A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
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."
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)
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.”
"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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
"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."
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
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.
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.
Instant alerts when homophobic lawmakers get caught in gay sex scandals! iScandal tracks hypocrisy among anti-gay lawmakers. Functioning like the "It's been XX days since our last accident" signs you see in factories, whenever a new scandal breaks, iScandal sends a push notification and the option to spread the word. Though lighthearted and fun, iScandal serves a meaningful purpose in highlighting the hypocrisy endemic in the anti-gay movement. iScandal makes no claims other that what has already been reported in the mainstream news but may have been missed by some people.
Speaking on a local radio show, today NJ Gov. Chris Christie denounced public school teacher Vicki Knox, who last week posted an anti-gay tirade to her Facebook page.
“I think that kind of example is not a positive one at all to be setting for folks who have such an important and influential position in our society. I'm really concerned about those kinds of statements being made.” Christie went on to say he would “like to see an examination of how that teacher conducts herself in the classroom.”
The Human Rights Campaign approves.
“We applaud Governor Christie for doing the right thing and speaking out against the anti-LGBT vitriol this teacher chose to bring into the classroom,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Governor Christie’s denouncement sends a very strong message that intentionally and publicly spreading malicious rhetoric and falsehoods about LGBT Americans is unacceptable and cannot go ignored. Now, Union Township school officials must take action that adequately addresses the severity of Ms. Knox’s behavior.”
The Human Rights Campaign has launched a national edition of the marriage equality campaign that was so well-received in New York. First up is Newark Mayor Cory Booker.
Many of us originally turn to the dharma at least in part as a way of trying to overcome the pain of our psychological and relational wounding. Yet we are often in denial about or unconscious of the nature or extent of this wounding. As a result, being a “good” spiritual practitioner can become a compensatory identity that covers up and defends against an underlying deficient identity, where we feel bad about ourselves, not good enough, or basically lacking. Then, although we may be practicing diligently, our spiritual practice can be used in the service of denial and defense. And when spiritual practice is used to bypass our real-life human issues, it becomes compartmentalized in a separate zone of our life that remains unintegrated with our overall functioning.
As the above analysis of Herman Cain's 9% federal flat tax plan shows, only those who make more than $200,000 annually would see any reduction. Folks who make $30K - $75K would see an increase of about $4300. No wonder he's been endorsed by GOProud. And the above chart doesn't even address the punishment the poor would endure from a 9% national sales tax.
Basic Rights Oregon says it is gauging the effects of a two-year campaign that aimed to educate people about marriage equality, to decide whether there is enough support to propose a statewide ballot measure reversing the existing ban against gays and lesbians marrying. New polling nationally and in Oregon shows a marked increase in the number of people who believe gays and lesbians should have equal marriage rights, but one pollster cautioned it still may be too soon to test that support in the voting booth. The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.) (10/16)
In times of crisis, we often feel we don’t have the time or energy to practice, but those are precisely the times when the practice is most necessary. This is what we’ve been practicing for: the situations where the practice doesn’t come easily. When the winds of change reach hurricane force, our inner refuge of mindfulness, concentration, and discernment is the only thing that will keep us from getting blown away.
We just cracked up when we read the commentary following eQualitygiving’s most recent update of accomplishments the Obama administration has achieved so far with LGBT rights. There’s two camps: the haters and the cheerleaders. With the haters we notice there’s just nothing the administration can do right. These are people who have completely drawn a blank on what is was like to be gay under any other administration. To hear them tell it gays knew no pain until January 12, 2008—–the day Barack Obama was sworn into office.
Then you have your cheerleaders——-we proudly fit in this category. We’re the ones who beam and glow over any little offering or gesture the White House has made since day one. We just can’t understand why so many gay folks (now joined by many black folks) are so embittered. Quite honestly, we just don’t get it.
We love the fact that this administration has done more for LGBTs than all the previous administrations combined and we’re more than happy to remind folks ad nausea of this oft’ overlooked fact. We take on anyone who dares to criticize the president in any way—–even if there’s a smidge of proof to their whining. We don’t care. We’d as soon tell them to shut it rather than listen to their monotonous diatribe.
Anyway blah blah, here’s the updated list. Oddly the repeal of DADT is not on it.
Accomplishments by the Administration and Congress on LGBT Equality
By Andrew Tobias (DNC treasurer) FEDERAL LEGISLATION SIGNED INTO LAW
Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded existing United States federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability — the first positive federal LGBT legislation in the nation’s history
Issued diplomatic passports, and provided other benefits, to the partners of same-sex foreign service employees
Committed to ensuring that federal housing programs are open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity
Conceived a National Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Elders — the nation’s first ever — funded by a three-year HHS grant to SAG
Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation’s largest employer)
Eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept our relationships from being counted, encouraging couples who consider themselves married to file that way, even if their state of residence does not yet permit legal marriage
Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights
Required all grant applicants seeking HUD funding to comply with state and local anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT individuals
Adopted transgender recommendations on the issuance of gender-appropriate passports that will ease barriers to safe travel and that will provide government-issued ID that avoids involuntary "outing" in situations requiring ID, like hiring, where a gender-appropriate driver’s license or birth certificate is not available
Extended domestic violence protections to LGBT victims
Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover employees taking unpaid leave to care for the children of same-sex partners
Issued guidance specifically to assist LGBT tenants denied housing on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity
Issued a National HIV/AIDS Strategy praised as "long-overdue" by the Task Force, Lambda and others
Issued guidance to 15,000 local departments of education and 5,000 colleges to support educators in combating bullying
Cut back authority to discharge under Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell from hundreds of generals to just 6 civilian appointees, effectively ending discharges while working toward a permanent end to the policy.
Led the fight that reversed a 2010 UN vote removing sexual orientation from the list of things people should not be killed for
Launched the first-ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing
Determined that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional
Determined that LGBT discrimination should be subject to a standard of "heightened scrutiny"
Stopped defending DOMA, leading to "dramatic changes across the country and the federal government in the way that lawyers and judges see legal challenges brought by LGBT people – and, slowly but surely, in the way that LGBT people are able to live their lives"
Filed an unprecedented brief detailing the history of discrimination faced by gay, lesbian and bisexual people in America, including by the federal government itself — the single most persuasive legal argument ever advanced by the United States government in support of equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people
Vacated a court order that would have deported a gay American’s Venezuelan partner
Begun recognizing joint bankruptcy petitions filed by same-sex married couples
Reduced the deportation threat faced by binational LGBT couples
RESPECT & INCLUSION
Endorsed the Baldwin-Lieberman bill, The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, to provide FULL partnership benefits to federal employees
Testified in favor of ENDA, the first time any official of any administration has testified in the Senate on ENDA
Hired more openly LGBT officials (like these) in its first two years — more than 150, including more than 20 "Senate-confirmables" — than any previous administration hired in four years or eight
Changed the culture of government everywhere from – among others – HUD and HHS to the Export-Import Bank, the State Department, and the Department of Education
Appointed Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, instead of conservatives who would have tilted the Court even further to the right and virtually doomed our rights for a generation. To wit (quoting McCain): "I’ve said a thousand times on this campaign trail, I’ve said as often as I can, that I want to find clones of Alito and Roberts. I worked as hard as anybody to get them confirmed. I look you in the eye and tell you I’ve said a thousand times that I wanted Alito and Roberts. I have told anybody who will listen. I flat-out tell you I will have people as close to Roberts and Alito [as possible]."
Named open transgender appointees (the first President ever to do so)
Emphasized LGBT inclusion in everything from the President’s historic NAACP address (“The pain of discrimination is still felt in America. By African American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their God. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.”) . . . to the first paragraph of his Family Day proclamation (“Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian, families encourage us to do our best and enable us to accomplish great things”) and his Mothers Day proclamation ("Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by two parents, a single mother, two mothers, a step-mom, a grandmother, or a guardian. Mother’s Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate these extraordinary caretakers") . . . to creating the chance for an adorable 10-year-old at the White House Easter Egg roll to tell ABC World News how cool it is to have two mommies . . . to including the chair of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce along with the Secretary of the Treasury and the President of Goldman Sachs in the small audience for the President’s economic address at the New York Stock Exchange . . . to welcoming four gay couples to its first State Dinner
Recommitted, in a televised address, to passing ENDA . . . repealing Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell . . . repealing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act
Spoken out against discrimination at the National Prayer Breakfast ("We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are — whether it’s here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.")
Dispatched the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to call on the Senate to repeal Don’t Ask / Don’t Tell
Launched a website to gather public comment on first-ever federal LGBT housing discrimination study
Appointed long-time equality champion Chai Feldblum one of the four Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Produced U.S. Census Bureau PSAs featuring gay, lesbian, and transgender spokespersons
Appointed Retired Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, an early public champion of open service in the military, to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services
Publicly invited the shunned Mississippi high school prom student to the White House
Successfully fought for UN accreditation of IGLHRC (the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission) — against Republican attempts to block it
Convened the first-ever anti-bullying summit to craft a national strategy to reduce bullying in schools
Issued a Department of Justice video urging kids to call a Justice Department toll-free number if their school is aware of bullying but taking no action
Held the first ever White House conference on bullying prevention, led by the President and First Lady
Hosted first-ever White House transgender policy meeting
Emphasized the positive value of Gay-straight Student Alliances (GSAs) and advised the nation’s school districts of their legal responsibility to allow establishment of GSAs
Appointed the first openly gay man to serve on the federal bench
Nominated the first openly gay US attorney to serve Texas
Forced the Tehachipi Unified School District to prevent and respond to gender-based harassment
Acknowledged in federal court the U.S. government’s "significant and regrettable role" in discrimination in America against gays and lesbians, arguing that DOMA is unconstitutional. ("This is your U.S. Justice Department, folks, forcefully, stunningly taking on the homophobes in Congress and a huge Obama WIN." — Rex Wockner)
Appointed open lesbian activist to West Point advisory board
Used the President’s annual United Nations address to say, "no country should deny people their rights because of who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere."
The Administration will continue to make steady progress on our issues whether we help strengthen its hand or not. But the stronger it is, the faster that progress will come.