Thursday, March 29, 2012

Via JMG: NAACP Denounces NOM


"This memo only reveals the limits of a cynical agenda. The truth is that no group, no matter how well-funded, can drive an artificial wedge between our communities. People of color understand what it is like to be the target of discrimination. No public relations strategy will make us forget that." - NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, via press release.


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Via JMG: Freedom To Marry Calls On GOP Candidates: Renounce NOM's Hate Pledge


"Now that NOM's race-baiting strategy of pitting American against American, minority against minority, and family members against family members is out in the open, we call on GOP candidates to renounce their NOM pledges. A president's job is to lead and unite the nation, not take part in a politics of division and cruelty. Anyone seeking the nation's highest office should not be affiliated with a group seeking to discredit the strong and clear voice of those African-American civil rights champions, such as John Lewis, Julian Bond, and Coretta Scott King, who have stood up for the freedom to marry and the equal civil rights of all people, including gay people of color." - Evan Wolfson, head of Freedom To Marry.

RELATED: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich all signed NOM's pledge to thwart the civil rights of LGBT Americans should they be elected. Included in that pledge is a vow to pursue an anti-gay amendment to the federal constitution.


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Via JMG: FOTF Launches Anti-Gay Obama Poll


Guess who dominates Focus On The Family's poll about President Obama? That's right. YOU do. Wars, threats of nuclear attacks, a crumbling global economy? PFFFT. Treating homerseckshuls like human beings is what the nation should REALLY be worried about.


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Via JMG: Mark Bingham's Mom Fires Back


TMZ interviews Alice Hoagland, the mother of openly gay 9/11 hero Mark Bingham.
"Yes, my gay son was known in our family for bringing me flowers on my birthday and Mother’s Day. He also was known for careening down the rugby pitch, and, on the morning of September 11, 2001, for charging unarmed down the aisle of a doomed Boeing 757 to face knife-wielding Islamist thugs in a hijacked cockpit."

She adds, "No one among his pick-up team of fellow passengers was asking 'Are you straight? Are you gay?' No one doubted that a guy who weighed 220 and stood 6’4” tall - who could run over a charging opponent on the field, and ran with the bulls in Pamplona earlier that summer - would be an asset to a desperate group trying to overcome a threat onboard an airliner."

"The world has its share of strong, heroic gay men. Gay men in sports uniforms and military uniforms have been winning America’s games and fighting America’s battles for a long time: quietly, humbly, and in the face of vicious bigotry." "I hope you and I may have an opportunity to talk sometime. I prefer to believe you didn’t mean to offend. Good luck to you."
BAM! Also: Suh-NAP!


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Civil rights leader: NOM e-mails 'scary'

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 29, 2012

Straight Ahead

Go very deep into yourself. Let body and mind fall away. Experience the absolute basis of reality. But the path doesn't end there. This is just the peak of the mountain. You need to continue the journey. Where do you go when you’re at the peak? Straight ahead. It’s always straight ahead. Straight ahead when you’re on the peak means down the other side of the mountain back into the marketplace. That’s where your realization needs to manifest. Otherwise, what’s the point?
- John Daido Loori, "Straight Ahead"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBlog Gay:




Rich came out as a lesbian in the 1970s and had been with her partner, writer Michelle Cliff, since 1976.

Her poetry and prose showed feminist sympathies from the 1950s onward, and her 1980 essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and the Lesbian Continuum” challenged the idea that heterosexuality was the only normal orientation and formed the heart of theories of lesbian feminism. Her work features prominently in gender studies classes. 

She also wrote passionate antiwar poetry and concerned herself with issues of class. In 1997 she turned down the National Medal for the Arts, writing to President Bill Clinton, “The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate. A president cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored.”

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Via JMG: Real Men Don't Bowl With Pink Balls


Followed up with: “Friends don’t let friends use pink balls.”

HRC's Fred Sainz responds via press release:
“This is another example of Rick Santorum intentionally making ignorant statements that have a real impact on LGBT people. Whether he’s comparing our marriages to inanimate objects, saying our children would be better off with a parent in prison as opposed to two loving same-sex parents, or calling open military service a ‘tragic social experiment;’ he’s proven that he thinks LGBT people are second-class citizens not worthy of dignity or respect. In this case, he’s advancing tired gender norms by implying a boy should be ashamed or embarrassed to use a certain color bowling ball.”

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Via JMG: Less Religion = More Gay Rights


More here. (Tipped by JMG reader Matthew)


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Via JMG: Concerned Women Are Concernstipated About Those Liberal Lovers At Starbucks


"I’ve known for a while that the founders of Starbucks were left-of-center. But I convinced myself that, so long as they stayed out of public policy, I could remain a customer. Sadly, this is no longer the case. What is most frustrating about Starbucks’ liberal support is that it totally disregards the traditional views of many customers and staff members. Considering that there are twice as many conservatives as there are liberals, Starbucks should heed [NOM's] warnings. Ponder the impact of lost business from loyal customers. In this economy, I was willing to spend more on a cup of coffee than a gallon of gas! Big Oil vs. Big Coffee; I’m not sure which would win. Coffee-loving, traditional values voters deserve more respect. I guess it’s time to bite the bullet and drink the overly strong office coffee." - Chelsen Vicari, writing of the Concerned Women For America.
 

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Via JMG: WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR - DANNY ROSE.mov

Danny Rose - What Are We Waiting For?

Clip description:

This is my marriage proposal video to the love of my life. I cant imagine anyone telling us we cannot get married! The song is available on iTunes and 100% of the profits will go to marriage equality.

This is quite the production.




(Via Towleroad)

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Via JMG: Corporations Plead With NOM: Please Please Boycott Us TOO!



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JMG HomoQuotable - Larry Kramer


"Why can't we, once and for all, bond together to fight for our mutual needs? Where are the leaders who can lead us on this journey to our equality? Where's our army? I don't see either. We face this coming election naked and unprepared and as always exceptionally vulnerable.

"What does that say about how much the gay population wants to fight for these rights that I speak of? I think we help to kill each other by not fighting together to get these rights, by fighting each other instead, and not fighting against all the hate that's always out there coming non-stop from our enemies.

"And just like all the Jews in the world couldn't form Hannah Arendt's army to save all their brothers and sisters, the gays of today once again do the same. You'd think one day we'd learn. You don't get anything unless you fight for it, united and with visible numbers. If ACT UP taught us anything, it taught us that. We had greatness in our hands, but we couldn't quite carry the ball over the goal line.

"I'm not certain I see where that necessary anger and firepower is going to come from as we approach another election, where our rights are going to be on the table for fighting over by one and all, the haters and the non-haters and the ones being hated. At this moment in time, I am not very sanguine. In fact on certain days I get downright depressed.

"All the more reason then to celebrate ACT UP's 25th birthday, at least as a touchstone on our never-ending journey to find our equality and with the hope that one day we can get -- and keep -- our act together. So happy birthday, ACT UP, to all my dead brothers and sisters we couldn't save in time. I'm sorry we're no longer doing much that is productive to celebrate that you lived, that you were here, and that some lucky ones -- all the rest of us -- still are." - Larry Kramer, writing for the Huffington Post.

Read the full essay.


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Via Think Progress: Ari Fleischer Thinks President Obama Will Endorse Marriage Equality After Election



USA: Ari Fleischer Thinks President Obama Will Endorse Marriage Equality After Election

Written by scott on March 28th, 2012 Former Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer predicted that President Obama will evolve towards full support for same-sex marriage after the election. During an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper Tuesday night, Fleischer sought to explain Obama’s “flexibility” remark to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev by suggesting that he could change his mind on controversial issues.

Full Story from Think Progress
Click here for gay wedding resources.

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma March 28, 2012

The Perfection of Purity

Sustaining and furthering insight into selflessness is the act of purification, and yet the purpose of it all is not the process of purification but the nature of life when the goal has been reached. When the realization of this nature is complete, the heart has arrived at perfect nirvana, free from any clinging whatsoever. It is the realization that there is no one here to be pure or impure—only a quality of brightness and ease, a rich and fearless peace. This is the perfection of purity.
- Amaro Bhikkhu, “The Perfection of Purity”
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBlogGay:

AP covers NOM's secret plan to start a race war in America

NOM is now bragging about its outreach to the black community.

The organization put in writing its plans to destroy the first African-American President in part by creating a race war.  I wonder how the black community feels about that kind of "outreach."

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

JMG Quote Of The Day - Adam Savage


"I have concluded through careful, empirical analysis and much thought that somebody is looking out for me. Keeping track of what I think about things, forgiving me when I do less then I ought, giving me strength to shoot for more than I think I am capable of. I believe they know everything that I do and think and they still love me and I’ve concluded after careful consideration that this person keeping score is me." - Mythbusters host Adam Savage, speaking at the Reason Rally.

RELATED: Head over to The Friendly Atheist for a massive recap of the Reason Rally. Videos, photos, quotes.


Reposted from Joe

The Gay Debate: The Bible and Homosexuality


Via JMG: New York Times Picks Up NOM Scandal


Just posted at the NYT's Caucus Blog:
“The strategic goal of the project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks — two key Democratic constituencies,” reads a portion of the memo, describing an initiative called the “Not a Civil Right Project.” The project’s goal, according to the memo, is to recruit blacks who oppose gay marriage to serve as spokespeople for the group, then “provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots.” Another initiative, described under the heading “Internationalizing the Marriage issue: A Pan-American Strategy,” is to convince Hispanic voters that efforts to legalize gay marriage would force them to assimilate to “the dominant Anglo culture.” The memo suggests that the strategy was inspired by successful efforts to outlaw same-sex marriage by initiative in California in 2008, when the measure passed with strong support from black voters, who turned out heavily to support Barack Obama for president. Brian S. Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, did not immediately return a call for comment on Tuesday.

Reposted from Joe