Maine takes away equality rights

[bnmoore]

Sometimes I need to read my own signature. I get up this morning to do my morning centering and there on the cover of our daily guides for November in big letters is "How to Forgive Anything". I'll start by forgiving myself for getting pissed off at Maine and continue by forgiving everyone that voted to overturn marriage equality. Sometimes I just need to remember that I share both a common humanity and a common divinity with everyone. (No exceptions).

I went to www.TheForgivenessProject.com and read some of the stories. It changed my perspective. May it do the same for you.

[scott snedeker]

Originally Posted by Emproph

[IMG]Non-violence doesn't mean that we shouldn't tell the UGLY truth. It would be violent to not do so.

Agree! Nonviolence does not mean pacifism. Nonviolence starts with "I"

I will not commit violence upon others (probably the easiest)

I will not allow violence to be committed against me and harm me.

Not easy if you also cannot defend your self from violence with violence. I can't allow violence to happen to me because then I betray my heart. My Heart mistrusts me and separates itself from my conscious mind. I become empty and joyless.

If I allow violence to harm me then that violence gets surrogated to another in my actions or words. My pain collateralizes to the people aound me. So now, if I am suffering, not committing violence against others now becomes not so easy!



So not allowing violence to harm me takes practice, Believe me!


So one way to reveal the ugly truth of the religious right is Express the Beauty of intimate love and compassion between same gender folk. In advertisement, art, newspapers and our everyday lives.

We are teachers. We teach other people how to treat us by our example of how we treat our hearts and the hearts of the ones we love. Explore compassion for your own heart and express it unhindered by concerns of rejection.

Live openly and comfortaly neither covering because of fear of scrutiny nor deliberaterlly appearing antagonistic. It may take practice at first for many of us, but in the end folks respect courage and depolarizewhen they see someone's compassionate feelings

[Gennee]

Originally Posted by psycho_drama

The same people who brought us prop 8 are the people who brought us
yes on ballot intiative 1. Their campaign was also centerd on that if gay marrige remained legal that it would be taught in schools. As well as support from all over the country from anti-gay organizations like NOM, who produced that really funny and easily spuffed commercial.

I think that its not only waiting for the younger generation to grow up, but also constantly countering the deliberate lies. I liked Harvey Milk's idea, The more people know us and our stories and who really are the more difficult it becomes to discriminate. Most of these people who hate us do not know us on a personal level, we are just those people, not human beings with families, friends, jobs or that we are apart of their community.

Here in New Mexico, it took 12 years to pass an anti job discrimation bill that included sexual orientation and gender identity, it did eventually pass. The domestic partnership bill hasn't passed yet, but I know its just a matter of time.Things do change, even if they are slow. I will fight hard hard and pick my battles. and every victory no matter how small is still a victory. There are still five other states that have legalized Same sex marriage.

Yahoo News = Fox News?

I have found personally, that people who discriminate against other that are different have never met or actually taken the time to know what that person or group are about. Assumptions about people generally turn out to be incorrect most of the time.

Gennee

[dsdrane]

Originally Posted by Gennee

I have found personally, that people who discriminate against other that are different have never met or actually taken the time to know what that person or group are about. Assumptions about people generally turn out to be incorrect most of the time.

Gennee

You are absolutely right. As I wrote before, gay kids from the area where I grew up, get the hell out as soon as they can. This makes sense for them, but it has the added affect of not being there for others to know and understand when it comes to issues like this. That's a horrible sentence, but I hope the meaning gets through....

[tymejumper]

I am very much saddended by the Main vote. I only hope things will go better here in Michigan. We did pass a vote for equal rights in the city of Kalamazoo, that protects us from discrimintaion in housing and you can't be fired from work for being LGBT. It is now one of sixteen cities with this ordinance. Also, fresh from this vote, we have a representative working to overturn the marriage ban, she wants to get it on the vote for next year. I do have all belief that it will go different than six years ago when people voted for the ban. Like my eldest says, the kids raised in the gay families are now eighteen and can vote, the buck stops here.

[Gennee]

Originally Posted by tdogg

A sign at the Sacramento rally tonight - the one year anniversary of Prop 8 taking our rights away: This fight is SO not over! How true.

I do not believe that rights should ever be put through a popular vote. Rights are not granted by popular vote (except for chickens here in CA). Rights are granted legislatively and/or judicially, but not through a popularity contest. It infuriates me that this could even be allowed in a country that was built on and prides itself on 'freedom'.

That said, the only way we are going to get equality right now is at the ballot box, so we must continue to fight this war until we are in a position to win it, and permanently, through our lawmakers or our justices. I'm pissed about Maine, it brought back so many bad memories of Prop 8. I'm angry, heartbroken, dejected, and a host of other emotions. I'm not even sure that I want to continue fighting - at least at this very moment. That will change of course, I'm an activist at heart.

So, will we succeed? How can we succeed? A very important lesson is here for us to learn, if we are willing. The same people that ran the Yes on 8 campaign here in California - Schubert and Flint - ran the Yes on 1 in Maine. Same lies, same scare tactics, same deceitful messages and methods. Same success (slightly more successful, actually). How did they do it? That's what we must learn.

Organized religion is very organized and very powerful, even within individual sects. When these people come together over one cause, it is a power that is going to be very difficult to fight and win. We must learn how to be organized like them. How to be united over one cause, cease our infighting and complaining and self-victimizing. We must join together, get organized as a unit and spread out. We must all become involved, because I guarantee you, they are all involved. In their churches, homes, schools and neighborhoods.

Most importantly, we must come out of our closets, live proudly and demand equality. No more asking, no more Mr./Ms. Nice Gay, no more treading lightly and trying not to hurt feelings. Sure, we can do this in a compassionate way and we must, but we must tell our stories and how discrimination hurts not only us, but our children and our families and our friends and in the end, them too. We must learn to reframe our messages so that they can understand our message. We need to refuse to be on the defense, but instead take the offense which in turn may put them on the defense. A good offense would work wonders for us.

Organize, unite, spread out and become active, reframe, initiate dialogue and most of all come out of our closets and LIVE. Live out and proud and let them get to know the real us. No more hiding, no more asking, no more excuses.

Great post, tdogg. You echo the same feeelings I have. We need to be on the offensive, to be out, and to organize. More important, we need toshare our stories.

Gennee