Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
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“R E V O L U T I O N o f T E N D E R N E S S”
Pope Francis gives TED talk: 'We build future together’ - 26/04/2017
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has broken new ground in the way he communicates his message when the first-ever papal TED Talk went on line.
TED is a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading ideas in the form of short talks. What began in 1984 as a conference covering Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED), today provides talks from a wide range of different speakers – except popes. Until today.
Those of us following TED’s annual Conference in Vancouver had been promised a surprise “world figure” who would deliver his 18-minute message on the conference theme, “The Future You”, alongside tennis superstar, Serena Williams, entrepreneur, Elon Musk, and chess champion, Garry Kasparov.
But no one expected to see the Pope’s face appear on the screen.
“I very much like this title – ‘The Future You’”, began Pope Francis, “because, while looking at tomorrow, it invites us to open a dialogue today, to look at the future through a ‘you’…The future is made of you’s…because life flows through our relations with others”…
Read more:
In Surprise TED Talk, Pope Francis Asks The Powerful For 'Revolution Of Tenderness’ - NPR - April 26, 2017
The annual TED conference is known for featuring impressive speakers. Attendees at this year's event in Vancouver have seen Serena Williams and Jorge Ramos, futurists and artificial intelligence experts, health activists and the ACLU's executive director.
But on Tuesday evening, one unannounced speaker took the audience by surprise: Pope Francis.
The pope was on a big screen rather than onstage, and his address had been recorded and edited earlier in April, but still: even for non-Catholics, the bishop of Rome has a certain gravitas.
"Buonasera," he began, speaking in Italian throughout his 17-minute address from his desk at the Vatican. "Or good morning, I am not sure what time it is there."
At first, the pope's subject matter seemed familiar: "As I meet, or lend an ear to those who are sick, to the migrants who face terrible hardships in search of a brighter future, to prison inmates who carry a hell of pain inside their hearts, and to those, many of them young, who cannot find a job, I often find myself wondering: 'Why them and not me?' "
But his message quickly moved to the conference's core subject matter (technology and innovation), and seemed to be directed at the audience in the room: the founders of some of the world's biggest tech companies, as well as politicians, artists, entertainers, venture capitalists and leaders of major cultural institutions and foundations.
"How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come along with more equality and social inclusion," Francis said. "How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us. How wonderful would it be if solidarity — this beautiful and, at times, inconvenient word — were not simply reduced to social work and became, instead, the default attitude in political, economic and scientific choices, as well as in the relationships among individuals, peoples and countries.”
The pope spoke during the session in which the 2017 TED Prize winner announced what he'll do with his $1 million prize. The audience watched in silence, says NPR's Nina Gregory, who watched from a simulcast viewing area near the packed theater.
"There were people around me who cried, others who watched, rapt, and still others who watched while writing email," she says. "He got a standing ovation in the theater."
Nearly 400,000 people around the world have already watched the pope's video and seen him tell the tale of the Good Samaritan, which he called "the story of today's humanity."
"People's paths are riddled with suffering, as everything is centered around money and things, instead of people," he said. "And often there is this habit, by people who call themselves 'respectable,' of not taking care of the others, thus leaving behind thousands of human beings, or entire populations, on the side of the road…
Read more:
What This Doctor Is Going To Do With His $1 Million TED Prize - NPR - April 25, 2017
It sounds like a fairy tale. A benefactor gives you a million dollars to make a wish come true.
Only it can't be a selfish wish. The TED annual award goes each year to an "exceptional individual with a creative and bold vision to solve a timely, pressing problem." (TED is a nonprofit dedicated to "ideas worth spreading" and sponsors the TED talks aired on NPR's TED Radio Hour.)
Last December, the 2017 prize winner was announced: Dr. Raj Panjabi. This Tuesday night, he shared the details of his "wish to change the world."
Panjabi, who's a physician at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, will use the money to help community health workers. They're non-medical personnel who've been trained to help with health care in remote or underserved places. They keep records, they remind people to get their kids vaccinated, they may test for diseases and provide some kinds of therapeutic treatment.
They're an underappreciated group. Some are volunteers, some are paid. They're usually not college graduates. And they're a group Panjabi knows well. He's the founder of Last Mile Health, whose 300 community health workers work with people in rural Liberia…
These health workers get some training. But they're not a gang of "cowboy workers," says Panjabi. In Liberia, for example, they're part of a team with a "nurse supervisor" to mentor them and connect patients to clinics when necessary.
Panjabi wants community health workers to learn more and do more, so he'll use his TED money to start the Community Health Academy. It'll be based in Liberia, where he lived until he was 9, with the goal of going global…
Read more:
His Holiness Pope Francis
Why the only future worth building includes everyone
TED2017 · 17:52 · Filmed Apr 2017
A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you, says His Holiness Pope Francis in this searing TED Talk delivered directly from Vatican City. In a hopeful message to people of all faiths, to those who have power as well as those who don't, the spiritual leader provides illuminating commentary on the world as we currently find it and calls for equality, solidarity and tenderness to prevail. "Let us help each other, all together, to remember that the 'other' is not a statistic, or a number," he says. "We all need each other.”
Read more:
Interactive transcript
[His Holiness Pope Francis Filmed in Vatican City First shown at TED2017]
Good evening – or, good morning, I am not sure what time it is there. Regardless of the hour, I am thrilled to be participating in your conference. I very much like its title – "The Future You" – because, while looking at tomorrow, it invites us to open a dialogue today, to look at the future through a "you." "The Future You:" the future is made of yous, it is made of encounters, because life flows through our relations with others. Quite a few years of life have strengthened my conviction that each and everyone's existence is deeply tied to that of others: life is not time merely passing by, life is about interactions…
Read complete transcript:
The biggest takeaways from Pope Francis’ groundbreaking TED talk - April 27, 2017
Pope Francis became the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to deliver a TED talk Tuesday. In the talk, part of TED’s annual conference, the Holy Father wove science, wisdom from Mother Teresa and the parable of the Good Samaritan to stress the importance of human solidarity…
Read more:
Pope Francis Urges TED Audience to Nurture Ties With Others - APRIL 26, 2017
Pope Francis urged an audience of technophiles and entrepreneurs on Tuesday to use their powers of curiosity and inquiry to explore and nurture the relationships that bond human beings to one another.
“How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come along with more equality and social inclusion,” Francis said in a recorded video talk that was shown at the TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. “How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us.”…
Read more:
Pope Francis' TED Talk Shows His Social-Media Skills - APRIL 26, 2017
Four years into his papacy, Pope Francis continues to be social media's hottest commodity.
Pope Francis gave a surprise TED talk via recorded message on Tuesday night. It was the first time a Pope has ever gave a TED Talk, and the latest development in a growing partnership between Francis’ Vatican and social technology companies. His message? “Why the only future worth building includes everyone.”…
Read more:
Pope Francis gives a surprise TED Talk, calls for a ‘revolution of tenderness’ - APRIL 25, 2017
VANCOUVER — Pope Francis used an international forum dedicated to promoting cutting-edge ideas to spread his own revolutionary message: “We all need each other.”
“When there is an ‘us,’ there begins a revolution,” the world’s most powerful religious leader told the room of scientists, academics, tech innovators, investors and cultural elites in a surprise videotaped message at the international TED conference Tuesday evening.
Keeping with the intent of the week-long conference to share strategies to make the world better, Francis’s contribution to that conversation was to urge the people gathered here to use their influence and power to care for others…
Read more:
POPE FRANCIS WARNS WORLD LEADERS NOT TO GET DRUNK ON POWER IN SURPRISE TED TALK - APRIL 25, 2017
Pope Francis called for a “revolution of tenderness” and asked world leaders to be humble in exercising their power in a TED talk broadcast at the organization’s conference in Vancouver on Tuesday.
The 80-year-old Francis delivered the 18-minute talk —which was pre-recorded in Vatican City and aired at the annual TED Conference—in Italian, with subtitles in 22 languages.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and the short talks, which are delivered by famous and nonfamous speakers alike, are published online and often reach huge audiences…
Read more:
W e c a n o n l y b u i l d t h e f u t u r e
b y s t a n d i n g t o g e t h e r,
i n c l u d i n g e v e r y o n e
Pope Francis
The Responsibility of the
A C T o f E M P A T H Y
A C T o f E M P A T H Y
Meryl Streep
Golden Globe Awards Jan 8, 2017
Disrespect invites disrespect.
Violence incites violence.
When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.
Meryl Streep
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An actor's only job
is to enter the lives of people
who are different from us
and
let you feel
what that feels like.
THE VIDEO & THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF
MERYL STREEP'S POWERFUL GOLDEN GLOBES SPEECH
Jan 8, 2017
Jan 8, 2017
Excerpt:
…Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. If you kick 'em all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts. They gave me three seconds to say this. An actor's only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that, breathtaking, passionate work.
There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. There was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. I still can't get it out of my head because it wasn't in a movie. It was real life.
And this instinct to humiliate, when it's modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody's life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose…
Read more:
Watch Meryl Streep Get a Totally Undeserving Round of Applause During Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscars Monologue - Vogue - February 27, 2017
At the end of Jimmy Kimmel’s hilarious opening monologue during the Academy Awards, the Oscars host decided to take a moment to pay tribute to the night’s most mediocre honoree, Meryl Streep. Kimmel, of course, was making fun of President Trump’s recent Twitter rant, in which he called the 20-time Oscar-nominated actress “one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood” after Streep delivered a scathing speech against him at last month’s Golden Globe Awards.
“Of all the great actors here in Hollywood, one in particular has stood the test of time for her many uninspiring and overrated performances,” Kimmel said. “From her mediocre early work in The Deer Hunter and Out of Africa to her underwhelming performances in Kramer vs Kramer and Sophie’s Choice, Meryl Streep has phoned it in in over 50 films.” A mortified Streep tried to hide her face behind her husband in the audience. “Let’s give Meryl Streep a totally underserved round of applause,” he added. Instead, she got a standing ovation…
Read more & view video: http://www.vogue.com/article/jimmy-kimmel-oscars-2017-opening-monologue-meryl-streep-donald-trump-undeserving
St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral
C A I R O, E G Y P T
Pope Francis heads to Egypt on Friday
with a peace and mercy
message for Muslims and Christians - April 27, 2017
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Pope Francis: English summary of General Audience - 03/05/2017
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis held his weekly General Audience on Wednesday, during which he spoke of his recently concluded visit to Egypt.
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Dear Brothers and Sisters: My recent Apostolic Journey to Egypt took place at the invitation of the President of the Republic, the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and the Catholic Coptic Patriarch. I thank all those who helped in its planning and organization. My meeting with the Gran Imam, and my message to the International Conference for Peace, recalled that peace is the fruit of an education to wisdom and a humanism that respects the religious dimension of our existence. Our covenant with God, grounded in the commandment of love of God and neighbour, inspires our efforts to build a just and peaceful civil order in which all have a part to play. Egypt’s great cultural and religious heritage gives the nation a special role in this work of peacemaking. In my meeting with the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch, Pope Tawadros II, we reaffirmed our mutual commitment to unity and prayed together for the victims of the recent attacks. At Mass with the Catholic community, and in my meeting with priests, religious and seminarians, I saw the beauty of the Church in Egypt and I encouraged everyone to persevere in the hope of the Gospel. May the Holy Family, who once found refuge in Egypt, bless and protect its people with prosperity, fraternity and peace.
Read more:
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The Lord softens those with hard hearts says Pope - 02/05/2017
(Vatican Radio) “The Lord softens those with hard hearts, those who condemn all who are outside the law.” This was the message of Pope Francis homily, during Tuesday’s Mass in the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence. He said that those who are hard hearted do not know the tenderness of God and his ability to remove hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh…
Read more:
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/05/02/the_lord_softens_those_with_hard_hearts_says_pope/1309489
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Pope denounces rigid Christians, calls for meekness in the Church - 05/05/2017
(Vatican Radio) Even now there are people in the Church who use rigidity to cover-up their own sins. That was the warning of Pope Francis at the morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. Commenting on the first Reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, the Pope focused on the figure of Saint Paul who, from being a rigid persecutor, became a meek and patient proclaimer of the Gospel.
“The first time the name ‘Saul’ appears,” he said, “is at the stoning of Stephen.” Saul, he observed, was a “young man, rigid, idealistic,” and he was “convinced” of the rigidity of the law.
No to rigid people living a double life in the Church
He was rigid, the Pope insisted, but he was “sincere.” Jesus, on the other hand, condemned those who were rigid but “insincere”:
“They are rigid people living a double life: They make themselves look good, sincere, but when no one sees them, they do ugly things. On the other hand, this young man was honest. He believed that. I think, when I say this, of the many young people in the Church today who have fallen into the temptation of rigidity. Some are sincere, they are good. We have to pray that the Lord might help them to grow along the path of meekness.”
Others, he said, “use rigidity in order to cover over weakness, sin, personality problems; and they use rigidity” to build themselves up at the expense of others. Pope Francis said that in this way, Saul grew even more rigid, to the point where he couldn’t tolerate what he saw as a heresy; and so he began to persecute the Christians. But, the Pope said, parenthetically, at least Saul allowed children to live – nowadays, those who persecute Christians don’t even spare children…
Read more:
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Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi
P e a c e P r a y e r o f S a i n t F r a n c i s
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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An actor's only job
is to enter the lives of people
who are different from us
and
let you feel
what that feels like.
Meryl Streep - 2017
Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant and Simon Helberg on
Florence Foster Jenkins:
Reel Pieces - August 4, 2016
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A T i d a l W a v e o f G o o d W i l l
MEET JOHN DOE
Movie 1941
&
screenplay
by Robert Riskin
based on a story by
Richard Connell and Robert Presnell
Excerpt: - John Doe’s radio speech
…Now, you can't be a stranger to
any guy that's on your own team.
So tear down the fence that
separates you, tear down the fence
and you'll tear down a lot of hates
and prejudices! Tear down all the
fences in the country and you'll
really have teamwork!
I know a lot of you are saying to
yourselves: "He's asking for a
miracle to happen. He's expecting
people to change all of a sudden."
Well, you're wrong. It's no miracle.
It's no miracle because I see it
happen once every year. And so do
you. At Christmas time! There's
something swell about the spirit
of Christmas, to see what it does
to people, all kinds of people . .
Now, why can't that spirit, that
same warm Christmas spirit last
the whole year round? Gosh, if it
ever did, if each and every John
Doe would make that spirit last
three hundred and sixty-five days
out of the year, we'd develop such
a strength, we'd create such a
tidal wave of good will, that no
human force could stand against
it.
Yes, sir, my friends, the meek can
only inherit the earth when the
John Does start loving their
neighbors. You'd better start right
now. Don't wait till the game is
called on account of darkness!
Wake up, John Doe! You're the hope
of the world!…
CONNELL
(sincerely)
It's a beautiful miracle. A miracle
that could only happen right here
in the good old U.S.A. And I think
it's terrific! What do you think
of that! Me! Hard-boiled Connell!
I think it's plenty terrific!
All right! Now, supposing a certain
unmentionable worm, whose initials
are D. B., was trying to use that
to shove his way into the White
House. So he could put the screws
on, so he could turn out the lights
in those lighthouses. What would
you say about that? Huh?
JOHN
Nobody's gonna do that, Mr. Connell.
They can't use the John Doe Clubs
for politics. That's the main idea.
CONNELL
Is that so? Then what's a big
political boss like Hammett doing
in town? And a labor leader like
Bennett? And a lot of other big
shots who are up at D. B.'s house
right now? Wolves, John, wolves
waiting to cut up the John Does!
Wait till you get a gander at that
speech you're gonna make tonight!
JOHN
You're all wet. Miss Mitchell writes
those speeches and nobody can make
her write that kind of stuff.
CONNELL
They can't, huh?
(then barking)
Who do you think writes 'em? My
Aunt Emma? I know she writes them.
CLOSE-UP: Of JOHN. His jaw stiffens, angrily.
CONNELL'S VOICE
And get a big bonus for doing them,
too. A mink coat and a diamond
bracelet.
JOHN glares at him, his rage mounting…
ANN
(crying)
John!
ANN
(muffled sobs)
Oh, John, darling. No! No!
CLOSE SHOT: JOHN and ANN. He stares down at her, blankly.
ANN clutches him, her head buried in his shoulder.
ANN
(muffled sobs)
I won't let you. I love you,
darling.
ANN
(in a desperate
plea)
John. Please, John, listen to me.
We'll start all over again, just
you and I. It isn't too late. The
John Doe movement isn't dead yet.
ANN
(excitedly)
See, John! It isn't dead, or they
wouldn't be here! It's alive in
them . They kept it alive. By being
afraid of it. That's why they came
up here.
CLOSE SHOT: ANN and JOHN. He continues to stand with his
hands at his sides, looking at her, while she clings to
him desperately. While she speaks, he turns his face
from her and stares at the men.
ANN
Oh, darling. Sure, it should have
been killed before. It was
dishonest.
ANN'S VOICE
But we can start clean now. Just
you and I. It'll grow again, John.
It'll grow big. And it'll be strong,
because it'll be honest!
CLOSE-UP: Of ANN. Her strength is fast ebbing away. She
clings to JOHN more tenaciously.
ANN
(last bit of effort)
Oh, darling, if it's worth dying
for, it's worth living for. Oh,
please, John . . .
She looks up at his face, seeking some sign of his relenting-
but she finds none.
CLOSE-UP: Of ANN, who still clinging to him, lays her cheek
on his chest—and lifts her eyes heavenward.
ANN
(a murmured prayer)
Oh, please, God—help me!
ANN
(tensely)
John!
She takes his face in her two hands and turns it to her.
ANN
John, look at me. You want to be
honest, don't you? Well, you don't
have to die to keep the John Doe
idea alive! Someone already died
for that once! The first John Doe.
And He's kept that idea alive for
nearly two thousand years.
ANN'S VOICE
(with sincere
conviction)
It was He who kept it alive in
them —and He'll go on keeping it
alive for ever and always! For
every John Doe movement these men
kill, a new one will be born!
ANN
(ecstatically)
That's why those bells are ringing,
John! They're calling to us—not to
give up—but to keep on fighting!
To keep on pitching! Oh, don't you
see, darling? This is no time to
give up!
ANN
You and I, John, we can—
(suddenly)
No, John, if you die, I want to
die, too!
(weakly)
Oh, I love you so—
Read more:
Movie video:
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2017
The KISS of LIFE - - - Cultural Differences - - Social-Environmental Norms - Influence on - Early Childhood Psychological Developmental Years - - and - - SOCIETAL ATTITUDES TOWARD HOMOSEXUALITY -
- Argentina - vs - curia and hierarchy (Hitler & Nazi Regime and US Sen. Joseph McCarthy) - - from - TANGO & GAY PRIESTS (2013) - to - ROOFTOPS & ORLANDO MASS SHOOTING (2016)
K i s s o f L i f e
by Rocco Morabito, 1968 Pulitzer Prize
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I c o n i c W a r M e m o r i e s
Generational
V-Day and The Kiss
New York City's Times Square - August 14, 1945
G a y M a r i n e’ s K i s s
Returned from Afghanistan
Kaneohe, Hawaii - February 27, 2012
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Social-Environmental Norms
Early Childhood Psychological Developmental Years
Societal Attitudes Toward Homosexuality
Short Film - La Furca Milonga Queer
A n A r g e n t i n e T a n g o
T H E T A N G O
B u e n o s A i r e s, A r g e n t i n a
A brief Tango History
by Murray Pfeffer
by Murray Pfeffer
The Tango, often called 'The Argentine Tango', is Argentina's contribution to the world of dance. The Tango came from the brothels and low cafes of Buenos Aires at the turn of the century. However, at it's very beginning, it was a ballet-like dance between two men, which, just a little later, became the obscene dance of the brothels where both men and women had the opportunity to rub their bodies together. Over the years, the Tango has changed becoming an elegant and stylish dance evoking a picture of high society, with women in sleek glittering evening gowns and men in tuxedos and tails…
Read more: http://www.triogarufa.com/tango-history.html
Tango Macho - “Los Hermanos Macana”
Tango: Theme of Class and Nation
Julie M. Taylor
Ethnomusicology, Vol. 20, No. 2. (May, 1976), pp. 273-291.
A favorite Argentine national pastime consists of debate over the supposed demise or latest claim to revival of the national dance. Is the tango already dead? Or are the dance and its music not only alive but one of the most complete expressions of Argentine character? Endless discussions of these conflicting opinions and the deep concern expressed on all sides over the death of the tango constitute the most important evidence that the dance, or at least its accompanying complex of music, song, and tradition, lives on in the minds of the Argentines. Other indications of this fact abound in a first glance at everyday life in the nation's cities and towns: the presence in every bookshop of current popularized analyses of the dance; the superabundance of recordings of each tango and each tango artist; the proportion of broadcasting hours dedicated solely to tango; the re-runs of old tango movies; and the use of the dance complex as the subject of new theater productions, art exhibits, and lectures.
An examination of the continuing role of the tango in Argentina today entails a definition of the interrelated elements of tango as folklore, song, and dance. The following investigation deals with three groups of themes: those consisting of the characteristics of the environment which produced the tango, those forming the moral or emotional base of the tango and explicitly stated in its lyrics, and those found in the choreography of the dance itself.
…Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the groups of tango enthusiasts is the fact that the membership is exclusively male. Not only that, but none of the female friends or relatives of the members show the slightest evidence of interest in the tango. Active interest in the dance complex appears to be entirely male; women develop an interest in tango only if they develop interest in an hombre tanguero. This seems to be a pattern which has not changed much over the years from the days when men danced together to the organitos and in the brothels through the era of the cafe-bar to the present. Fifty years ago Felix Weingartner wrote, "The majority of the women who dance tango do so quite badly, while the men are almost all excellent dancers" (quoted in de Lara 1961:99). In 1966 a porteno told me that he as a boy in the 1940s had learned tango when he and a group of boys became interested in the subject together. They all learned to dance by practicing with each other. "It was difficult to find women who danced well. I practiced with my sisters and my cousins but the girls did it badly. I did not have a good partner until I married and taught my wife.”…
“La Biela” - Buenos Aires
L G B T R i g h t s i n A r g e n t i n a
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Argentina are among the most advanced in its region. Upon legalising same-sex marriage on July 15, 2010, Argentina became the first country in Latin America, the second in the Americas, and the tenth in the world to do so. The country also "has one of the world's most comprehensive transgender rights laws": its Gender Identity Law, passed in 2012, made Argentina the "only country that allows people to change their gender identities without facing barriers such as hormone therapy, surgery or psychiatric diagnosis that labels them as having an abnormality". In 2015, the World Health Organization cited Argentina as an exemplary country for providing transgender rights. The country also allows bisexual and gay men to donate blood and, in 2016, agreed to join the Global Equality Fund.
In Pew Research Center's 2013 Global Attitudes Survey, Argentina was the Latin American country with the most positive societal attitudes towards homosexuality, with about three-quarters (74%) of those surveyed saying it should be accepted. The country's capital and largest city, Buenos Aires, has become an important recipient of LGBT tourism and has been described as "Latin America's gay capital".
Law regarding same-sex sexual activity
Same-sex sexual activity in Argentina has been legal since 1887.:88 The age of consent is 15 for all sexual orientations…
A Media Luz E. Donato (Tango) Dancing
T a n g o
Julie Taylor
Department of Anthropology - Princeton University
Ethos of Melancholy
Para lafamilia Dickinson, que siempro estuvo.
What the tango says about Argentina, the nation that created it, illuminates aspects of Argentine behavior that have long puzzled outsiders. In many foreign minds, the Argentine tourist, the Argentine military, or Argentine politicians and their followers conjure up images that at first glance seem to convey arrogant aggressiveness often carried to extremes outsiders find inconceivable. What foreigners do not realize is that both public posture and private introspection constantly confront Argentines with excruciating questions about their own identity. Are they civilized or barbarian? European or Latin American? a respected nation or a banana republic? an independent agent or a pawn?
Answers to these questions would not seem to be forthcoming from a dance defined as the tango is by the world outside of Latin America. In the popular image of the tango, Valentino or a counterpart, dramatically dashing in bolero, frilled shirt, and cummerbund, flings a partner backward over the ruffled train of her flamenco costume. One or another holds a rose. Out of this Andalucian vignette of total surrender to music and passion emerges the idea that tango lyrics express similar exuberance. Even when the words tell of lost love, treacherous fate, and an unjust world, a romantic hero supposedly sings them, gesturing flamboyantly to broadcast his sensitivity.
In dramatic contrast, in the classic Argentine tango, closed-faced men practiced the dance with each other and then, fedoras pulled down like masks, gripped women against rigid torsos sheathed in sober double-breasted jackets. Their feet, though subject to the same grim control, executed intricate figures all .but independent from the rest of their bodies. Far from flamenco ruffles and roses, Argentines had invented the tango in the brothels on the edges of Buenos Aires as it thrust its slums ever further into the pampas at the turn of the century. The dancers demonstrated their skill by being able to perform like somber automatons, providing them with psychic space to contemplate a bitter destiny that had driven them into themselves.
The tango reflects this Argentine ambivalence. Although a major symbol of the Argentines' national identity, its themes emphasize a painful uncertainty as to the precise nature of that identity. For Argentines, this dance is deadly serious. In the tango, as in their personal lives and their politics, they tend to dwell on real or imagined affronts…
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D a n c i n g T a n g o i n B u e n o s A i r e s
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B u e n o s A i r e s T a n g o F e s t i v a l
July 2, 2013
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Essentials of Buenos Aires:
Evita, tango and pope's hometown
Mar 28, 2017
Hundreds Tango Dance for Pope's Birthday
December 17, 2014
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C u l t u r a l D i f f e r e n c e s
Social-Environmental Norms
Early Childhood Psychological Developmental Years
Societal Attitudes Toward Homosexuality
The Global Divide on Homosexuality
Pew Research Center - June 4, 2013
Overview
As the United States and other countries grapple with the issue of same-sex marriage, a new Pew Research Center survey finds huge variance by region on the broader question of whether homosexuality should be accepted or rejected by society…
…In Argentina, the first country in the region to legalize gay marriage in 2010, about three-quarters (74%) say homosexuality should be accepted, as do clear majorities in Chile (68%), Mexico (61%) and Brazil (60%); about half of Venezuelans (51%) also express acceptance…
Where Homosexuality Is Rejected
Publics in Africa and in predominantly Muslim countries remain among the least accepting of homosexuality. In sub-Saharan Africa, at least nine-in-ten in Nigeria (98%), Senegal (96%), Ghana (96%), Uganda (96%) and Kenya (90%) believe homosexuality should not be accepted by society. Even in South Africa where, unlike in many other African countries, homosexual acts are legal and discrimination based on sexual orientation is unconstitutional, 61% say homosexuality should not be accepted by society, while just 32% say it should be accepted.
Overwhelming majorities in the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed also say homosexuality should be rejected, including 97% in Jordan, 95% in Egypt, 94% in Tunisia, 93% in the Palestinian territories, 93% in Indonesia, 87% in Pakistan, 86% in Malaysia, 80% in Lebanon and 78% in Turkey…
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On Gay Priests, Pope Francis Asks, ‘Who Am I to Judge?’
July 29, 2013
ROME — For generations, homosexuality has largely been a taboo topic for the Vatican, ignored altogether or treated as “an intrinsic moral evil,” in the words of the previous pope.
In that context, brief remarks by Pope Francis suggesting that he would not judge priests for their sexual orientation, made aboard the papal airplane on the way back from his first foreign trip, to Brazil, resonated through the church. Never veering from church doctrine opposing homosexuality, Francis did strike a more compassionate tone than that of his predecessors, some of whom had largely avoided even saying the more colloquial “gay.”
“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis told reporters, speaking in Italian but using the English word “gay.”…
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Pope [Francis] Welcomes Gay Luxembourg Prime Minister And His Husband, At Vatican
April 6, 2017
April 6, 2017
This is extraordinary!
The Pope recently welcomed the world's only openly gay leader, and his husband at the Vatican.
Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and his partner Gauthier Destenay were invited by Catholic officials to the Holy See.
http://instinctmagazine.com/post/pope-welcomes-gay-luxembourg-prime-minister-and-his-husband-vatican
Pope Francis's Welcome To World's Only Openly Gay Prime Minister Rekindles Vatican Controversy
April 9, 2017
April 9, 2017
The photos of Bettel and husband, who entered a civil partnership in 2010 and married in 2015 after Luxembourg's legislators approved gay marriage, being greeted by Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Pontifical House and Personal Secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, have been applauded by gay rights organizations and with equal fervor criticized by their conservative Catholic counterparts…
EU leaders converge on Rome to rekindle sense of unity
March 24, 2017
March 24, 2017
ROME (AP) — Posing with Pope Francis before Michelangelo’s masterpiece “The Last Judgment” at the Vatican, European Union leaders started their weekend pilgrimage in Rome hoping that a visit to the cradle of their unity project could somehow rekindle the vigor of the bloc’s youth.
More and more, it looks like the EU’s future will have less unanimity and more areas where groups of EU nations advance on their own when faced with resistance from others on specific issues, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel of founding EU nation Luxembourg told The Associated Press…
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T h e K i s s
“It’s a celebration of love–it’s just that simple”
“It’s a celebration of love–it’s just that simple”
S e e i n g T w o M e n K i s s i n g
Omar Mateen - Got
'V e r y A n g r y'
Orlando, FL - Worst Mass Shooting In US History
June 13, 2016
Pulse Nightclub Shooting Victims Sue Gunman’s Employer, Wife - June 14, 2016
Orlando gay club shooting: World pays tribute to victims with vigils and rainbow flags
June 20, 2016
Monday, July 11, 2016 photo shows a makeshift memorial outside the Pulse nightclub,
a month after the mass shooting in
Orlando, Fla.
H o m o s e x u a l
S E L E C T I V E I N A T T E N T I O N
D i s s o c i a t i o n
Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was gay, former classmate says - June 14, 2016
The FBI is investigating reports that Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen used gay dating apps and regularly visited Pulse before he shot more than 100 people inside, killing 49.
At least five people have come forward saying they saw Mateen at gay clubs, painting a complicated portrait of the American-born Muslim whom the FBI believes was radicalized by terrorist groups.
One former classmate of Omar Mateen’s 2006 police academy class told The Palm Beach Post that he believed Mateen was gay, saying Mateen once tried to pick him up at a bar.
The classmate said that he, Mateen and other classmates would hang out, sometimes going to gay nightclubs, after classes at Indian River Community College police academy. One night, he said Mateen asked him if he was gay. He said no, because he wasn’t telling people he was gay at the time…
…“He said, ‘Well if you were gay, you would be my type.’ I said OK and just went on with the night,” he said. “It was not anything too crazy, but I take that as a pick-up line.”
He believed Mateen was gay, but not open about it. Mateen was awkward, and for a while the classmate and the rest in the group of friends felt sorry for him…
Jim Van Horn, 71, told The Associated Press that Mateen was a regular at the club. “He was trying to pick up people. Men,” he said.
While acknowledging he didn’t know Mateen well, Van Horn said: “I think it’s possible that he was trying to deal with his inner demons, of trying to get rid of his anger of homosexuality.”…
...The Los Angeles Times reported that Mateen attended the Pulse nightclub possibly as many as a dozen times before the rampage. Kevin West said he had messaged Mateen back and forth over a year’s time on the gay dating app Jack’d but never met him until he saw Mateen crossing the street about 1 a.m. Sunday...
...The Los Angeles Times reported that Mateen attended the Pulse nightclub possibly as many as a dozen times before the rampage. Kevin West said he had messaged Mateen back and forth over a year’s time on the gay dating app Jack’d but never met him until he saw Mateen crossing the street about 1 a.m. Sunday...
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D i s s o c i a t i o n
S e l e c t i v e I n a t t e n t i o n
Jack Drescher, MD, 2004
What psychological mechanisms facilitate separating one's sexual identity from the rest of one's persona? Sullivan's (1956) concept of dissociation may be illuminating, particularly its most common aspect: selective inattention. A ubiquitous, nonpathological process, selective inattention makes life more manageable, like tuning out the background noise on a busy street. However, through dissociation of anxiety-provoking knowledge about the self, a whole double life can be lived and yet, in some ways, not be known. Clinical presentations of closeted gay people may lie somewhere in severity between selective inattention--most commonly seen in the case of homosexually self-aware patients thinking about "the possibility" that they might be gay--to more severe dissociation--in which any hint of same-sex feelings resides totally out of conscious awareness. More severe forms of dissociation are commonly observed in married men who are homosexually self-aware but cannot permit the thought of themselves as gay (Roughton, 2002)…
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17 Antigay Leaders Exposed as Gay or Bi - January 27, 2016
The internet was buzzing in January when an editor at a gay website in Virginia wrote that he'd encountered an antigay Republican lawmaker while on Grindr, without naming the person. Not every antigay crackpot is actually gay, but there's no shortage of those who actually are. Here are some hypocrites who just couldn't practice what they preached…
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Given Uganda's homophobia, why does it lead the way in Googling gay porn? - 10 January 2014
Is there a connection, then, between homophobia and suppressed homosexuality, along the lines of "me thinks he protesteth too much"? Is it that homosexual desires, when shut out because of some sense of shame, can easily express themselves as a form of homophobia? When the US conservative evangelical pastor Ted Haggard, well known for his anti-gay preaching, was discovered to have been paying a masseur for gay sex, he explained that "I think I was partially so vehement because of my own war". Freud coined the description "reaction-formation", in which anxiety-generating feelings are masked by an exaggerated reaction in the opposite direction. There is some experimental evidence to back this up, with one study showing that 20% of those who self-described as "highly straight" indicated some level of same-sex attraction. This discrepancy is often put down to highly controlling parents who do not allow their children room to explore their sexual identity.
Yes, of course, there are many people who do not experience same-sex attraction who are anti-gay. But one of the features of reaction-formation is its paranoia and lack of proportion. And this is precisely what the scaremongering nonsense about gay people being out to get our children – a common line in the Ugandan debate – clearly demonstrates. In conservative religious environments where God is depicted as a powerful all-controlling parent, it makes sense to me that this reaction-formation will be particularly strong…
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2014/jan/10/uganda-homophobic-googling-gay-porn
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ISIS, many of their enemies share a homicidal hatred of gays - CBS/AP - June 13, 2016
REYHANLI, Turkey - The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has frequently used the Islamic holy month of Ramadan - which is supposed to be for fasting and prayer - as an excuse to step up its slaughter of people it considers heretics.
Last year, ISIS supporters bombed a Shiite mosque in Kuwait and attacked tourists at a Tunisian beach resort, among other atrocities, during the holy month.
Last month, an ISIS leader put out a call for "a month of hurt" in the United States as well as Europe during Ramadan.
On Monday, the group called the Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen "one of the soldiers of the caliphate in America," and Mateen pledged allegiance to the group in a 911 call during the shooting. However there has been no evidence uncovered so far of a direct link between the shooter and the group's Mideast leaders.
Still, the Orlando nightclub massacre would fall in line with ISIS' goals, as the group has a history of targeting gays with brutal public killings…
The most recent, self-reported execution the terrorists undertook happened around May 7 of this year, according to OutRight. A "blindfolded young boy" can be seen in photos getting tossed off a roof and then pelted with stonesafter landing, with an audience of men and children taking part.
ISIS frequently reserves one of its most gruesome methods of killing for suspected gays -- throwing them to their death from building rooftops…
…Videos ISIS has released show masked militants dangling men over the precipices of buildings by their legs to drop them head-first or tossing them over the edge. At least 36 men in Syria and Iraq have been killed by ISIS militants on charges of sodomy, according to OutRight Action International, though its Middle East and North Africa coordinator, Hossein Alizadeh, said it was not possible to confirm the sexual orientation of the victims…
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ISIS stone 'gay' man to death after he survived being thrown off a roof - May 5, 2015
ISIS militants have released harrowing photographs of a gay man being stoned to death after he survived their first attempt at killing him.
Eleven men, one of them holding an Islamic State flag, held the blindfolded man at the top of a tall building, taking pictures on mobile phones before throwing their victim off the roof.
The killing, which supposedly took place in Raqqua, Syria – although other sources say it happened somewhere in Iraq – was watched by a large crowd.
A picture showing the man half way to earth circulated on Twitter over the weekend, with images of the injured man lying on the ground following soon.
The victim survived the fall but, badly injured and unable to defend himself, was killed by men, some of them armed, from the crowd who were queueing up to throw rocks’, according to the Daily Mail.
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ISIS throw 4 more gay men to their deaths - 5 October 2015
Executions were carried out in two Iraqi cities over the weekend
Islamic State (ISIS) militants executed four more gay men in Iraq over the weekend.
Two young men were thrown off the roof a building in Mosul under the pretext they were a gay couple.
‘On Sunday afternoon, Daesh called on the people of Mosul to gather in the square of Bab al-Toub in order to witness the execution of the two allegedly men,’ an eyewitness told ARA News.
‘The victims were taken to the top of a building and were brutally thrown off the roof.’
Also on Sunday, the Terror Monitor group tweeted photos of a separate execution of two ‘gay’ men, who were thrown from a building in Ninevah into a pile of cement blocks.
The photos show an imam reading out their sentence and large crowd of spectators:
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Islamic State group targets gays with brutal public killings - June 13, 2016
The Associated Press is reproducing an article on IS treatment of gays that initially ran on Dec. 2 and was part of a 2015 AP series of stories, “Inside the Caliphate,” which explored life under Islamic State rule…
Read more: http://wtop.com/middle-east/2016/06/islamic-state-group-targets-gays-with-brutal-public-killings-2/
In this picture posted on a social media account affiliated with the Islamic State group on June 14, 2015, IS militants stone a man accused of violating the extremists' ban on homosexuality after they threw him from a roof in the city of Homs, Syria. One witness of such a killing in Syria described to The Associated Press how the victim pleaded with militants to shoot him in the head rather than drop him from a nearby four-story building. (militant photo via AP) Photo
Islamic State group publicly killing gays in Syria and Iraq to show its 'ideological purity’ - December 2, 2015
REYHANLI, Turkey (AP) — Before a crowd of men on a street in the Syrian city of Palmyra, the masked Islamic State group judge read out the sentence against the two men convicted of homosexuality: They would be thrown to their deaths from the roof of the nearby Wael Hotel.
He asked one of the men if he was satisfied with the sentence. Death, the judge told him, would help cleanse him of his sin.
"I'd prefer it if you shoot me in the head," 32-year-old Hawas Mallah replied helplessly. The second man, 21-year-old Mohammed Salameh, pleaded for a chance to repent, promising never to have sex with a man again, according to a witness among the onlookers that sunny July morning who gave The Associated Press a rare first-hand account.
"Take them and throw them off," the judge ordered. Other masked extremists tied the men's hands behind their backs and blindfolded them. They led them to the roof of the four-story hotel, according to the witness, who spoke in the Turkish city of Reyhanli on condition he be identified only by his first name, Omar, for fear of reprisals.
Notorious for their gruesome methods of killing, the Islamic State group reserves one of its most brutal for suspected homosexuals. Videos it has released show masked militants dangling men over the precipices of buildings by their legs to drop them head-first or tossing them over the edge. At least 36 men in Syria and Iraq have been killed by IS militants on charges of sodomy, according to the New York-based OutRight Action International, though its Middle East and North Africa coordinator, Hossein Alizadeh, said it was not possible to confirm the sexual orientation of the victims.
The fear of a horrific death among gay men under Islamic State rule is further compounded by their isolation in a deeply conservative society that largely shuns them…
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Blindfolded, bound and thrown off buildings … inside the ISIS Sharia court’s treatment of homosexuals - 2nd December 2015
…“They are violating God’s laws and doing something that is forbidden in Islam, so this is a legitimate punishment,” said Hajji Mohammed, a resident of the
IS-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul. There the group has thrown men suspected of being gay off the Insurance Building, a landmark about 10 stories high.
…By employing the grisly method of execution, the Islamic State group aims to show to radicals that it is unflinchingly carrying out the most extreme strains in Islam — a sort of “ideological purity” which the group boasts distinguishes it even from other militants. The punishment “will protect the Muslims from treading the same rotten course that the West has chosen to pursue,” IS proclaimed in its online English-language magazine Dabiq…
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Isis has killed at least 25 men in Syria suspected of being gay, group claims - Tuesday 5 January 2016
Figures revealed as reports emerged of a teenager in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor was thrown to his death
At least 25 people have been murdered in Syria by the so-called Islamic State for being gay, a UK-based monitoring group has told the Independent.
Amid reports of a 15-year-old boy being thrown from the rooftop of a high-rise building in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor - seemingly the latest victim of the Islamist group's brutal crackdown - the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told The Independent that dozens of men had been killed by Isis jihadists.
Six have been stoned to death, three killed from direct shooting to the head and 16 thrown from high-rise buildings. Those that survived the fall, the group added, were then stoned on the streets below by scores of bystanders. Two of those killed were under 18.
It is alleged that the man who raped the 15-year-old, a senior Isis officer called Abu Zaid al-Jazrawi, was spared execution.
Instead, he faced a demotion and was forced to leave Syria and join the fighting fronts in north-western Iraq.
“The horrific execution took place in front of large crowd,” said Sarai al-Din, a local media activist who witnessed the murder, told Syrian news agency ARA.
Speaking to the news agency, civil rights activist Rawd Ahmed, said: “Daesh (another name for Isis) accuses people of being gay only on the basis of some superficial information without any investigation. Although the Islamic law bans homosexuality, the brutal punishment by Daesh has never been witnessed throughout history.”
Footage of terrified men in blindfolds being escorted to the rooftops of high-rise buildings and then being thrown to their death has become commonplace. It has led human rights groups to become increasingly concerned that this extreme violence is inspiring other militias in the war-torn region to attack men they suspect of being gay…
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Study: Islamic fundamentalism is not a marginal phenomenon in Europe - January 16, 2015
Last week's attacks in Paris, committed in the name of a god, reopen a badly-healed scar in Europe. The world once again turns towards religious fundamentalism. A new study shows that hostility towards other out-groups is not an isolated phenomenon among Muslims living in Europe; but nor is it a synonym of violence. According to the author of the study, Ruud Koopmans, director of the WZB Berlín Social Science Centre (Germany), "Islam is not the problem”…
…Although violence does not necessarily form part of this ideology, hostility towards other out-groups including homosexuals, Jews, and Westerners (in the case of Muslims) or Muslims (in the case of Christians) is evident. As a whole, Muslims are shown to be more hostile towards the three out-groups mentioned above, with between 25% and 30% rejecting these groups. Christian hostility is not as much as 5%.
However, independently, Christian fundamentalists show greater hostility towards Muslims (more than 50%) and towards Jews (between 30 and 35% of Christian fundamentalists were revealed to be hostile). In the case of Islamic fundamentalists, more than 70% of followers feel hostility towards homosexuals, Jews and Westerners.
Religious fundamentalism is closely linked to hostility towards other out-groups," says Koopmans. But social and economic levels also have a bearing. Individuals with a high social and economic status are more tolerant and less xenophobic…
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Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, IPA /ˈaɪsᵻl/), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria[note 1] (ISIS, /ˈaɪsᵻs/),[31] and by its Arabic language acronym Daesh (داعش dāʿish, IPA: [ˈdaːʕiʃ]), is a Salafi jihadist militant group that follows an Islamic fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam…
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ISIS stands for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and is an extremist militant group that rules by Wahhabi/Salafi law. In Arabic, the group is also known as Daesh. An example of ISIS is the terrorist group that is known for kidnapping western journalists and aid workers as part of their tactics.
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THE ORLANDO MASSACRE:
WHERE DOES THE HATE COME FROM?
June 13, 2016
