perfect union", and greater justice, as the USA purports to foster." - FB amigo RL

By "traditional marriage," do you mean like in 1769, when women were property? ‪#‎marriagequality‬ ‪#‎freedomtomarry‬

Conheça o grupo que promove meditação gratuita nas ruas para resgatar o afeto pela cidade

Conheça o grupo que promove meditação gratuita nas ruas para resgatar o afeto pela cidade <3 http://bit.ly/1dsDz1y

Posted by Catraca Livre on Thursday, April 30, 2015

Via Equality House / FB:

Watch the Dalai Lama break down the illusion behind prejudice

http://www.lionsroar.com/watch-the-dalai-lama-break-down-the-illusion-behind-prejudice/

Via Social Work Helper / FB:

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día- Flower of the day 30/04/2015

“O serviço desinteressado é o amor em movimento. Quando o amor é colocado em movimento ele gera felicidade. Se você é o canal desse amor, a felicidade passa por você para chegar ao outro, e você também se sente feliz. Esse é o poder do serviço: ele faz com que você se torne um elo na corrente da felicidade.”

Para ler o Satsang Completo, acesse: bit.ly/1DKa5Xd

“El servicio desinteresado es el amor en movimiento. Cuando el amor es colocado en movimiento genera felicidad. Si eres un canal de ese amor, la felicidad pasa por ti para llegar al otro, y también te sientes feliz. Este es el poder del servicio: hace que te vuelvas un eslabón en la corriente de la felicidad.”

“Selfless service is love in action. When love is set in motion, it generates happiness. If you are a channel of love, happiness flows through you to reach the other, and you also feel happy. This is the power of service: it makes you become a link in the chain of happiness."

Via Daily Dharma

No Substitute for Wisdom | April 30, 2015 One sign of the moral confusion in our market-driven society is that people have the tendency to elevate consumer and lifestyle choices into matters of high moral drama, leading to overblown talk of 'moral imperatives.' Tortuous analysis of one’s thoughts and actions produces a facsimile of moral seriousness that is pleasing to the ego, but it is no substitute for the wisdom and compassion that arise from the awakened heart. - Randall Ryotan Eiger, "The Slow Burn" Read More →

Via Shift of the Ages / FB:

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