Via American Foundation for Equal Rights

Dear Daniel,

My dad is my hero. He regularly worked two jobs to ensure food was on the table and clothes were on my back. He’s the one who fought off the bullies growing up. He’s the one who told me I should take that job in California even though he didn’t want me to leave home. He’s the one who said, “So…?” when I told him I was gay. He’s the one who continues to speak out and support my endeavor to fight for equal rights.

And when I am finally able to walk down the aisle to marry the love of my life, Paul, he’s the one I want standing beside me.

This weekend, we celebrate Father’s Day and I give thanks to the hero in my life who has been there every step of the way.

Sincerely,

Jeff Zarrillo Prop. 8 Plaintiff

P.S. Check out this great piece my dad wrote in The New York Times. I’m so proud of him.

________________________________


________________________________ 

A Father, a Son and a Fighting Chance
By DOMINICK ZARRILLO

“As this Father’s Day approached, all I could think about was how much I want my son to experience the joys of being a father, how much I want him to marry the person he loves and to raise a family.
“For now, he is still waiting, and fighting. I see how much the struggle costs him, how discouraging it is that despite his strength and patience and faith in the system, the ultimate decision rests in the hands of those who have yet to act.
“One day soon, though, the powers that be are going to do the right thing. I’m his father, and it’s Father’s Day, so let me believe it. One day soon they’re going to let my brave, beautiful boy walk the same path we all get to take home.”

Read the article at nytimes.com >

Via Gay Poltics Report

Analysis: 21 things Romney could do to reverse LGBT progress
 
The Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson identifies five regulatory and 16 sub-regulatory pro-LGBT actions taken by President Barack Obama that could be reversed in a Mitt Romney administration. One gay Republican activist said it's unlikely Romney would seek to roll back many of the federal LGBT initiatives of the Obama administration, but Democrats counter that he will owe something to anti-LGBT supporters. Romney, who also opposes civil unions, has signed a pledge vowing to support a constitutional ban on legal marriage for same-sex couples. Washington Blade (6/14)     

Via JMG: Pride Magazine 2012 Is Online

Pride Magazine 2012 is online in its entirety. Click on the link and hit full-screen to click through the title page by page. And keep an eye out for a piece (page 77) from our own Father Tony!

Labels: Father Tony, gay press, LGBT culture, Pride Magazine

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 15, 2012

The Mind of No-Clinging

There’s no school that says, 'Cling.' Liberation is about cutting, or dissolving, or letting go of, or seeing through the attachment to anything. The description of the mind of no-clinging may be different in the different schools, but the experience of the mind of no-clinging is the same. How could it be different?

- Joseph Goldstein, "How Amazing!"

Read the article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through June 17, 2012
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Via Christian Left FB:

Via AmericaBlog Gay:

Damning report on new religious right gay parenting "study"

The family-values researcher who did the "study" - paid for by the anti-gay far right, of course - claims he enjoys controversy.  Hopefully he enjoys controversy more than his reputation, which is quickly heading south now that his "studies" are finally get the attention they deserve.  Though it's not the attention he was expecting. It really appears quite duplicitous.

Via America BLog Gay

On Mormons and the hypocrisy of "religious freedom"

By John Aravosis 

Excellent commentary from a reader, named "A reader in Colorado," in response to my earlier post about whether it's okay for liberals not to want to vote for a Mormon Republican.

You didn't get the memo John.

Liberals and the non-religious don't get religious freedom. Such freedoms are only for conservative Christians and occasionally certain kinds of conservatives practitioners of Judaism.

Christian conservatives, for example, object to gays getting married, so gays can't get married. That's their religious freedom.

Christian conservatives demand they don't have to follow the rules others have to follow and to be allowed to deny their employees birth control, question them about their private sexual practices as employees, and fire them. They're conservative, so that's their religious freedom.

Many liberals both desire and demand that states and the Federal government recognize same sex marriage and sign same sex marriage licenses out of their religious convictions concerning equality.

They're liberals, though - so they have no religious freedom and no say in the matter.

The problem with Romney is that Mormonism, no matter how out of the mainstream, is conservative.

That means he gets every freedom about his religion, including how to impose it on other people, and as a non-conservative, or non-religious person, you just, uh, DON'T.

It's not that mormons get to do things against other people and they get to hide if you have a problem with what they do, the problem is that you aren't a right wing religious conservative so you just get to shut up about it. Another right wing religionist would have, and has had, every power to question Romney's religion.

That is the true double standard here. Not about Romney's religion versus Obama's ethnic heritage. It's about only right wing religionists in this country having any kind of religious privileges whatsoever.

Until we recognize and have a national outcry against only conservatives having religious freedom while no one else does and actually having liberals loudly demanding their own religious freedom, nothing about this will change. Because it's only with lopsided religious freedom - with some having it all, others having none of it - that these lopsided power structures exist.

Right wing religionists have special rights, including rights in the media to tell you what you must do to observe their religion, even if you aren't part of it at all. 

The true question that needs to be asked is why do only conservative religionists get any religious freedom or political or media consideration in this country?

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 14, 2012

Thriving with No-Self

People think 'no-self' means there's no one home. That's wrong. Free of fixed self, a living being thrives.

- Robert Thurman, "The Politics of Enlightenment"

Read the article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through June 16, 2012
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 13, 2012

Balanced Compassion

Compassion doesn’t always mean being nice to people. Sometimes the best thing you can do in a situation is to be rough with someone. We have to be balanced in accord with each situation.

- Gerry Shishin Wick Sensei, "Zen in the Workplace: Approaches to Mindful Management"

Read the article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through June 15, 2012
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ViaTricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 11, 2012

 

Maintaining Authentic Presence

In lovingkindness, our minds are open and expansive—spacious enough to contain all the pleasures and pains of a life fully lived. Pain, in this context, doesn’t feel like betrayal or an overwhelming force. It is part of the reality of human experience, and an opportunity for us to practice maintaining our authentic presence.

- Sharon Salzberg, "Working with Metta"

Read the article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through June 13, 2012
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 10, 2012

Mysterious Experience

People who are attached to sutras and a scriptural teaching of words can lack faith in the living, mysterious experience of meditation that leads to a sudden insight.

- So Sahn, "The Zen of Confidence"

Read the article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through 6/12
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 9, 2012

Beyond the Self

Buddhism asks us to go beyond the self, not to perfect the self.

- Dharmavidya David Brazier, "Living Buddhism"
Read the article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through 6/11
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 8, 2012

Understanding Emptiness

Every moment of experience is contingent on a vast complex of myriad conditions. Nothing exists in and of itself as 'this' or 'that,' 'self' or 'other.' Everything is what it is only in relation to what it is not.

- Stephen Batchelor, "Nagarjuna's Verses from the Center"

Read the article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection through 6/10
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Via Being Liberal:

Being Liberal

I wish more people would preach about what the Bible loves than what the Bible hates.

 

 

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 7, 2012

Open Understanding

When we make the effort to understand what may seem strange in the religious practices of others, we may find that it opens the door to something beyond the particular case, something quite general: the capacity of humans to participate in divinity.

- Robert Bellah, "The R Word"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 6, 2012

Moral Health

The more we can get the self out of the way, the more clearly we can see the effect of our thoughts, words, and action upon ourselves and others.

- Andrew Olendzki, "Moral Health"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via JMG: Reactions To Prop 8 Ruling

American Foundation for Equal Rights

Today’s order is yet another federal court victory for loving, committed gay and lesbian couples in California and around the nation,” said AFER co-founder Chad Griffin. “The final chapter of the Proposition 8 case has now begun. Should the United States Supreme Court decide to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision in our case, I am confident that the Justices will stand on the side of fairness and equality.” On February 7, 2012, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit concluded that Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Ninth Circuit panel majority held: "Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. The Constitution simply does not allow for laws of this sort.”

Human Rights Campaign

Once again, a federal court has affirmed that the cherished guarantees of our Constitution are there to protect all Americans – including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. For over three years, the plaintiffs, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, and attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies have shown tremendous fortitude and perseverance in their fight for marriage equality. With today’s announcement, we are one step closer to ensuring that gay and lesbian Californians – and, one day, our entire community nationwide – are able to join the institution of marriage and have their love and commitment respected equally.

Marriage Equality USA

The momentum for the freedom to marry seems unstoppable. Three weeks ago, the President of the United States announced his support for marriage equality. Last week, the 1st Circuit Federal Court of Appeals held that the so-called Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. And today, the 9th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals upheld its earlier decision striking down Proposition 8. Nationwide polls have shown majority support for the freedom to marry for the last two years, and Californians now favor marriage equality by a 59 – 34 percent margin, according to the latest polling.

National Center for Lesbian Rights

Today’s refusal by the Ninth Circuit to grant further review is a testament to the meticulous and well-reasoned opinion originally issued by the Court. While the supporters of Proposition 8 will now seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court, there is no doubt that they are on the wrong side of history. Excluding same-sex couples from the right to marry runs counter to our highest ideals of equality and fairness.

More reactions to follow as they arrive...

Labels: California, HRC, LGBT rights, Proposition 8

BREAKING: Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals DENIES Rehearing Of Proposition 8

Here's the ruling:

The full court was advised of the petition for rehearing en banc. A judge requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. The matter failed to receive a majority of the votes of the non-recused active judges in favor of en banc consideration. Fed. R. App. P. 35. The petition for rehearing en banc is DENIED. The mandate is stayed for ninety days pending the filing of a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court. If such a petition is filed, the stay shall continue until final disposition by the Supreme Court.

Reactions and analysis to follow shortly....

Labels: California, LGBT rights, marriage equality, Ninth Circuit Court., Proposition 8

Reposted from Joe

Via Gay Politics Report:

Corporate support swings behind marriage equality
 
Starbucks, Microsoft, Boeing and Google are among a growing number of companies taking stands in favor of allowing same-sex couples to marry, a development some say is emblematic of a major shift in corporate America’s approach to LGBT issues. “Earlier on there was more risk than reward. Now there’s far more talk about the reward and less about the risk,” said Bob Witeck, a consultant who advises corporations on LGBT issues. Another sign of the sea change in corporate thinking on the issue: Target is selling T-shirts with LGBT-positive messages to help raise money for the Family Equality Council, a group which is part of coalition fighting a marriage amendment in Minnesota. Politico (Washington, D.C.) (6/3), The Washington Post/The Associated Press

Via AmericaBlog Gay:

AFA hate group: "It is all together right to discriminate against homosexuals"

This is the same hate group that is threatening Target with a boycott over some Pride t-shirts the chain is selling. I'll say this for AFA, at least they're consistent in their hate.  They've said a lot of hateful things about Jews in the past.  And now they continue to pull no punches in their intolerance and bigotry towards gays. The thing is, AFA always ends up losing...