Via JMG: QUEBEC: Province Launches First-Ever Registry Of Homophobic Acts

In what is being touted as a world-first, the province of Quebec has launched an official registry to track acts of homophobia. With funding from the Quebec Justice Department, the campaign is being administered by Montreal's gay helpline, Gai Écoute.

Gai Écoute’s anonymous and confidential Registre des actes homophobes will document complaints ranging from name-calling in schools to psychological harassment at work and physical assaults against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. The registry will not be used as a tool for a new homophobia police, McCutcheon said. “We will refer people (who fill out the registry’s forms) to existing resources, like youth protection officials, the human rights commission and the police,” he said. “We do not plan to intervene directly.” Based on the number and type of calls Gai Écoute gets, McCutcheon said he expects there might be hundreds of complaint-worthy cases for the registry. “We notice it especially in calls from outside of Montreal, in smaller communities. Sometimes it’s a student who got mocked at school or a teenager with parents threatening to throw the young person out."

After two years, Gai Écoute will analyze its data and make recommendations to the provincial government. Quebec's anti-gay groups are, predictably, screaming.

Georges Buscemi, President of the Montreal-based pro-life and pro-family group Campagne Quebec Vie, told LifeSiteNews he saw the registry as a “means to instill a climate of oppression and fear to anyone who disagrees with any of the opinions of the homosexualist movement in Quebec.” “Anyone who might believe that a homosexual act is unacceptable at a moral level” is being sent a warning “that they will end up on a list,” he said. “A list to be used for a future purpose which in my opinion is to punish.” Buscemi gave examples of possible reprisals being the loss of charitable status for churches or teaching positions for professors. “It’s the beginning of a soft persecution,” he said. “It is really about inciting a climate of fear using the media, especially with the presence of the police. Any criticism will be interpreted as homophobia and eventually down the road there will be consequences.”

Labels: Canada, homophobia, Montreal, Quebec

Reposted from Joe

VIa JMG: New Poll On Washington State Marriage

Via Public Policy Polling.

Labels: marriage equality, polls, Washington state

Reposted from Joe

Via AmericaBlog Gay:

Temporary relief for same-sex couples facing deportation

Via Chris Geidner: Over the past month, the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is a part of the Department of Justice, has taken action in several cases involving same-sex binational couples that has the result of delaying the cases for now and potentially setting up the foreign partner of the couples to be granted a marriage-based green card should the Supreme Court declare Section 3 of the...

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 20, 2012

Transforming Pain Into Joy

Fundamental darkness, or ignorance, causes us to experience the cycles of birth and death as suffering. When we call forth and base ourselves on the magnificent enlightened life that exists within each of us without exception, however, even the most fundamental, inescapable sufferings of life and death need not be experienced as pain. Rather, they can be transformed into a life embodying the virtues of eternity, joy, true self, and purity.

- Daisaku Ikeda, "Faith in Revolution"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma June 19, 2012

Feathers in the Wind

Instead of focusing on some thoughts and feelings and pushing away others, just look at them as feathers flying in the wind. The wind is your awareness, your inborn openness and clarity.

- Tsoknyi Rinpoche, "Feathers are Harmless"

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LZ Granderson: The myth of the gay agenda

Via JMG: UGANDA: Police Raid LGBT Meeting

Ugandan police today raided an international LGBT rights meeting and questioned the attendees. In addition to local activists, the meeting was attended by representatives of Canada, Kenya, and Rwanda. The event was organized by the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project. (Website)

The police forced their way into some of the activists' hotel rooms, the group said. The training workshop was intended to bolster the local gay community's abilities to report rights abuses. Activists condemned the police action and said it represented a growing trend. "This ludicrous and senseless harassment of human rights activists has no basis in law whatsoever and has to stop," Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International's deputy director for Africa, said. "We are seeing a worrying pattern emerging whereby the Ugandan authorities engage in arbitrary activities deliberately designed to intimidate and threaten legitimate human rights work," Ms Kagari said.

RELATED: In February Uganda's Minister of Ethics had police raid and shut down a secretly organized LGBT rights meeting. The event's organizer narrowly escaped arrest.

Labels: Africa, LGBT rights, Uganda

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 18, 2012

Divine People

People are mysterious, unfathomable—like divinities: natural objects for reverence. But our habits of thought turn the people around us into objects, the means for our self-protection.

- Lama John Makransky, "Family Practice"

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RomneyAide

 http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/06/16/admit/

Via JMG: Dad Of Prop 8 Plaintiff Pens Essay

The New York Times has published a Father's Day essay by Dominick Zarrillo, the dad of one the men challenging Prop 8 in Perry v Brown.

None of us could believe something like that would pass in California. When it did, I wondered if Jeff and Paul would move from the place they loved and had called home for so long. They didn’t, though. Nor did they accept the new law and try to blend in as I told Jeff to do all those years ago. Instead, they did something that’s made me as proud as I’ve ever been: they fought back. Jeff and Paul and two women challenged the law in court, and in a landmark decision two years later, they won: Proposition 8 was declared unconstitutional by a judge in San Francisco. The proponents of Proposition 8 appealed, and Jeff and Paul won that, too.

The United States Court of Appeals recently declined to take up the case before a larger panel, which opened the door for it to head to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Jeff and Paul still can’t legally marry. 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 full essay.

Labels: LGBT rights, New York Times, Proposition 8

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma

Tricycle Daily Dharma June 17, 2012

Father's Day Metta

The Buddha encouraged us to think of the good things done for us by our parents, by our teachers, friends, whomever; and to do this intentionally, to cultivate it, rather than just letting it happen accidentally.

- Ajahn Sumedho, "The Gift of Gratitude"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma June 16, 2012

Attending to the Small Things

The subtle suffering in our lives may seem unimportant. But if we attend to the small ways that we suffer, we create a context of greater ease, peace, and responsibility, which can make it easier to deal with the bigger difficulties when they arise.

- Gil Fronsdal, "Living Two Traditions"

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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!"

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Via Christian Left FB: