Gender and Sexuality

Pro-LGBT Rights Muslim Wins Primary

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June 8 witnessed perhaps the most unusual political campaign battle connected to the same-sex marriage debate: a Muslim state legislator vs an ordained Christian minister. The Muslim, Ako Abdul-Samad, had the backing of a pro-LGBT rights organization, while his opponent Clair Rudison, Jr. got his biggest donation from a social conservative political fund. My report on the story is at ILLUME Magazine, a Muslim American news magazine that’s doing ground breaking work in bringing a Muslim American perspective to professional journalism. You can read the story here. Here at my nest at Tikkun Daily, a comment on the significance of this story:
Islamophobes try to pit gays against Muslims. In their effort to present the religion of Islam as a demonic monolith out to destroy Western civilization, they claim that Muslims who take their religion seriously are necessarily a danger to LGBT people, and must oppose equal rights for gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

Gender and Sexuality

People's Republic of China Lifts Its "Baldness Blockade"

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Baldies of the world, unite! We can now go to the People’s Republic of China, even from Taiwan. Most men who are genetically “chrome domed” are concerned about how their natural tonsure will affect romantic prospects. It turns out that visa restrictions are a possibly more pressing problem. Press service AFP reports that the People’s Republic of China has lifted its ban on visas for bald travelers from Taiwan:
The rule imposed by the southern Chinese city of Xiamen barred bald people from applying for one-year multiple-entry permits before it was cancelled earlier this year, according to Taiwan’s Travel Agent Association.

Culture

As Congress Debates Don't Ask Don't Tell, They Might Want to Listen to Future Voters

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With the fate of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell about to fall into the hands of the Senate, where Republican opposition to gays serving in the military is fierce, Democrats and a few Republicans may want to pay attention to the future by listening to this youngster who represents a growing intolerance for discrimination! Read more to watch the video and then I’ll share a few very personal thoughts about gays serving in the military (they are, they should be allowed to, and they shouldn’t have to suffer discrimination based on their sexual orientation). [youtube: video=”-M5_kU1NUbw”]
As you may know from reading my bio and other things I have posted over the years, I served our country in the United States Air Force. I loved the work that I did and I was extremely good at it. I was a linguist, working for the Electronic Security Command (now known as Air Force Intelligence) and taught at the Defense Language Institute of Monterey.

Culture

Bullied: A Student, a School, and a Case that Made History

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It had gone on for months… starting with name-calling, then shoves on the stairwell – tripping in the cafeteria – punches in the hallway, then a brick… Decades ago that was my nightmare Junior High School life and children continue to suffer this kind of abuse every day across our country. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Tolerance.org wants to provide teachers and administrators with new tools to help curb anti-gay and other bullying. Being a huge fan of what Tolerance.org does, I wanted people to know about it.

Christianity

Homodoxuals and Heterodoxuals in the Church

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Can homodoxuals and heterodoxuals find a way to get along, sit in the same pew, or is schism the only answer? My friend, the Rev. Jim Burklo, just sent me his latest “Musings” post from the Center for Progressive Christianity, and I immediately knew I had to share it (with his permission of course), with all of you! Musings by Jim Burklo
www.tcpc.blogs.com/musings for this and previous articles
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jtburklo
5/19/10
Homodoxuals and Heterodoxuals in the Church
(Lately I’ve seen many uses of the term “heterodoxy” in my reading about current trends in religion in America, referring to people who mix a variety of religious traditions and beliefs in their spirituality. That got me to thinking about what its opposite would be: “homodoxy”. This struck me as an ironic twist in language, since so many “homodoxual” people oppose homosexuality, and so many “heterodoxual” people are open and affirming towards gays and lesbians.

Culture

Where Two Or More Are Gathered – Asylum May Be Granted

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As I headed into what we hoped would be the last of a long series of hearings, to decide whether our friend would be granted asylum, I wondered what good, if any, our silent witness had been. At each hearing at least six of us sat in the back, listening to testimony, watching exhibits argued over by our friend’s attorney and the attorney for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)… Did it make any difference for us to be there, other than providing support for our friend? A bit of background. Our friend had been a vocal opponent of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in her country.

Christianity

Humanist Easter: Egg Art, Feminist Rabbits, Muddy Romps

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When I was a child, my family celebrated Christian holidays in a fairly standard secular way, decorating a tree on Christmas and hunting eggs on Easter, not to mention joining in the customary consumption of marshmallow peeps, “jelly bird eggs” (whatever those are), and other foods invented by companies with a clever eye for turning a profit from a holiday. My version of Easter lacks the radical Christian religiosity that Nichola laid out in her recent post about Good Friday as a time “to look at the crucifixions necessary to preserve the fiction of Pax Americana, or any false peace maintained by force, whether violent or hegemonic.” It lacks the progressive rethinking of the resurrection narrative that Rabbi Lerner highlighted in his spiritual wisdom of the week post with a quotation from Peter Rollins. But it’s still one of my favorite holidays of the year. On its surface, the humanist Easter I grew up with may have seemed drained of meaning to religious onlookers, but it was actually highly ritualized and deep in its own way.

Christianity

Suffer the Children to Come Unto Me: the Pope, Pedophilia and Authoritarian Religion, Families, & Schools

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The newspapers are full of the latest priestly sex abuses. This is an on going story. Within the last year, mass scandals have erupted in Brazil, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria. and the United States. Figures from the John Jay School of Criminal Justice estimate that since 1950, an estimated 280,000 children have been sexually abused by Catholic Clergy and deacons.

Culture

Finding Art and Romance in Craigslist's Missed Connections

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The rush and anonymity of city life draws us apart, even as it draws us together. Jammed in the bus and streaming through the street, millions of strangers cross paths without hearing each other’s stories. Those who do exchange a word or a glance often lose each other to the closing of a train door or a shy failure to exchange phone numbers in line at the pharmacy, and many end up posting plaintive regrets in the “Missed Connections” section of Craigslist’s online classifieds site. Sophie Blackall, an artist based in Brooklyn, brings to life strangers’ sometimes poignant, sometimes funny searches for each other by illustrating a new post from the New York City listings every week. To see more illustrations of missed connections posts, visit the Tikkun Daily Art Gallery.

Gender and Sexuality

Abortion and Healthcare Reform

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Women’s history tells us what happens when women do not have access to safe and legal abortions. Women die. The good news about expanding healthcare coverage is that when women are making healthy choices day to day about their reproductive health, they will be better able to avoid unwanted pregnancies and thus the need for abortions.