Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Why I Cannot Give Up...

Photo by Daniel Orey, taken in January 2009, all rights reserved


It may not make much sense to some folks, but despite the abuse, shunning and dishonesty by Bahá’ís and their Institutions, I still love this religion so. Well less the religion at the moment, and more Bahá'u'lláh.

I have been tempted at times to shove it aside, pack it in but then I remember a few things (insert music from the Sound of Music) - these ARE a few of my favorite things:

  1. The summer I decided to become a Bahá’í. 1976. I had attended firesides at Oregon State for a year, and decided after being harassed by my parents that I would get a job in the forest service. I sent in a form, with no request for any certain District other than it couldn’t have poison oak… they assigned me to a ranger district called UNITY. The ranger station had a very tall fire lookout tower in the middle of the compound and after work, and dinner I would often climb up there with a book and my journal, and watch the sunset… On July 9th, to be exact, I remember reading the Tablet to the People, shutting the book and saying my first request for a sign. Right then the clouds moved just a hair, and the sunset with rays of bright light bathing the compound in color. No one can take that moment away from me.
  2. Countless, magical moments in Guatemala that no one will ever take away from me
  3. The work with the Gay Bahá’í Fellowship until we were asked to disband by the House of Justice. Where I met, and remain in contact with some really great folks. And finally
  4. This last January, while giving a talk and doing research with a colleague at the Technion in Haifa, I spent a little bit of every day in Bahji. The whole time there I was meditating on what to do about being a Bahá’í. Should I continue, should I walk away… I sensed very deeply that after being very open about getting married to Milton, that the shoe would eventually drop. The second to last visit, was during a very rainy day, and the tourists were no where to be seen, I spent almost an hour by myself in the Shrine of Bahá’ulláh. Folks who know me well, know that I am about as close to having ADD as it comes, sitting still for 10 minutes is impossible, meditating is well, I’d rather work in the yard (which is where I feel the spirit anyway). Sitting there, in the Holiest room on the planet, a pounding rainstorm going on outside, by myself, allowed me to focus, and feel a true sense of unconditional love, a feeling that all this silliness is worth it. I felt encouraged, and a deep sense of responsibility to continue to do what little I can for GBLT's.I kept thinking about how early on, people would travel there on foot for months at a time, just to see Bahá’ulláh wave a handkerchief from the window of his prison cell. Others came to sit with Him briefly when he was allowed to live in Bahji and were sent out to sure martyrdom… Interestingly enough, I learned while living in New Mexico, that a rain shower during a prayer is considered a blessing and confirmation.


Our well-meaning, albeit extremely mistaken leadership offered to pray for me while removing my administrative rights - homophobic, bigoted, and crazy making, but no doubt sincere to them. What they have done now in their prayerful supplications on my behalf is unleash a sense of liberty, freedom and love for the Blessed Beauty in me now that cannot be described. I am free to share what is really on my mind… without fear or shame. Maybe I should be grateful.

Message for the dishonest folks:@ the Nat'l Center: You have nothing to fear from me, not to worry. I am merely worried for open-minded GLBT and freinds who encounter the Faith and the current outmoded, homophobic, bigoted and backward view on homosexuality that YOU enforce. I worry about the lack of interest in addressing the issues we raised in our letter in 1993.

In closing I ask only what is better, a gay Bahá’í or gay non-Bahá’í?Dearest NSA of the USA, your letter to me proclaims to every GLBT, their friends and family, the later, I declare it is the former that you should strive for...

Blessed be.


Betty Bowers Explains Traditional Marriage to Everyone Else

Bahá’ís can appreciate this historical perspective on traditional marriage as explained by Mrs Bowers:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFkeKKszXTw



LGBT Family-Inclusive Immigration Bills Need Your Help

June 2, 2009

LGBT Family-Inclusive Immigration Bills Need Your Help

Dear Families and Friends,

Tomorrow morning at 10:00am EST, Wednesday, June 3, the Senate Judiciary Committee will convene the first-ever hearing on inequality for same-sex couples in federal immigration law. The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) is long overdue legislation that will end current discriminatory immigration policy by allowing American citizens to sponsor their same-sex partners for residency in the United States.

Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of the Family Equality Council, submitted testimony on behalf of binational same-sex couples raising children. The Family Equality Council is proud to participate in efforts to educate Congress and reform immigration inequities to include LGBT families. A special thanks goes out to our partners at Immigration Equality, the lead organizational advocate on this bill. (Read Family Equality Council's full statement on the UAFA hearings and testimony here.)

Reuniting Families Act

Meanwhile, Representative Mike Honda (D-CA), a longtime champion of the LGBT community, will soon introduce the Reuniting Families Act. This landmark immigration bill ends harmful practices--such as long visa wait times and discrimination against LGBT families--that prevent loving families from being together.

Congressman Honda's inclusion of same-sex couples as part of this remarkable legislation marks the first time in Congressional history that same-sex couples have been included as part of a multi-issue immigration bill. As our country begins a conversation about comprehensive immigration reform, this important first step helps to ensure that inequalities facing binational LGBT families are included in the discussion. Our families can be part of fixing our nation's broken immigration system by supporting Congressman Honda's efforts.

With these two important bills moving in Congress, it's crucial that we act now to end discrimination against LGBT families in immigration law.

Please call your U.S. Representative and ask him or her to cosponsor the Reuniting Families Act.

Dial the Capital Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be directly connected to your Representative. (If you don’t know who your representative is you can find out at www.congressmerge.com).

Then forward this message to 10 friends and family members. We need all hands on deck to ensure our families are included in comprehensive immigration reform.

For more information on the Uniting American Families Act and to watch tomorrow's hearings live, visit Immigration Equality's Blog.

My Neighbors sent us this message today...

Daniel and Milton,

Remember in these times , it is best to keep it simple...

Simple Gifts
"Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free, 'tis a gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
To turn, turn, will be our delight,
'til by turning, turning we come round right."
Bracket

When we go to that quiet place to calm the exterior noise and breathe in peace for the mind and heart, there is no christian, no muslim, no hindu, no budha, no ba'hi only the peace of oneness, interconnectedness....

love,
J and D

Life Only Gets Worse for LGBT Iraqis

Subject: Life Only Gets Worse for LGBT Iraqis.

Please forward it.

http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=features&sc3=&id=91976


Life Only Gets Worse for LGBT Iraqis

by Seth Michael Donsky
EDGE Contributor
Tuesday Jun 2, 2009

Two young gay men were found dead recently in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum, wearing diapers and women’s lingerie--at least according to reports. The bodies of four other men, beaten to death, were discovered by Iraqi police, each bearing signs reading "pervert" in Arabic on their chests. Additionally several coffee shops in Sadr, that were popular with gay Iraqis have been set on fire recently.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs believes as many as 30 people have been killed in Iraq in the last three months because they were gay or perceived to be gay. In an open letter posted on its website, the human rights group Amnesty International has called upon Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take "urgent and concerted action" to end the violence against the Iraqi gay community.

John T. Fleming, who heads public affairs for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, takes pains to point out that homosexuality is not a crime in Iraq. "Homosexuality," he pointed out in a recent e-mail to EDGE, "is outlawed by more than 85 countries and is punishable by death in several Islamic states... but Iraq is not one of them."

The fact that homosexuality is not a crime punishable by death "would be an interesting fact if the law, or the rule of law, mattered in Iraq," counters Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program. "As it stands, there is no law against being Sunni, but it doesn’t stop Sunnis from being killed. In fact, the violence against gays is widespread."

Long recently returned from a fact-finding mission on the ground in Iraq, where he found reports of targeted violence that dovetail with those coming out of Iraq for several years. "It’s been almost impossible, though, for us, or any other human rights organizations to verify them fully by making contact with eyewitnesses, victims, or others who could testify to them directly," he ruefully adds. "This time, we were able to find people who had accounts of violence they had experienced and it seemed incumbent on us to go to Iraq to speak to as many of them as possible and see how we could help."

As a consequence of the horrific reports coming out of the country, Human Rights Watch has been organizing ways for as many LGBT Iraqis as possible to get out of the country. If the evacuation sounds like attempts to get Jews out of Germany in the late 1930s--well, the situation may be not quite as dire, but certainly compares in the eyes of some observers.

Long describes the situation on the ground for LGBT Iraqis as a "crackdown" targeting both men who have sex with men and men who are merely seen as "effeminate." The latest series of incidents began in late February-into-early March.

He says that it appears to be primarily driven by the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr, known as Sadrists. Now, other militias have been joining in.

Long spoke face to face with over 25 survivors of violence from Baghdad and other cities, including Najaf, Basra and Samarra. Those survivors testified to brutal killings - sometimes of their friends and boyfriends, to abductions, to gang rapes by kidnappers, and to torture by militias to get victims to name names of other homosexuals, to death threats and to murder attempts.

Longs states that the Sadrists primarily went underground when the U.S. surge began but that they are now trying to regroup and recoup their political influence. There is speculation that attacking gays is a way of their recasting themselves as moral crusaders. Some observers have compared it to what the Republican party did here in the early ’90’s with their defense of marriage legislation. "I

However, the Sadrists, like most militias, are loosely defined groups and definite accountability for the killings is difficult to trace. "What is clear," says Long, "is that this is an organized and extensive murder campaign and must involve some degree of high-level direction."

Long reports that people from the Sunni areas of Baghdad, or Sunni cities such as Samarra or Diyala, also spoke of the involvement of groups such as Al-Qaeda militias to see who can kill the most homosexuals, to see who can be the "most righteous," the most bathed in blood.

Long does not believe that the killings are part of a religious fatwa, as many have claimed or speculated. "Nobody in Iraq needs a fatwa to kill people they don’t like," says Long. "Although there are substantiated reports that Shi’ite mosques started preaching about the dangers of homosexuality earlier this years in neighborhoods such as Medinat Sadr and Karrada," strong Sadrist centers, "they do not appear to have directly called for killing. The orders to exterminate, if there were orders, came from high in the militia leadership and were political orders, not fatwas, per se."

It is true that Ayatollah Sistani carried a fatwa on his website in 2005 that restated Quranic doctrine on the death penalty for liwat, or homosexual conduct. Long believes, however, that the publicity this has received in the West has misinterpreted--somewhat--what a fatwa is.

"Sistani’s website," Long says, "is effectively an advice column, with answers to random questions forwarded to him over the internet by thousands of ordinary folks. Junior imams in his service provide many of the answers. The ’fatwa’ was in answer to one such question It was buried in a back section of his website and was never publicized on the site by Sadr’s followers or even by the Iraqi press.

Most of the publicity it received was given to it by Western activists." Most of the Iraqis Long spoke to who know of the fatwa at all knew of it only from Western sources.


http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/

Online Fundraising - we need to raise £10.000 GBP for safe houses in Iraq

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=84027150924
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President Obama has issued his own recognition of LGBT Pride Month

Hours after a similar statement released by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Obama has issued his own recognition of LGBT Pride Month. Here is his complete proclamation (PDF).

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.

LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country's response to the HIV pandemic.

Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration -- in both the White House and the Federal agencies -- openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism.

The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect.

My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States.

These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

BARACK OBAMA

REM - Pilgrimage

Sometimes my Ipod shuffle is mysterious, spiritual, almost mystical... I got into my car to go home after my GAY Men's Yoga class (not to worry, said HUSBAND refuses to attend) and my Ipod, set on shuffle played this song by REM... I cranked it up loud:

REM - Pilgrimage
(Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe)

Take a turn, take a turn
Take our fortune, take our fortune

They called the clip a two-headed cow
Your hate clipped and distant, your luck, pilgrimage
Rest assured this will not last, take a turn for the worst
Your hate clipped and distant, your luck a two-headed cow
The pilgrimage has gained momentum
Take a turn, take a turn
Take our fortune, take our fortune

Speakin' in tongues, it's worth a broken lip
Your hate clipped and distant, your luck, pilgrimage
Rest assured this will not last, take a turn for the worst
Your hate clipped and distant, your luck a two-headed cow
The pilgrimage has gained momentum
Take a turn (take a turn), take a turn (take a turn)
Take our fortune (take a turn), take our fortune

Pilgrimage, pilgrimage

Speakin' in tongues, it's worth a broken lip
Your hate clipped and distant, your luck
Rest assured this will not last, take a turn for the worst
Your hate clipped and distant, your luck two-headed
The pilgrimage has gained momentum
Take a turn (take a turn), take a turn (take a turn)
Take our fortune (take a turn), take our fortune

Pilgrimage, pilgrimage
The pilgrimage has gained momentum
Take a turn (take a turn), take a turn (take a turn)
Take our fortune (take a turn), take our fortune (take a turn)
Take a turn (take a turn), take a turn (take a turn)
Take our fortune (take a turn), take our fortune