Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Via JMG: European Court Rules Against Refusing Service To Gays On Religious Grounds


The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that it is legal to discipline employees for refusing to provide services to same-sex couples on the basis of religious objections. The ruling came in the cases of three British Christians who had refused to perform relationship counseling or conduct civil partnership ceremonies.
Tuesday's decision was welcomed by the National Secular Society. The group's executive director, Keith Porteous Wood, said: "Fortunately, Europe's highest court has now wisely followed numerous lower courts and rejected the applicants' attempts for religious conscience to trump equality law. "The UK has the world's most comprehensive equality laws which already include strong protection for religious believers and they would have been fatally compromised, particularly for LGBT people, had the Grand Chamber overturned any of these judgments. "We hope that this will now draw a line under the attempts by a small coterie of Christian activists to obtain special privileges for themselves which would invariably come at the expense of other people's rights."
The Court is based in Strasbourg, France. (Tipped by JMG reader Julian)


Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Frank Rich On LGBT History


"As we just learned, a man can still be murdered for being gay a few blocks away from the Stonewall Inn. But the rapidity of change has been stunning. The world only spins forward, as Tony Kushner wrote. And yet as we celebrate the forward velocity of gay rights, I think we must glance backward as well. History is being lost in this shuffle—that of those gay men and women who experienced little or none of today’s freedoms. Whatever the other distinctions between the struggles of black Americans and gay Americans for equality under the law—starting with the overarching horror of slavery—one difference is intrinsic. Black people couldn’t (for the most part) hide their identity in an America that treated them cruelly. Gay people could hide and, out of self-protection, often did. That’s why their stories were cloaked in silence and are at risk of being forgotten."- Frank Rich, opening his New York Magazine article on LGBT history and his surrogate gay father.

Read the full essay.


Reposted from Joe

Via Gay Poltics Report:

Will recent marriage legislation affect Supreme Court cases?

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule in June on two marriage-equality cases, but those opinions could change between now and then depending on how the justices view recent legislative victories for marriage-equality proponents, according to this analysis. Current events have affected written decisions in the past, and the court has likely noticed that three states enacted marriage-equality laws in a 10-day span in May alone.  

The Boston Globe (tiered subscription model)/The Associated Press (5/28)

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 28, 2013

Supreme Optimism

Buddhism is a path of supreme optimism, for one of its basic tenets is that no human life or experience is to be wasted or forgotten, but all should be transformed into a source of wisdom and compassionate living.
- Taitetsu Unno, "Number One Fool"
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through May 29, 2013
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member

Read Article