Sunday, October 25, 2015

Via WP: Gay asylum seekers face threat from fellow refugees in Europe

Four young refugees in their apartment in the German city of Dresden. They were taken out of official refugee shelters after being harassed. (Mario Wezel for The Washington Post)
 
Rami Ktifan made a snap decision to come out. A fellow Syrian had spotted a rainbow flag lying near the 23-year-old university student’s belongings inside a packed refugee center. The curious man, Ktifan recalled, picked it up before casually asking, “What is this?”

“I decided to tell the truth, that it is the flag for gay people like me,” Ktifan said. “I thought, I am in Europe now. In Germany, I should not have to hide anymore.”

What followed over the next several weeks, though, was abuse — both verbal and physical — from other refugees, including an attempt to burn Ktifan’s feet in the middle of the night. The harassment ultimately became so severe that he and two other openly gay asylum seekers were removed from the refugee center with the aid of a local gay activist group and placed in separate accommodations across town.

As the largest flow of refugees since World War II streams into Europe, Ktifan’s case illustrates an emerging problem for gay and lesbian asylum seekers. Some of them arrive in Europe only to find themselves under threat from fellow refugees.

Gays who face official persecution in nations such as Iran and Uganda have been fleeing to Europe for years. But experts estimate that a record number of gays and lesbians seeking asylum, as many as 50,000, will arrive this year in Germany, the European nation accepting the largest number of refugees. Rather than leaving their home countries specifically because of anti-gay persecution, many are fleeing violence and war in nations such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Via Equality House / FB:


BERNIE SANDERS | FULL INTERVIEW WITH JAKE TAPPER on 'CNN STATE OF THE UNION’ 10/25/15

 

Via WGB: Billys Dad is a Fudge Packer

Billy's Dad is a Fudge-Packer! is a 2004 American black-and-white short comedy film written and directed by Jamie Donahue in her first non-acting effort. It is a parody of the 1950s social guidance films, and depicts the life of a boy learning about adulthood in a traditional family. The apparently innocent account of family life in the 1950s is loaded with sexual innuendo. It was made by production company POWER UP.

Via The ManKind Project / FB:


Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 25/10/2015

“O conflito está na mente. A separação é somente uma ilusão criada pela mente condicionada. A espiritualidade não divide, ela une. O Eu maior é indivisível. Se você está em comunhão com o Ser, onde quer que esteja você estará presente e inteiro. Você será capaz de transformar um lugar comum em um santuário. Tudo se torna sagrado porque a sacralidade emerge dessa inteireza - a paz e a pureza nascem da presença.”

“El conflicto está en la mente. La separación es solamente una ilusión creada por la mente condicionada. La espiritualidad no divide, une. El Yo mayor es indivisible. Si estás en comunión con el Ser, donde quiera que estés, estarás presente y entero. Serás capaz de transformar un lugar común en un santuario. Todo se torna sagrado porque la sacralidad emerge de esa entereza –la paz y la pureza nacen de la presencia-.”

“Conflict only exists in the mind. Separation is but an illusion created by the conditioned mind. Spirituality does not divide: it only unites. The higher self is indivisible. If you are in communion with your Being, you will be present and whole wherever you go. You will be able to turn an ordinary place into a sanctuary. Everything becomes sacred, because sanctity emerges from this wholeness. Peace and purity are born out of presence.”

Today's Daily Dharma: Root out Suffering

Root out Suffering
Just as a tree, though cut down, sprouts up again if its roots remain uncut and firm, even so, until the craving that lies dormant is rooted out, suffering springs up again and again.
—Acharya Buddharakkhita, "From the Canon: Thirst"
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