The ACLU has filed suit in Eastern Missouri against the Salem Public Library on the basis of the library’s use of web filtering software to prevent the access of websites pertaining to Paganism, Wicca, Native American religion, or the Occult, while still allowing websites that preach against these faiths and practices from a Christian perspective. This isn’t new ground for the ACLU, which, as part of their “Don’t Filter Me” project has been filing similar suits around the country against schools and libraries that block access to LGBT oriented websites, while allowing anti-LGBT websites to be viewed. 

Perhaps the most chilling excerpt from the ACLU’s brief on the suit is this:

(library director) Wofford said she would only allow access to blocked sites if she felt patrons had a legitimate reason to view the content and further said that she had an obligation to report people who wanted to view these sites to the authorities.

“…an obligation to report people…” What has become of us when librarians of all people, have been tasked with deciding who has “legitimate” reasons for seeking knowledge and reporting those whose beliefs and interests not suitably conformist? Perhaps I am a romantic, but I envision the librarian as the guardian of the Enlightenment, who encourages inquiry, thought, and the enrichment of all knowledge, not just knowledge that the State has put its stamp of approval on. And for that matter, who are these “authorities” that want to be informed when someone is searching the web for information on minority faiths and practices? 

The Wild Hunt blog has been following the issue of web filtering software and Paganism for some time and their excellent collection of reporting on the subject is definitely worth a read. 

Apparently Chris Wallace, while interviewing GOP candidate Ron Paul of Texas, fell through some sort of rift in the fabric of time and space. That is by far the most charitable explanation I can find for his irresponsible, homophobic, and frankly disgusting implication that HIV/AIDS is an illness unique to the gay community. Unsurprisingly, despite being a medical doctor, Ron Paul does not correct Wallace’s misstatement. And again, I will try to give Mr. Wallace the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was a misstatement rather than gross lack of knowledge about one of the most significant illnesses in all of human history.

I’m not seeing much about this in the LGBT press, so spread the word folks.

I have not been shy about the fact that I have serious mixed feelings about the fight for Same Sex Marriage rights. As a poly person, I’ve long felt not only slightly outside of the whole debate, but demonized by both sides of it. And I certainly think that defining marriage as the penultimate fight in the battle for queer civil rights does a grave disservice to the significant portion of the LGBT community for whom employment, housing, healthcare, and other areas of discrimination or challenge are of far more intimidate concern.

That said, it’s hard not to be cheered by the news that Delware & Hawaii both began certifying same sex civil unions on Jan. 1st. While the law is explicitly written to make it clear that these unions are not equal or comparable to marriage, the rights provided under them will provide valuable piece of mind and legitimacy to the families that pursue them.

I’m particularly gratified to see Hawaii’s name added to the small and vulnerable list of states with legal recognition for same sex families. I can still remember the thrill I felt as a young teen when it looked for a few weeks in the early ’90s like Hawaii might declare gay marriage legal. For many of us, that was the first moment where the very idea of marriage went from being something that we understood as a sacrifice we made by living authentic queer lives, to a goal that just might be achievable in our lifetimes.

Read more about the civil unions over at Towleroad

Fuensanta always said that if we are not free to choose the manner of our own death, than we are not truly free in our own life.

Peter Singer, writing for Project Syndicate reports here on the ramifications and context of a new study out of Canada that makes a pressing ethical argument for allowing ill patients to choose manner in which they end their own lives:

The ethical basis of the panel’s argument is not so much the avoidance of unnecessary suffering in terminally ill patients, but rather the core value of individual autonomy or self-determination. “The manner of our dying,” the panel concludes, “reflects our sense of what is important just as much as do the other central decisions in our lives.” In a state that protects individual rights, therefore, deciding how to die ought to be recognized as such a right.

To which I imagine Fuensanta would have said “No shit.”

(hat tip to Andrew Sullivan)

2011 has at (long) last drawn to a close.

No matter how you look at it, this has been a tumultuous year. 2011 was a year of widespread upheaval and numerous challenges facing the global community and many of us personally. In practice, the two are hardly as unconnected as we might sometimes like to imagine, speaking both materially and spiritually.

My December silence notwithstanding, a product of being unwell physically and mentally, 2011 was a strong year for Notes From A Barking Shaman. There were forty-one posts this year, which also included the move from Blogger over to WordPress and the launching of my personal website. Those posts covered a fabulously diverse range of topics that included: consent in magical practice, ordeal spiritually, BDSM, ancestor worship, LGBT rights, free speech, crises of faith, polyamory, geopolitics, and most recently, reconciling UPG and lore in pagan practice and culture (more on that topic to follow shortly). Some of the essays here have been intensely personal, while others have been commentarial. Hopefully they have left those of you who choose to visit my little corner of the web feeling enriched and challenged.

There are even more changes coming for 2012. For the foreseeable future new essays will be posted every Saturday. Additionally, each day I’ll post a link to the blog, somedays something from the news, often with some commentary of my own. Other times it will be another blogger’s piece that I thought worth sharing, and once in a while I’ll give you a humorous and/or relevant bit of fun to lighten the mood.

This blog got its start over five years ago, at a significantly different time in my life, and it has grown, changed, and dare I say, matured over that half-decade. Whether you’ve been reading since NFABS launched with a post cleverly titled “Post #1,” or you only started reading recently, I want to say a heartfelt thank you for allotting me a portion of one of the most precious resources you have to offer, your time.

I hardly think it pessimism to say that 2012 is not likely to be dull, globally or in our own lives. Moving forward, I’m going to do my damnedest to ensure that the time we share here continues to advance our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to the world and work around us.

Thank you again and stay tuned.

Wintersong Tashlin
January 1, 2012
Gorham, ME