Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act

The good news just keeps rolling in...

(check out HRC.org for the whole article)

The House and Senate introduced the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act. The The DPBO Act would afford same-sex partners of Fed Employees the same benefits that "opposite marriage" spouses get.

As it stands, and has been for lo these many years, same-sex partners are denied access to retirement programs, life and health insurance benefits, and family and medical leave.

“This legislation would allow the federal government to keep pace with other top employers,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “It is not only a matter of equal pay for equal work, but also the best way to ensure that the government has access to the top talent on the same basis as the nation’s leading corporations.”

(rebuttal, GOP Chairman Steele?)
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If you would like to learn about the 1138 Rights Denied to GLBT Americans....

click, learn, talk!

How much do UNequal rights cost?

Following up on my last post.

(big nod to Autumn Sandeen's article on pamshouseblend.com)

When we last left GOP Chair Steele, he was declaring that Marriage Equality would cost too much... not in dignity, pursuit of happiness, sanctity of relationships, civil rights, integrity of the nation, etc etc, but in cold hard cash.

Cut to this scene in Dr. King's I Have A Dream speech:

"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice."

Back to the future...

As long as Steele is bringing up concern for costs- for the cost of health care and equal benefits to GLBT families- let's consider that DONT ASK DONT TELL is costing the taxpayers a fortune.

In just one instance, $25 million in training is being blown to kick out a decorated war hero b/c he is gay.

You can see Lieutenant Colonel Victor J. Fehrenbach's story here.

Also booted out:

Arab linguist Dan Choi

2nd Lt Sandy Tsao

over 200 other service members since Obama took office, after campaigning to put an end to Don't Ask Don't Tell

equal rights cost too much, suggests GOP chairman

From the AP: RNC chief: Gay marriage will burden small business

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So we'll send service members out to pay the ultimate price to defend our rights and freedoms...
but when it comes to "denting our pocketbooks," we draw the line?

We'll throw bazillions bailout $ at the big banks, but when it comes to paying a relatively tiny amount of money to ensure that ALL Americans are treated equally, the RNC wants to scare small businesses & financially struggling citizens with this garbage.

Apparently, GOP Chairman Michael Steele believes that its too great a cost to extend these rights to a minority group here in the good ol' US of A.

If only he could put himself in the place of a minor...i... ty.....? wait....

Peep Break

Quail Peeps

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Did you know: their eyes are blue when they hatch,

(just like baby kittens)

~~~

this post is in memory of the bird got into Alise's basement,

which she sicked Mr. T, her cat, on

Rep. Pingree's Marriage Equality Statement

Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) hits the nail on the head.

"Tell me your image of God, and i will tell you your politics."

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I attended a seminar in Pgh with Mom the other day. The theme was "Radical Abundance: A Theology of Sustainability."

One of the speakers, David Korten, shared an interesting story.

Here is the gist of it, which I found at Tikkun Magazine.


Some years ago I was privileged to share a conference platform with Jesus scholar Marcus Borg. I will never forget his defining statement: "Tell me your image of God, and I will tell you your politics." Borg explains that the many scriptural images of God are of two basic types. One is the patriarch with the flowing beard: the God we visualize in human form, the God of Michelangelo's famous painting in the Sistine Chapel, who lives in a distant place we call Heaven. The other image of God is as a spirit manifest in all being.

The patriarch image sets up a hierarchy of righteousness and domination running from those closest to God to those most distant. It leads to a competitive individualistic politics of separation, domination, favor seeking, and wealth accumulation. It is the foundation of the Calvinist belief that the rich and powerful are by definition God's most favored, and that financial success and Earthly power are marks of special righteousness. Within this belief system, the world is whatever God the patriarch wishes it to be, and it is beyond our means to change it for better or worse.

By contrast, the spirit image-by which we recognize the face of God in every human being, animal, insect, and grain of sand-leads to a politics of community, shared purpose, and mutual service. Everything in creation is both manifestation and agent of a great spiritual intelligence seeking to know itself through the creative exploration of its possibilities. Within this belief system, to do harm to another being is to harm oneself. We see ourselves as agents of that creative journey and find our ultimate fulfillment in devoting ourselves to it.

There is a striking difference between the image of God evoked by the language of public discourse and the image of our inner understanding. The God of our public discourse and of most formal religious liturgy is the male patriarch to whom we pledge our faith and obedience in hope of winning favor now and in the afterlife. Because the very word "God" so strongly evokes this image, I generally prefer to discuss matters of faith in the language of spirit or creation. This may well be, in any case, the way most people see things.

Bob Scott, director of the Trinity Institute, recently sent me the results of a national survey he commissioned in his earlier capacity as editor-in-chief of Spirituality and Health magazine. The findings suggest that most people's private beliefs align much more closely with the spirit image of God than the patriarch image.

Eighty-four percent of Americans view God as being "everywhere and in everything," rather than "someone somewhere." Given a list of characteristics and asked to pick the one that describes God best, 71 percent chose "loving." Only 5 percent chose "remote," and only 2 percent chose "judging" or "controlling." I find quite stunning the contrast between what these results reveal of our private images of God and the image evoked by the language of our public discourse and liturgy.


In our lecture, he went on to say that we must work to make our institutions (churches, banks, etc) reflect our private images of God.

Personally, I find that I slide back and forth between both of those images.

Anyway, if you have any thoughts on this, feel free to comment.

"Clergy Call for Justice and Equality" - Rev. Dr. Love

Rev. Dr. Cindi Love's contribution at HRC's Clergy Call '09



more vids from a variety of clergy members, including Tony Campolo, are available here (ps: they are short)