Friday, April 20, 2012

Via JMG: Obama Endorses Federal Anti-Bullying Law


Today the White House thoughtfully picked the Day Of Silence to endorse the federal Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) and the Safe Schools Improvement Act.

Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly:
White House spokesman Shin Inouye tells Metro Weekly, "The President and his Administration have taken many steps to address the issue of bullying. He is proud to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act, introduced by Senator Franken and Congressman Polis, and the Safe Schools Improvement Act, introduced by Senator Casey and Congresswoman Linda Sanchez. These bills will help ensure that all students are safe and healthy and can learn in environments free from discrimination, bullying and harassment." The SSIA would amend the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to include bullying- and harassment-prevention programs, including ones based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The SNDA, modeled after Title IX, would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal education nondiscrimination law.
Tonight the White House is also screening the movie Bully to an audience of community activists. Reactions from LGBT rights groups are below.

GLSEN
"Today is a day that I have hoped for since I began my work as an anti-bullying advocate after losing my son Carl," said Sirdeaner Walker. "I believe that President Obama's explicit endorsement of the Safe Schools Improvement Act will make a tremendous difference in moving this issue forward. Having met with the President three times, I knew his support for SSIA and the Student Non-Discrimination Act was genuine. But stating that publicly on GLSEN's Day of Silence pushes it to a whole new level. While nothing can bring Carl back, I know that these bills can make a real difference to end the bullying and harassment that is faced by too many other sons and daughters today."

National Gay & Lesbian Task Force
“We thank President Obama for endorsing the Safe Schools Improvement Act and Student Non-Discrimination Act. The epidemic of bullying and discrimination in our nation’s schools is a tragedy and an outrage. No student should fear getting beaten up, harassed and tormented while simply trying to get an education. We have a responsibility to ensure all young people are protected from this pervasive bullying, discrimination and abuse. Parents, educators, policymakers — all of us — need to stand against this unacceptable behavior. The president did that today. We urge him to now help get these life-saving bills through Congress.”
Lambda Legal
"We applaud the Obama administration for endorsing this critical piece of legislation. We thank Sen. Al Franken,Rep. Jared Polis, Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. Tammy Baldwin and over 50other current sponsors for their leadership on this bill and we urge Congress to pass it. At Lambda Legal, we've encountered extraordinary cases of violence and discrimination against LGBT young peoplein schools - and sometimes against the allies who try to support them. The Student Non-Discrimination Act takes a big step toward a safer and healthier environment in every public school."
ACLU
“Having the White House stand behind the Student Non-Discrimination Act is key to getting this necessary legislation passed into law,” said Ian Thompson, ACLU legislative representative. “Our public schools should be a safe harbor for our youth, not a place of exclusion and ridicule. By passing the Student Non-Discrimination Act, Congress can have a profound and very real impact in improving the lives of LGBT students. It’s time to make passage of this bill a priority.”
Human Rights Campaign
“The President’s endorsement of the SNDA and SSIA recognizes the importance of providing LGBT students with the same civil rights protections as other students,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “No student should feel scared when walking into their school and these bills would address the discrimination and bullying that our youth have endured for far too long.”

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma April 20, 2012

Cutting the Roots of Craving

The misguided man in whom the thirty-six currents of craving strongly rush toward pleasurable objects, is swept away by the flood of his passionate thoughts. Everywhere these currents flow, and the creeper (of craving) sprouts and grows. Seeing that the creeper has sprung up, cut off its root with wisdom.
- The Buddha, "From the Canon: Thirst"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via AmericaBlogGay:

Vatican launches attack on U.S. nuns for not being homophobic

Posted about the Vatican attack on the U.S. nuns for not being anti-gay enough at AMERICAblog. To complete the homophobic circle, the Archbishop of Seattle, J. Peter Sartain, who is leading the jihad against the nuns, is also leading the effort to repeal Washington State's new marriage equality law. But, this past weekend, a number of parishes rejected the Archbishop's edict to collect signatures for an anti-marriage referendum. In fact, via Igor Volsky at Think Progress, we learned that one Catholic priest got a standing ovation from his parishioners by announcing he wouldn't participate in the effort to gather signatures for an anti-marriage petition.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Via Thich Nhat Hanh Facebook:



Imagine a pine tree standing in the yard. If that pine tree were to ask us what it should do, what the maximum is a pine tree can do to help the world, our answer would be very clear: “You should be a beautiful, healthy pine tree. You help the world by being your best.” That is true for humans also. The basic thing we can do to help the world is to be healthy, solid, loving, and gentle to ourselves. Then when people look at us, they will gain confidence. They will say, “If she can do that, I can do that too!”

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma April 19, 2012

 

No Negative Emotion

There isn’t any such thing as a negative emotion. There are negative things that we do with our emotions, but our emotions themselves are neither negative nor positive. They simply are.
- Robert Augustus Masters, "From Spiritual Bypassing"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma April 18, 2012

The Relief of Impermanence

When our thoughts believe that an entity is permanent, that is a mistake, and that mistake causes us to suffer. Because when we believe an entity that makes us happy is permanent, we suffer when that entity ceases to exist. And when we believe an entity that makes us suffer is permanent, we deny ourselves the relief of knowing that it is impermanent and will therefore not cause us suffering forever, or even close to it!
- Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso, "The Path of Faith and the Path of Reasoning"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Monday, April 16, 2012

Via JMG: Activists Slam Obama Over Rejection Of Employment Non-Discrim Order

Michelangelo Signorile reports at HuffPo:
Two prominent LGBT activists slammed President Obama for refusing to sign an Executive Order "at this time" barring federal contractors from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Tico Almeida, president of Freedom to Work, was among the LGBT activists in a White House meeting with senior advisor Valerie Jarrett earlier in the week who were told the order would not be signed. He said the White House rationale was “weak,” “shallow,” “unpersuasive” and “embarrassing.” Paul Yandura, a gay former Clinton White House aide and a Democratic strategist, criticized some gay leaders in addition to the president, saying that groups like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), “weren’t advocating on our behalf.”
Via Towleroad: Almeida talks to CurrentTV host Eliot Spitzer about his disappointment.  





Reposted from Joe

Via Facebook / Being Liberal:

That´s why they are called the Greatest Generation!


Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma April 16, 2012

The Pivotal Point

To willingly reside in our distress, no longer resisting what is, is the real key to transformation. As painful as it may be to face our deepest fears, we do reach the point where it's more painful not to face them.
- Ezra Bayda, "Bursting the Bubble of Fear"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma April 15, 2012

 

Living the Life You Wish to Live

The beauty of the practice is that we can evaluate our lives even before we are on our deathbed. If we are not living the life we wish to live, how can we change that now, while there is still time?
- Ondrea Levine, "Living the Life You Wish to Live"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via Facebook:

Via Facebook:

Via ॐ Blue Buddha Quote Collectiveॐ

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.”

~ Rumi
 

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Browse|Upload Titanic - The Untold Gay Story

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma April 14, 2012

The Gift That Cannot Be Given

The Buddha taught ‘kingly or queenly giving,’ which means giving the best of what we have, instinctively and graciously, even if none remains for ourselves. We are only temporary caretakers of all that is provided; essentially, we own nothing. As this understanding takes root in us, there is no getting, possessing, and giving; there is just the spaciousness that allows all things to remain in the natural flow of life.
- Marcia Rose, "The Gift That Cannot Be Given"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via JMG: FRC's Values Voters 2012: A Who's Who Of Hate Groups


Embiggen the images or go here to see who's on the slate for this year's Family Research Council Hato-O-Rama.


reposted from Joe

Via Takei/Facebook:

Friday, April 13, 2012

Via Follower of the Buddha:

Everything changes, nothing remains without change.
The Buddha
Everything changes, nothing remains without change.

The Buddha
 
Namo Buddhaya Namo Dharmaya Namo Sanghaya སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་དང་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་མཆོག་རྣམས་ ལ། Sang-gye cho-dang tsog-kyi cho-nam-la I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha 諸佛正法眾中尊 བྱང་ཆུབ་བར་དུ་བདག་ནི་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི། Jang-chub bar-du dag-ni kyab-su-chi Until I attain enlightenment. 直至菩提我歸依དག་གིས་སྦྱིན་སོགས་བགྱིས་པའི་བསོད་ནམས་ ཀྱིས། Dag-gi jin-sog gyi-pe so-nam-kyi By the merit I have accumulated from practising generosity and the other perfections 我以所行施等善འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་སངས་རྒྱས་འགྲྲུབ་པར་ཤོག །། Dro-la pan-chir sang-gye drub-par-shog May I attain enlightenment, for the benefit of all migrators. 為利眾生願成佛