WowJoomla.com

Anne Rice, author of the Vampire Chronicles, and most notably Interview with a Vampire officially left the Roman Catholic Church on July 28. Being born and raised a Catholic, she left the church when she was 18-years-old. In 1998, after writing several vampire novels, Rice had a reawakening  and yearning for spirituality. She became a Catholic once more beginning to write religious novels. In the early years of her writing, Rice attracted gay readers and fans. Many of whom she became friends with and long thought those who identified with being gay should be equal and treated as such. Rice's son, Christopher also happens to have same-sex attractions (mentally, physically, emotionally, and sexually).

 

In a dictionary, marriage can be found as a legal union of a man and a woman as husband and life. However, If we were to look up gay in the dictionary we would find, cherry, bright, and other colorful definitions as well as homosexual. Until recently the term gay did not exist. Marriage has existed for thousands of years. The definition we can find in a dictionary today does not mean the definition of marriage would be the same thousands of years ago when fathers sold their daughters as property to a marriage.

Marriage has been that of a binding contract of two people's whom enter and share their lives with each other. This has been more of the contemporary definition. Marriage always has been described as being between a man and a woman. If we look back a thousand years ago and told the people then, that their marriage was immoral because human beings can't be property or sold as such, they would look at us with wide curious eyes and an attack on the marriage of the day could begin. This is the case for same-sex marriages. Just because marriages have not included individuals who experience same-sex attractions, does not mean we need to continue not including them. What is the basis for this argument?

Last year, PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-gays and gays) sued a DC human rights office after claiming they are the most discriminated minority group in the United States. The first thing that popped into my mind is that in order to become an ex-gay in the first place you must have same-sex orientation and have viewed yourself as homosexual. If you change your sexuality, wouldn't this make you straight or heterosexual? Being a heterosexual, then a person would become a part of a majority unless they shared their past lifestyle openly with other people. As far as I know, the majority of people who attempt to change their sexuality are those who are ashamed of their lifestyle either by religion or the reactions of those around them. If people were to change their sexuality for these reasons, why then would it become comfortable for people to share their homosexual past? I understand the concept of the idea, but if you a person was truly uncomfortable about it, why would a person then accept it all of a sudden, unless they are trying to prove a point that they have become straight--to let everyone know? What are your thoughts?

Dr. Sam Bernard will be speaking at the Suicide and Depression Conference at the UUC (Unitarian Universalist Church in Chattanooga) and the First Unitarian Church of Hobart IN.

 

In a ruling bu Judge Walker today, one that will forever change the social movement of the GLBT community, Prop 8 in California was named unconstitutional!  This is absolutely wonderful news and a huge leap forward into equality!

"Plaintiffs challenge Proposition 8 under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.  Each challenge is independently meritorious, as Proposition 8 both unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry and creates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation. [...]" Read More

Opposition is flying around the final decisions as religious rights groups have come forwards announcing marriage between a man and a woman is the bedrock of society. read More

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an uplifting comment to the public after the victorious ruling on Prop 8 by saying,  it  "affirms the full legal protections and safeguards I believe everyone deserves." Read More

Finally, the GLBT community has seen justice and I am thankful our country has finally found the support and strength to stand up for true EQUALITY. One day we truly will be first class citizens of America nation-wide.

Today in San Francisco, a federal judge  will disclose his choice to see if Prop 8 is going against the constitution for the LGBT communty. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker is in a lawsuit by two gay couples that are seeking to get ride of the Prop.

Keep your fingers crossed! I hope he figures out that it is and gets ride of that prop!

Through the incredible journey of life, I have grown a great deal. The experience of living, grants us with a paramount of wisdom and it is this wisdom that I am thankful to have experienced at such a young age. I know, I am far from reaching what Maslow considered as being in the self-actualization stage in his hierarchy of needs, but I am confident that I am well on the path of this understanding.

Through the years, we tend to lose our way as reality sets within our minds and hearts, but the truly spectacular people never let life beat them into the ground. I am grateful my life is surrounded by such people to uplift me when I am sad, to raise me up when I lack self-confidence, and to dream together of all the great things of tomorrow. Our minds and our vision will become a reality if we let them. Sometimes, it takes just a moment in the day, to dream away and envision our lives as we once did when we were children. 

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." -Aristotle-

"If you cut corners in business, you are a shady operator, and you are developing the character of a shady operator. You are becoming practiced at it, it is becoming a habit. And if you tell yourself that you are really an honest and upright person who happens to practice deceit and chicanery in her daily behavior, then you are adding self-deception to the rest of your deceitful character. You are not what you wear, or what you drive, or what you eat, and you are not what you pretend to yourself to be, or wish you were; you are instead what you do. One who lies is a liar, and telling lies entrenches that character trait. If you do less than your best, you develop the habit, and you become--you make yourself-- a slothful person. Becoming virtuous is not something we do at some later point when we gain true moral wisdom, or finally reach enlightenment, or have sufficient time for it; becoming virtuous is what we do in the everyday practice of our lives. The acts you sow shape the character you reap."

 From the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/us/politics/20oklahoma.html

Are homosexuals above "dogs" and "pigs"? Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe doesn't think so. Zimbabwe is producing a new constitution and he says that gays and lesbians will not be a part of the new law. "We say no to gay rights,” he said. “We will not listen to those advocating for their rights in the new constitution." If the new government is not looking to listen to the rights of the people as being a part of the sovereign, then why do they have a government at all? Humans beings are human beings, but this president doesn't think so. He compared us (the GLBT community) to dogs and pigs in saying even they know what marriage is for and that is procreation falling short from calling the entire GLBT community dumber than a box of rocks. First and foremost, every government is set up as a social contract for the people by the people to better our own advancement and securities.