Via White Crane \\\ Feast Day of SAINTS JOHN AND PAUL,

Saints John and Paul 2018 - It is the Feast Day of SAINTS JOHN AND PAUL, martyred lovers According to their Acts, which are of a legendary character and without recorded historical foundation, the martyrs were eunuchs (Galli) of Constantina daughter of Constantine the Great, and became acquainted with a certain Gallicanus, who built a church in Ostia. At the command of Julian the Apostate, they were beheaded secretly by Terentianus in their house on the Cælian, where their church was subsequently erected, and where they themselves were buried. Galli (singular Gallus) was the Roman name for castrated followers of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, which were regarded as a third gender by contemporary Roman scholars, and are in some ways like transgendered people in the modern world. The chief of these priests was referred to as a battakes, and later as the archigallus.

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
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Via Daily Dharma: Fuel for Awakening

 

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Fuel for Awakening

We cannot ignore cause and effect. We cannot ignore this life, especially the painful, embarrassing, and frustrating parts of it. But through practice, we can transform these experiences into fuel for awakening. River Shannon, “My Foxy Body” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

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The truth is that if my employer told me to wear a MAGA hat as part of my job, I'd quit. That was my initial reaction to what happened this month with the SF Giants, when three of the team's pitchers took the mound on Pride Night with their caps altered in protest.

Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker wrote bible verse references on their rainbow-logo caps for the Giants' annual Pride Night on June 12 at Oracle Park, with most players wearing hats that had the team's iconic interlocking "SF" logo in rainbow colors.

The reference was a passage from Genesis that describes the rainbow as a sign of God's covenant after the flood. Some opponents of gay rights have used that verse as a rallying call to "reclaim" the rainbow from queer people. (To which I say: Good luck to you. )

As a San Franciscan and proud queer man, many of my feelings actually align with not enforcing dress codes that make statements you don't support. But then of course I got to the comments. These are from a recent post on social media.

— Comment: "Leave your pride in Castro not the ballpark"

That's a lot like saying "Go back to Mexico. Or that queer expression should happen in literally half a square mile in the whole of San Francisco.

— Comment: (On the number of protesters.) "4 fans ... there were thousands who walked by these 4 and went right into the game"

Yeah it's almost as if gay people are a minority, and their voices aren't as amplified as the four other players who stood on a mound in protest against them. (A fourth pitcher, Sam Hentges, skipped the rainbow cap altogether and wore the classic black and orange.)

— Comment: "When do we celebrate heterosexuals?"

Not sure Janet, but we celebrated 1.9 million heterosexuals getting married last year. We celebrate them in nearly every love song ever recorded. By majority we're celebrating you on the Kiss Cam, which means we applauded your love at 2,430 Major League Baseball games in 2025 alone. We celebrate them constantly in film and television; the world's most famous performers continue to be heterosexual.

But you're right that we haven't thrown you a parade.

— Comment: "Pride is an individual expression. It doesn't need to be corporate. Baseball is supposed to be an all-inclusive type of thing where everyone is welcome."

Historically, sports were a way for neighboring societies to compete without going to war. It's not as simple as entertainment.

But what stuck with me about this comment is that baseball is "supposed to be an all-inclusive type of thing." You're right, and I actually love a ballgame, but I have frankly never felt safe being expressively gay at one. Sports fans are quite often loud and violent, and they're not afraid to get in your face about their feelings. Which brings me to the next comment.

— Comment: "Go Dodgers!"

Bryan Stow was a paramedic and father of two from Santa Cruz who drove down to Los Angeles for Opening Day on March 31, 2011, to watch the Giants play the Dodgers. He wore his Giants gear to Dodger Stadium, and he and his friends were taunted for it. After the game, Stow was knocked unconscious and his head struck the concrete; a Dodgers fan kicked him in the head at least three times while others held Stow's friends back from helping.

To put this in perspective: this was straight-on-straight violence, and it absolutely happened because of what a man was wearing. I was a young journalist covering this story when it happened fifteen years ago, and I have scarcely been to a baseball game since.

So while I don't really care that much about four pitchers' act of protest—and can even support them in some ways—their actions have encouraged an expected kind of bigotry that still keeps me from entering rooms.

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Jim Parsons is an openly gay man who played the character Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon had a web show within the show called Fun with Flags where he analyzed the history and symbolism of various flags, from Bavaria to Nebraska to Star Trek’s United Federation of Planets. But he did not cover the vexillology of the LGBTQ+ rainbow flag, so let’s have some fun.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: June 25, 1978--

A symbol of pride and social movements, the rainbow flag originated in San Francisco, making its first appearance at the city’s Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978. It was designed by Gilbert Baker, a gay man and civil rights activist. He was tasked with making the flag by Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California.

Prior to 1978, the symbol for the LGBTQ+ movement was an inverted pink triangle, but this had significant negative connotations, what with it being designed by fucking Nazis to identify and persecute homosexuals. Although it had been reclaimed as a symbol of pride in the face of homophobia, Milk still wanted something uniquely their own.

One rumor proclaims Baker was inspired by Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow” in The Wizard of Oz, as Garland was one of the first gay icons. Another hypothesis states he borrowed from the World Peace Association’s multicolored Brotherhood flag.

Baker’s original design was eight-colored: hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet. The colors represented, respectively: sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic/art, serenity, spirit. Thirty volunteers hand-dyed and stitched two flags for the parade.

Five months later, Harvey Milk was assassinated; demand for the flag grew. Hot pink was dropped because of lack of availability of that fabric color. A year later, turquoise and indigo were merged into a single royal blue to make a six-stripe flag that remains most popular, although numerous other variations have sprung up over the years.

Thirty-seven years and one day later, the White House was illuminated in the colors of the rainbow flag to celebrate the federal legalization of gay marriage. And in June 2020, in a historic decision, the Supreme Court of the United States voted 6–3 asserting federal law prevents employers from discriminating against workers for being LGBTQ+.

History should take note that Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas voted on the side of bigotry.

NOTE: This piece was researched and written by a human, not some bullshit "ai" plagiarism software.

Those who cannot remember the past need a history teacher who says “fuck” a lot. Get both volumes of ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY SH!T WENT DOWN at JamesFell.com/books.

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Via Bil Browning’s Tummy Ache Nation \\\ These nuns want to make dying of cancer even worse

 

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These nuns want to make dying of cancer even worse

What would Jesus do? Not this.

Bil Browning Jun 25

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Photo by Vitaliy Shevchenko on Unsplash

If you want to know why Americans are turning away from religion in droves, look no further than this shocking lawsuit. A group of Catholic nuns is suing for the right to disrespect dying transgender cancer patients.

What could possibly be so upsetting to the cadre of decidedly un-Christian sisters that forced them to file a lawsuit against the state of New York? They don’t want to refer to trans women as “she,” and they don’t want them dying in beds with other women nearby.

Now, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has picked a side in the case, and, as you probably guessed, it’s siding with the nuns.

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“For more than a century, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have provided free palliative care to indigent cancer patients in their last days,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “New York’s law would force these religious women to choose between their faith and their license if they wish to continue serving the dying.”

Which is complete horseshit, of course. No one is asking the nuns to evangelize gender affirmation surgery. They’re simply required to treat dying people with respect. Apparently, that’s a step too far.

“It is unconstitutional for [the state] to dictate how the Sisters speak and how they care for those on their final journey,” one member of the nuns’ legal team declared without a hint of self-awareness of exactly how shitty that makes the sadistic sisters sound.

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When someone is on their “final journey,” would Christ expect his followers to demean, antagonize, and insult them? Is that what the Catholic church is teaching its followers? I reached out to the Vatican to ask them, but didn’t get a response.

The federal government is spending taxpayer money to help nuns misgender cancer patients on their deathbeds. What does that say about this DOJ’s priorities? The civil rights division, which was created to protect minorities, not harass them, has made a determined effort to undermine absolutely everything the department has championed for decades under Dhillon’s leadership.

It’s not shocking that Trump is eagerly watching his toadies and henchmen work against minority groups, but Leo has supposedly made the protection and visibility of minorities and marginalized communities a cornerstone of his papacy.

For all of the positive PR the Church obviously seeks as it pits Pope Leo against Trump in a war of words, the sheer fact that he hasn’t picked up the phone and asked the naughty nuns, “What the fuck is wrong with you?” speaks volumes.

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Is it any wonder that only 65% of American Catholics think that religion has a positive view of religion? Only a quarter of them think that ignoring the law in favor of “but my religion tells me…” excuses is a net positive for the country.

In other words, 75% of American Catholics think petty bitches like the Dominican Sisters are doing the right thing, and almost half of them think that people like the nuns are making life worse for everyone.

And seriously, if using the word “she” to describe a woman who is dying is enough to get their knickers in a twist, these nuns have to be the worst possible choice to be caring for anyone about to shuffle off this mortal coil. They need compassion and respect, not abuse or callousness.

If disrespect and mean-spirited judgmental condemnation are all you have to offer, you’re in the wrong fucking business.

Christ fed the hungry, healed the sick, and sat with the dying. The Dominican Sisters sued the state of New York for the right not to. Somebody’s religion got lost on the way to the courthouse.

Pope Leo vs Trump is like professional wrestling Bil Browning · Apr 14 Read full story

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