Via AmericaBlogGay:

Anti-gay bully suspended for only 3 days after brutally beating student in front of entire class

And the entire thing was caught on film.

Andy Towle has the horrific story:

A student at Union-Scioto High School in Chillicothe, Ohio was brutally beaten this week by another student for being gay. Class members watched as the bully waited for the student to arrive in the classroom, grabbed him, pushed him to the ground and punched him in the face several times.

Another student recorded the assault on his cell phone. The video was posted to Facebook.

The bully had harassed the gay student (who has not been identified) on Facebook a few days earlier, writing, as the comment on a photo of him: "You fag. Check out the definition of a fag."

According to an email received by Towleroad from Equality Ohio, "The victim has suffered a possible concussion and dental damage. The attacker was suspended from school for just three days. "

Andy goes on to note that the school district has an anti-harassment policy that excludes LGBT students. Below is the video of the beating from an ABC News story.

Via JMG: Linda Harvey: I Should Sue Wayne Besen

Linda Harvey is threatening to sue Wayne Besen for a post published yesterday on Truth Wins Out. In the post, Besen notes that Harvey has endorsed Uganda's still-pending "kill gays" bill. Her exact words:

“The fact they are re-criminalizing homosexuality is (a) their business, (b) it is patronizing for white Westerners to be telling these folks — they are seeing George Soros funded gay groups going into Uganda. They are all through the schools, lots of promotion to kids. Poor kids, poor kids are being offered money and favors and gifts to have sex. That’s exploitation. That’s sex trafficking. And it’s being done mostly homosexually. By Western homosexuals coming in and trying to get involved in Uganda.”

That sure sounds like "advocating killing" to ME.

Labels: hate groups, Linda Harvey, Mission America, Truth Wins Out, Uganda, Wayne Besen

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Via JMG: Rosie: Media To Blame For Bullying

Rosie O'Donnell appeared on Thomas Roberts' MSNBC show this afternoon to plug her new show and talk about bullying, which she says is fueled, in part, by cable news. "Some of the 24-hour news networks seemed to take pride in the fact that they bully people."



(Via - Think Progress)

Labels: bullying, LGBT youth, Rosie O'Donnell

posted by Joe

Via JMG: WALES: Pro Rugby Player Comes Out

Wales has another out pro athlete.

Old Redcliffians captain Jed Hooper has become the first Combination player to publicly announce that he is gay. The 22-year-old back row forward came out to family and friends earlier this year. And Hooper has now spoken exclusively to the Evening Post in the hope that his story can help other young rugby players come to terms with their sexuality. In recent seasons, former Welsh international Gareth Thomas and top referee Nigel Owens have both broken one of the great taboos in arguably the most macho sport of all. And Hooper, a fierce competitor who speaks as directly off the pitch as he does in his pre-match team talks, has now also chosen to come out of the closet after years of anxiety connected to grappling with his true identity. The decision, he said, was still far from easy. "I met someone earlier this year who said he could not be with someone who was in the closet. That, basically, was the catalyst that I needed."

Hit the link for the rest of a great story. (Tipped by JMG reader Leif)

Labels: coming out, rugby, UK, Wales

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Via JMG: Buchanan: Gays Are Unnatural & Immoral

"I believe that homosexuality is -- that it is unnatural activity. Unnatural and immoral. I realize individuals are maybe born -- nature or nurture, I don't know what it is -- I assume nobody actually gets to be 13 or 14 and suddenly chooses this. But I do think -- and people may not be able to control their orientation -- but I do believe as a Catholic that people can control their conduct. And that is where I think, I would say, that kind of conduct should be discouraged in a good society, in a healthy society. And it used to be discouraged. And I do think that the idea that men can marry men and women marry women in the USA is a sign of a civilization in its final throes. I mean, we saw things like this at the end of the Weimar Republic. Things like this at the end of the Roman Empire. And they are attendant to a declining nation and a declining civilization." - Pat Buchanan, speaking to NPR.

RELATED: The Human Rights Campaign and Media Matters have called for disciplinary action from MSNBC and its parent company NBC Universal. Via press release:

Every credible major medical and mental health organization in the United States has stated that homosexuality is normal, and attempts to alter or oppress a person’s sexual orientation can be dangerous and damaging. “While Pat Buchanan is free to hold and express his views, that fact that MSNBC has given him a public platform to spew this sort of dangerous rhetoric is unacceptable, “said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “MSNBC should sanction Mr. Buchanan, as his extremist ideas are incredibly harmful to millions of LGBT people around the world.” During his tenure as a political commentator for MSNBC, Buchanan has made a number of bigoted, racist, and anti-Semitic comments for which he has been reprimanded.

Labels: assholery, HRC, MSNBC, Pat Buchanan

reposted from Joe

CNN Calls Out Linda Harvey

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

 October 27, 2011

We must grow weary of craving

We’re stuck on feeling like a monkey stuck in a tar trap. A glob of tar is placed where a monkey will get its hand stuck and, in trying to pull free, the monkey gets its other hand, both feet, and eventually its mouth stuck, too. Consider this: Whatever we do, we end up stuck right here at feeling and craving. We can't separate them out. We can't wash them off. If we don't grow weary of craving, we're like the monkey stuck in the glob of tar, getting ourselves more and more trapped all the time.

– Upasika Kee Nanayon, "A Glob of Tar"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBloggay:"It Gets Better" is not enough. It’s time to arrest some bullies

I agree with Dan Savage on this one.  Kids are dying. It's time to get tough with bullies.  It's also, I might add, time for our elected leaders in Washington to take this issue seriously. Why is neither of the two proposed anti-bullying bills included in a massive education reform bill that just passed out of a key Senate committee?  That committee, and the entire Senate, is controlled by Democrats.  They chose to leave our legislation out of the bill.  Why?  Was including "the gay" too embarrassing for Senate Democrats?  And why didn't any of our groups have enough leverage to get the legislation included?

This is the reason we elect Democrats. Not just to do the high profile stuff like get DADT repealed, but to keep our interests in mind when they work on every piece of legislation.  And it seems, more often than not, that they shove our interests aside as quickly and quietly as possible.  This appears to be another shining example of, as Joe calls it, "political homophobia."  And I'm getting really tired of it.

Via AMERICAblogGay:NOM used Obama rally photo and pretended it was one of their rallies

I've been in San Francisco attending a Netroots Nation board meeting the past few days, so missed this incredible catch from Jeremy Hooper.  NOM, the lead anti-gay group on marriage took a photo of an Obama rally and pretended that it was a photo of one of its rallies.  Simply amazing.

RMR: Rick's Rant - Teen Suicide

Via JMG: Missouri Public School Teacher: We Need More Gay Kids To Kill Themselves

Yet another teacher is in trouble for posting viciously anti-gay comments to Facebook. The school board is investigating, but Family Research Council head Tony Perkins says this is just another witchhunt by intolerant radical homofascists. First Amendment! More dead gay kids! Praise! Glory!

Labels: bullying, education, Facebook, hate groups, LGBT youth, Missouri, suicide, Tony Perkins

reposted from Joe

ViaJMG: Ten Years Of Changing Attitudes

Think Progress has more charts from Pew Research.

Labels: LGBT rights, marriage equality, Pew Project

reposted from Joe

Pema Chodron "Tong lin Meditation"

Pema Chodron "Troublemakers"

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

 

October 26, 2011

Speaking all day long

Only the noble ones who enter the refined attainment of cessation, where feeling and perception stop, are able to stop speaking. Aside from them, everyone’s speaking all day and all night long. And especially those who vow not to speak: They talk more than anyone else, it’s simply that they don’t make a sound that others can hear.

– Phra Ajaan Dune Atulo, "If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBlog Gay: Far right GOP prez hopeful Michele Bachmann has a gay stepsister

Huff Post:

People also talked to Michele Bachmann's gay stepsister, Helen LaFave, who Bachmann said she loved. LaFave said, "Yes, we are family and love each other, but she seems to have a disconnect. Her statements and actions related to gay rights are very hurtful, whether she understands that or not." Their once-close relationship reportedly strained over Bachmann's anti-gay activism.

Good for her stepsister, but how does Bachmann think she really has a chance?  Maybe she's itching for VP, even though she's as nutty a pic as was Sarah Palin.

Via JMG: NOM Steals Obama Rally Photos To Lie About Their Own Failed Events

Good As You's Jeremy Hooper has once again gone Nancy Drew on NOM's lying ass and proven conclusively that they are stealing photos of massive Obama rally crowds and inserting them into their own materials. As we all know, NOM actually only draws rally crowds in the tens, NOT the tens of thousands as they want people to think. Here's another example of NOM's photo theft.

Labels: hate groups, Jeremy Hooper, liars, NOM

reposted from Joe

Gay kiss play

Via Gay Politics Report: Presidential candidates ramp up rhetoric against judges

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has said that Congress could forbid the federal judiciary from hearing cases related to marriage for gays and lesbians, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested Congress could effectively de-fund the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over its supposed radical leanings. These claims and similar rhetoric are playing well on the campaign trail, especially among Tea Party activists, according to this article. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (10/23)

Via JMG: Denmark To Legalize Gay Marriage

Denmark's government has announced plans to legalize same-sex marriage by the spring.

Denmark is the latest European nation to announce plans to introduce gay marriage, with same-sex couples to be allowed to marry on Church of Denmark premises. The Danish coalition Government’s church minister, Manu Sareen, told local newspaper Jyllands-Posten that gay men and women will soon be able to marry when legislation is introduced early next year. “I look forward to the moment the first homosexual couple steps out of the church. I’ll be standing out there throwing rice,” he said.

In 1989 Denmark became to first nation to offer civil partnerships for gay couples.

Labels: Denmark, LGBT rights, marriage equality

reposted from Joe

Gus Johnston: The reality of homophobia in sport

Via JMG: Zimbabwe PM Calls For Gay Rights

In what's being described as a stunning reversal in policy, the prime minister of Zimbabwe is calling for gay rights to be guaranteed in his nation's new constitution, which is presently under review.

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has reversed his position on gay rights, saying he now wants them enshrined in a new constitution. He told the BBC that gay rights were a "human right" that conservative Zimbabweans should respect. Last year, Mr Tsvangirai joined President Robert Mugabe in opposing homosexuality. The fractious coalition formed by the two leaders has promised political reforms ahead of next year's elections. Zimbabwe is in the process of drafting a new constitution, which will be put to a referendum ahead of the elections. Homosexual acts are currently illegal in Zimbabwe, as in most African countries where many people view homosexuality as un-Christian and un-African.

Observers expect President Mugabe to exploit this development in his campaign for reelection.

(Tipped by JMG reader Nicholas)

Labels: Africa, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: IRELAND: President Mary McAleese Named Most Gay-Friendly Politician

Great acceptance speech!



(Via JMG reader Vivian)

Labels: Ireland, LGBT rights

reposted from Joe

Facebook Foto of the Day:

Religion is Pants

Via JMG: Cain: I Support Federal Marriage Ban

Tea Party favorite Herman Cain says he's changed his mind and now supports a federal amendment banning same-sex marriage.

“I think marriage should be protected at the federal level also. I used to believe that it could be just handled by the states but there’s a movement going on to basically take the teeth out of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and that could cause an unraveling, so we do need some protection at the federal level because of that and so yes I would support legislation that would say that it’s between a man and a woman.”

Even Cain's endorsers at GOProud are unhappy.

Labels: 2012 elections, GOP, Tea Party, teabaggers

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Help! We're Being Oppressed!

JMG Quote Of The Day

"Child welfare? What child will be better off if there are fewer competent agencies recruiting loving homes for children? This is meanness, pure and simple, animated by an irrational hatred towards our great religious faith traditions. It is the result of the core ideas now driving the movement to redefine marriage: gay is like black, which makes our great traditional faith communities the moral and legal equivalent of racists. Surely America can do better than that. Religious liberty is not an affront to anyone's civil rights, it is one of our Constitution's core guarantees and our community's deeply shared values." - Former NOM chaircow Maggie Gallagher, writing on the website for the Manhattan Declaration.

NOTE: The Manhattan Declaration is a 2009 document that calls on all Christians to disobey any law granting rights to LGBT Americans.

Labels: bovine spongiform encephalopathy, gay adoption, hate groups, Illinois, Maggie Gallagher, Manhattan Declaration, NOM, Quote Of The Day

reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma: Beyond Positive and Negative

Tricycle Daily Dharma October 23, 2011

Beyond Positive and Negative

Entering the awakened state of mind, even for a moment, is always preceded by an experience, however fleeting, of extreme contrast and conflict. Even on the highest and most subtle levels of attainment, negative and positive continue together side by side, until one makes the leap beyond them both.

– Francesca Freemantle, "The Luminous Gap in Bardo"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via JMG: Today In Christian Love™

According to a new book being promoted on Christian sites, if you son ends up dying from AIDS, that's what he gets for defying God.

“He would get of the opinion that God loves us unconditionally no matter what we do,” Rhodes explains. “I told him that that is true but when we live outside of his bounds and we do things that we know we should not then it breaks the relationship with God and we have consequences that we have to live with, and even die with sometimes.”

Labels: AIDS, books, Christian Love, cruelty

reposted from Joe

MICHELE BACHMANN - "IT GETS BETTER"

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma: Sitting Regularly

 October 22, 2011

Sitting Regularly

Plan to sit at the same time each day. One of the benefits of doing this is that one gets to know the mind that doesn’t want to sit. Personally, I like to sit immediately upon waking up in the morning. For many people, this seems to be a good time, before we become engaged in the activities of the day. But if you have small children or a demanding job, this may not be possible. And some of us have rebellious natures, so any routine presents a problem. Then we need to be flexible.

– Narayan Liebenson Grady, "The Refuge of Sitting"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via JMG: Perkins: Cain Is Right On Gay "Choice"

And this is the same Tony Perkins who on July 27th of this year said: "Same-sex attraction is not a choice." Somebody's losing track of their own bullshit.

Labels: bigotry, hate groups, liars, Tony Perkins

reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

 October 21, 2011

Right Interest

Right effort is effort with wisdom. Because where there is wisdom, there is interest. The desire to know something is wisdom at work. Being mindful is not difficult. But it’s difficult to be continuously aware. For that you need right effort. But it does not require a great deal of energy. It’s relaxed perseverance in reminding yourself to be aware. When you are aware, wisdom unfolds naturally, and there is still more interest.

– Sayadaw U Tejaniya, "The Wise Investigator"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via Ameicabloggay: So does Herman Cain want to do guys but he simply "chooses" women instead?

Now we know what kind of pizza Herman Cain likes.

I'm always fascinated by people who think being gay is a choice. It says to me that for them, being straight is a choice. Meaning, they're bisexual - they like both, and therefore of course they think it's a "choice" to be gay, because for them it was a "choice" to be straight (i.e., a choice to have sex with women instead of acting on their desires to have sex with men). 




I think Herman Cain just shared a bit more than he bargained for. Piers Morgan on CNN via Politico:

Morgan: You're a commonsense guy..You genuinely believe that millions of Americans wake up in their late teens normally and go, you know what, i kind of fancy being a homosexual? You don't believe that, do you?

Cain: Piers, you haven't given me any evidence to believe otherwise.

Morgan: My gut instinct, Herman, tells me that it has to be a natural thing.

Cain: So it's your gut instinct versus my gut instincts. I respect their right to make that choice. You don't see me bashing them. I respect them to have the right to make that choice. I don't have to agree with it. That's all I'm saying

Morgan: It would be like a gay person saying, Herman, you made a choice to be black.

Cain: You know that's not the case. You know I was born black.

Morgan: Maybe if they say that, they would find that offensive.

Cain: Piers, Piers. This doesn't wash off. I hate to burst your bubble.

Morgan: I don't think being homosexual washes off.

Neither does being a bigot.

JMG HomoQuotable - Andrew Sullivan

"To rid the world of Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and Moammar Qaddafi within six months: if Obama were a Republican, he'd be on Mount Rushmore by now." - Andrew Sullivan. One his readers chimes in: "Bush and Saddam - One Trillion dollars and thousands of US lives. Obama and Qaddafi - One Billion dollars and zero US lives."

Labels: Andrew Sullivan, Barack Obama, domestic terrorism

reposted from Joe

The Sacramento Bee CapitolAlert

BREAKING NEWS

Judge denies bid to make Proposition 8 donor identities secret

A federal judge this afternoon denied a challenge to California's campaign disclosure law by proponents of Proposition 8, who sought to make donors' identities secret, claiming they were harassed.
Read more

Via JMG: Home Depot To AFA: Get Lost

Daily Finance reports that Home Depot is continuing to ignore the demands of the American Family Association, who wants the DIY giant to pull out of all gay-friendly events.

Home Depot is holding its line on the issue: "Our response on this has been and continues to be that we respect the diversity of all people and maintain an inclusive culture," Home Depot spokesman Steve Holmes said in an email. "This is what [Chairman] Frank [Blake] told the AFA publicly at our annual shareholders meeting earlier this year." Home Depot isn't the only high-profile company the AFA has targeted. It has also tangled with Walt Disney (DIS), Procter & Gamble (PG), and PepsiCo (PEP). The AFA, which brags on its website that it has been on "the frontlines of America's culture war" since 1977, insists that it has nothing against gays. All it wants is for corporate America to remain "neutral" in these same conflicts, according to Sharp. That includes both supporting gay causes and marketing to the LGBT community.

Home Depot has earned your business. Go buy a dishwasher.

Labels: AFA, hate groups, Home Depot, retail

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: White House Recognizes Spirit Day

In recognition of GLAAD's anti-bullying Spirit Day, the White House purpled the backgrounds on its Twitter and Facebook pages.

Labels: bullying, LGBT youth, White House

reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

 October 20, 2011

What We Call “Sacred”

Life is possible. Situations are possible. And anybody can start to gain some kind of insight and appreciation of their lives. That’s what we call “sacred.” It doesn’t mean something dramatic, but something very simple. There’s a sacredness to everyone’s life.

– Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, "A New Place, A New Time"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection