My wife just got home from from playing at a funeral.

The funeral was in a small town in eastern Montana, for  friend of a friend. The friend (our friend) met the deceased while they worked at a hospital in the big city (Great Falls), thru the deceased's partner.

The lady whose funeral this was was a lesbian. Also a pediatric nurse, a mom, and a Lt. Colonel in the Army reserves. Posted all over the world in MASH units. The partner split when her kids (the partner's) told her they had had it with this lesbian thing and wanted her to be in a relationship they could be proud of. So her family was down to her one surviving daughter (also a lesbian, also a mom) and her (the deceased's) ex-husband (father of her kids) who was apparently kinda surly but showed up.

When she was dying and decided she wanted to be buried in the family plot in her home town, so that's where they held the funeral—in a Catholic church in a small town in eastern Montana headed by a priest from India. Maybe 10 locals there, the rest (maybe 60 or so) from Great Falls and the rest of the world. Plus the Army color guard.

Full military ceremony, folded flag and 21 gun salute and everything.

It's the early part of the 21st century. It's complicated. But it's getting better. Rest in peace, Colonel.

 Egctheow wrote:
 

Yeah, I worked in a place where they said the Conservation Officer got his job because it got rid of the worst poacher.

 haresfur wrote:
 

Good one Haresfur!!
Mustn't have realised there was an outside to the closet. What is it they say about poachers and gamekeepers?

 R_P wrote:
 

Must have backfired

Conversion therapy group founder comes out as gay, apologizes

 Red_Dragon wrote: 

if this kind of thing (modernity being influential in evolution of religious thought/practice) interests you (and it should)

have a look at what's happening to one of ok's own

a couple of things to keep in mind

1) where he came from or started

2) this is three or four years old (he's becoming more and more liberal)

This woman and her girlfriend were attacked after refusing to kiss on a London bus

 

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/woman-her-girlfriend-were-attacked-103700781.html

 

 

It's unnatural!

While many around the country were heartened by the LGBT inclusion, same-sex expressions of love between cartoon animals are not appropriate for young viewers, according to McKenzie.

America has already had a gay president

 sirdroseph wrote: 

well tolerance (respect for human rights) is increasing all the way around

i guess we could call it modernity or enlightenment creeping in and dislodging dogmas

there are some very thoughtful answers in this video

it's the fact that more people are rejecting reactionary violence and opening up to dialog regarding personal sexual preferences and beliefs systems (or lack of) that i find encouraging

regards

 miamizsun wrote: 
Yep, I have always been bemused at how mortal enemies such as fundamental Muslims and Christians are really just mirror images of one another and do not seem to recognize this and irritated by so called "progressives" who support the intolerance of Muslims whilst simultaneously condemning the intolerance of the Christians.

LGBT lessons row: More Birmingham schools stop classes

Gay sailor's homecoming kiss sparks outrage

Ovaltine.
Yes, it's fake

who cares?

Mom says Denver boy killed himself after being bullied at school

His crime was horrendous, but so was the reason jurors sentenced him to death. He’s gay.

(...) Point being that this guy is no hero or martyr. He is undeserving of pity. That said, the circumstances of his case — more specifically, his sentencing — ought to concern anyone who believes in equal justice under the law. It seems that, in deciding what sentence to impose — death or life without parole — jurors worried that, as a gay man, Rhines might enjoy prison. They thought condemning him to that all-male environment would be like the old folk tale about Br’er Rabbit tricking Br’er Fox into throwing him into the briar patch where he wanted to be all along.

So they gave him death.

Evidence of the effect of Rhines’ sexuality on the panel’s reasoning abounds. Jurors sent the judge a note asking if he would be housed in general population, if he might “brag” to “young men” about his crime, if he might ever marry or have conjugal visits, if he would have a cellmate. As if that weren’t enough, several jurors later issued sworn declarations affirming how homophobia warped their deliberations.

One juror was quoted as saying that putting a gay man in prison would be “sending him where he wants to go.” Another quoted a fellow juror as saying Rhines “shouldn’t be able to spend his life with men in prison.” A third reported that, “There was a lot of disgust” in the jury room. “This is a farming community.”

That sort of thinking, should it need saying, is idiotic. Unfortunately, it made sense to the only people whose opinions mattered.
As it happens, the Supreme Court ruled last year that jury deliberations can be impeached if it can be proven they were tainted by racial bias. Rhines’ lawyers reasoned that if racism is enough to question a jury’s decision, homophobia should be, too.

But last week, the court declined to hear Rhines’ appeal. It’s a disappointing decision. If equal justice means anything, it means a judge or jury may not heap an added penalty based on some facet of cultural identity. Whether grounded in race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity, bias has no place in our legal system. The high court had a chance to make that clear, but punted instead. (...)

 Very nice, R!
Manbird wrote: 

Weird story but true: I had just finished uploading a couple LGBTQIA shirts I designed
and went to lay down, checked my iPad and there was a PM on FB from my best
gay friend whom I had lost touch with over the last 20 or more years. Such strange coincideñcio!
Anyway, here are the results of my designs. I have to credit Mag for the saying on the 2nd shirt.
The designs are mine but nothing is really original - I'm sure heart has been done x 1000.