Via JMG: COLOMBIA: Top Court Considers Marriage

J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed:

Colombia’s top court held a day-long hearing on Thursday on whether it should interpret its constitution as giving marriage rights to same-sex couples — framing the debate in a wider discussion about whether international standards now dictate that marriage equality is a fundamental right. The hearing comes five weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to allow marriage equality, in a move that reverberated around the world. Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, Colombia’s Constitutional Court weighs foreign precedent and international human rights law in its decisions. To discuss the question of marriage equality in Thursday’s debate, the Court’s judges invited a broad range of international opinions, including representatives of the United Nations’ human rights office, the U.S.-based conservative legal group the Alliance Defending Freedom, and Albie Sachs, the former chief justice of South Africa’s Constitutional Court who authored a 2005 marriage equality ruling.

A decision is expected by the end of the summer.

RELATED: Elsewhere in South America same-sex marriage is legal in Argentina, Brazil, French Guiana, and Uruguay. Civil unions are legal in Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. A same-sex marriage lawsuit is pending before the Venezuelan Supreme Court. Homosexual acts remain illegal in Guyana, but nowhere else on the continent.

Labels: Colombia, marriage equality, South America

Reposted from Joe Jervis

JMG Quote Of The Day - Henry Rollins

"In a nation of hundreds of millions of people, there is one man born to lead. A man who stands head and shoulders above the rest. A lone alpha who burns incandescent in a vast wasteland of darkness. When asked to serve in Vietnam, he said no and took a deferment. He took a few of them, actually, because he is his own man. He got married. The merger didn’t work. She was fired. So was the next one. It’s business, not personal — like America! He has overcome adversity. Like bankruptcy. And with an almost Michelangelo-like genius, he conquered the K2 challenge of his hair. He is what America needs. A man with so much self-confidence that, if you put him in the Oval Office, some of it will no doubt trickle down to you. Who is this man who will put all other world leaders in their place? The same man who just read a cellphone number, allegedly Lindsey Graham’s private line, out loud so the world could hear. (Hey, I laughed.) This man is America. So bend over, relax and hold onto something solid, because here he comes — here comes Donald Trump 2016. And when he puts it in, you’ll know who your daddy is." - Henry Rollins, writing for LA Weekly.

Labels: 2016 elections, Donald Trump, Henry Rollins

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 31/07/2015

“Guru não é um corpo, é um poder que se manifesta através de um corpo. É o poder de Deus que te levanta e te coloca no estágio além da mente; te tira da sombra e te coloca na luz. Guru é uma palavra pequena, mas seu significado está além das palavras.”

"Gurú no es un cuerpo, es un poder que se manifiesta a través de un cuerpo. Es el poder de Dios que te levanta y te coloca en un nivel más allá de la mente; te saca de la sombra y te coloca en la luz. Gurú es una palabra pequeña, pero su significado está más allá de las palabras"

“The guru is not a body: the guru is a power that manifests itself within a body. It is the power of God that elevates us and puts us in a state beyond the mind. This power takes us out of the darkness and places us in the light. ‘Guru’ is a small word, but its meaning is beyond any words.”

Today's Daily Dharma: Rage Can Become Compassion

Rage Can Become Compassion

Rage "whether in reaction to social injustice, or to our leaders' insanity, or to those who threaten or harm us" is a powerful energy that, with diligent practice, can be transformed into fierce compassion.   - Bonnie Myotai Treace, "Rising to the Challenge: Filling the Well with Snow"

Read More

Via WGB: In The Face Of Violent Homophobia, Jamaica Hosts Its First Pride

Jamaica is frequently cited as one of the worst places in the world to be gay: sex between men is a jailable offense, the country’s leading gay activist was murdered, and LGBT youth are forced to live in the sewers.

Just this March, a gay man was stoned to death by a mob, but some brave activists are standing up to the hate and have scheduled Jamaica’s first Pride event next week.

But there won’t be a Pride parade, due to safety and security concerns. Full story here via NNN!

WGB: I admire and support these brave individuals. It takes the first brave people to come forward to make change happen! I wish them a safe and successful Pride event.

Thank you Firoozeh!

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 30/07/2015

“Os vícios funcionam como amortecedores ou anestésicos. Podem ser coisas ou emoções que são elementos simbólicos, ou seja, algo externo que representa o que está faltando dentro. Algo que acalme o furacão de sentimentos e preencha, mesmo que temporariamente, o vazio interior. Drogas, comida, sexo, internet, dinheiro... Tudo para amenizar a dor da cisão com a essência, o que gerou a ilusão de que somos seres separados do todo e que dependemos de algo externo para sermos felizes.”

“Los vicios funcionan como adormecedores o anestésicos. Pueden ser cosas o emociones que son elementos simbólicos, es decir, algo externo que representa lo que está faltando dentro. Algo que calme el huracán de sentimientos y llene, aunque sea temporariamente, el vacío interior. Drogas, comida, sexo, internet, dinero... Todo para aliviar el dolor de la ruptura con la esencia, lo que generó la ilusión de que somos seres separados del todo y que dependemos de algo externo para ser felices.”

“Addictions work like shock-absorbers or anesthetics. We can either be physically or emotionally addicted to things that symbolize what’s missing inside of us. These addictions serve to calm the whirlwind of feelings and temporarily fill the emptiness inside of us. Drugs, food, sex, Internet and money are all used to alleviate the pain of the split from our essence. This split created the illusion that we are separate from everything and rely on something external in order to be happy.”

Today's Daily Dharma: Not a Private Journey

Not a Private Journey

The way 'spirituality' is often used suggests that we exist solely as a collection of individuals, not as members of a religious community, and that religious life is merely a private journey. It is the religious expression of the ideology of free-market economics and of the radical 'disencumbered' individualism that idolizes the choice-making individual as the prime reality in the world.   - Robert Bellah, "The Future of Religion"

Read More

Jesus was a Buddhist Monk BBC Documentary

The Dhammapada (Sayings of the Buddha)

Dalai Lama - How to Practice : The Way to a Meaningful Life - Full Movie [HQ]

Buddhist Prayer Chants

Have Tibetan Prayer, Will Travel (On the Buddhist Pilgrimage Path)

Where's "Gay Marriage" in the US Constitution?

From another Chat Group: Exclusion Works both Ways

"It may be time to include in workshops for Baha'is and other anti-gay religions to let them know that exclusion works both ways. Their dynamic is that if one is gay, Baha'is cannot give you full Baha'is rights. They are trying to sort that out within the religion. My message is increasingly, there is pretty much NOTHING the Baha'i Faith can do right now to ever win someone like me back. And lots of people like me. Its not that the Faith doesn't want us; rather we do not want the Faith. It is too late and too much damage has been done for the Faith to decide how tolerant it wishes to be within its administrative parameters it has set for itself. So while it is very nice that some people will come to a meeting about how to better tolerate and treat gay people, they should be clearly told many of us gay people have no wish to be tolerated by them. It is not our problem; it is their problem. It is not that they have excluded us, but in fact we have excluded them.  ... They (the Baha'i Admin Order) have a really bad discriminatory rule that has harmed lots of people and which the world increasingly is rejecting and makes them irrelevant and unwanted. People are not knocking down doors to get in to this religion. They have a serious problem. And it is not gay people. But they might use the gay issue and the poor way they have managed it to gain some insight into their irrelevance. They have excluded the very people they need. Now many of those excluded people do not want in. So perhaps include a segment ... that in reality not many gay people want into this exclusive club no matter how well they try to tolerate us." 

 

- Anon Amigo

Via Social Work Helper / FB:

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 29/07/2015

“Esteja sempre atento, observando e testemunhando. Focalize na beleza e realize sua prática espiritual diária. Faça uso da oração de forma muito espontânea, como se estivesse conversando com a Divindade, assim como faz uma criança que conversa com seus pais. De forma honesta e pura, peça para que o véu da ilusão seja removido da sua visão.”

“Estate siempre atento, observando y atestiguando. Focaliza en la belleza y realiza tu práctica espiritual diaria. Haz uso de la oración de forma muy espontánea, como si estuvieras conversando con la Divinidad, así como hace un niño que conversa con sus padres. De forma honesta y pura, pide para que el velo de la ilusión sea removido de tu visión.”

“Always remain attentive, observing and witnessing everything. Focus on beauty and do your spiritual practice daily. Pray spontaneously, as if you were having a conversation with the divine: like a child talking to his or her parents. With honesty and purity, ask for the veil of illusion to be removed from your sight.”

Today's Daily Dharma: The Process of Awakening

The Process of Awakening

Awakening is not a state but a process: an ethical way of life and commitment that enables human flourishing. As such, it is no longer the exclusive preserve of enlightened teachers or accomplished yogis. Likewise, nirvana "the stopping of craving" is not the goal of the path but its very source. For human flourishing first stirs in that clear, bright, empty space where neurotic self-centredness realizes that it has no ground at all to stand on. One is then freed to pour forth like sunlight.   - Stephen Batchelor, "A Secular Buddhist"

Read More

Via JMG: More Corporate Support For Equality Act

 

Via press release from the HRC:

Today, just days after the introduction of the historic Equality Act in Congress, five new major American companies announced their support for comprehensive, federal LGBT non-discrimination protections. Each of these new leading corporations -- American Airlines, Facebook, General Mills, Google and Nike demonstrated their belief that all LGBT Americans should have the protections from discrimination in federal law that they deserve. These companies join Apple, The Dow Chemical Company, and Levi Strauss, & Co. in supporting comprehensive federal LGBT non-discrimination legislation.

STATEMENT BY AMERICAN AIRLINES -- "We at American Airlines are proud of our long history of supporting LGBT equality. Now is the time for full equality for the LGBT community in the United States. Ensuring fairness in our workplaces and communities is both the right thing to do and simply good business."

STATEMENT BY FACEBOOK -- "We are open and vocal supporters of equality. Ensuring fairness in the workplace is a fundamental principle at Facebook and we support legal protections for LGBT Americans as outlined in the Equality Act."

STATEMENT BY GENERAL MILLS -- "At General Mills we have a long history of supporting LGBT equality and the time has come in this country for full, federal equality for the LGBT community. Ensuring fairness in our workplaces and communities is both the right thing to do and simply good business."

STATEMENT BY GOOGLE -- "Diverse perspectives, ideas, and cultures lead to the creation of better products and services and ideas. And it's the right thing to do. That's why we support protections for LGBT individuals as outlined in the Equality Act."

STATEMENT BY NIKE – "At NIKE, we are committed to diversity and inclusion, and we strive to treat our employees equally. We believe that diversity drives innovation and allows us to attract and retain world class talent. We need fair and equitable laws that prevent discrimination, and NIKE supports the Equality Act introduced by Senator Merkley and his colleagues in Congress. This is another important step in the fight for equality."

While few expect the Equality Act to get much traction in the current Congress, this sort of groundwork is critical. It's going to be a very long haul.

Labels: business, Congress, Equality Act, LGBT rights

Reposted from Joe Jervis