A gay Buddhist monk talks about his sexualy and relign.
Contents:
JAPAN HAS A BUDDHIST MONK FIGHTG FOR GAY RIGHTS?
Redisverg Buddhism’s LGBT history of gay monks, homoerotic samurai, and genr-nonnformg practners and gods * gay buddhist monk *
Durg his childhood socially nservative Japan, Nishimura found refuge om homophobia and ostracizatn through studyg English and nnectg onle wh peers who were also explorg their genr inty and sexualy. He has always known that I was a homosexual, [but] he was very aaid that I would be targeted and huiated wh the Buddhist muny when I publicly me out. Although there is no general nsens wh regard to sexual orientatn and genr inty wh Buddhism, overall the third precept is most often referenced when discsg gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr and queer issu.
Yet a 1997 prs nference he mented that “om a Buddhist pot of view [lbian and gay sex] is generally nsired sexual misnduct. Wele to the Gay Buddhist Sangha.
Although the Sanscr word "sangha" ually refers to muni of Buddhist monks and nuns, we are a group of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr. It helps work wh the wounds of homophobia, regnizg ternalized self-hatred for the ln and dkha [sufferg] that is. ” After meetg wh gay and lbian activists 1997, he noted that the same l applied to straight and gay people alike, and that they were not part of the direct teachgs of the Buddha and th might evolve over time.
THE GAY PRECEPT: HOW BUDDHISM VIEWS HOMOSEXUALY
A Buddhist monk has bee an unlikely champn of Thailand's gay and transgenr muny by lacg his popular live-streamed talk shows wh LGBT+ slang, irreverent humour and social mentary that fans say are helpg to challenge taboos. * gay buddhist monk *
In 2014, he reerated the view that for Buddhists, homosexual acts are a subset of sexual misnduct, but that this was a matter of relig teachg and did not apply to people of another or no relign. Other rpoch have disagreed and fully affirmed gay and lbian liv.
Many Theravada and Mahayana texts, for example, refer to the pandaka, a term which, Cabezon shows, has a wi variety of meangs, enpassg “effemate” male homosexuals, tersex persons, and others who exhibed non-normative anatomil, genr, or sexualy tras.
Third, there is a fair amount of male-male homoeroticism Buddhist textual history. The Jataka tal [parabl om the Buddha’s past liv] clu numero homoerotic stori featurg the future Buddha and the future Ananda; addn to the tal themselv apparently beg told whout a sense of sndalons, the stori suggt an tertg appreciatn of the homoerotics or at least homosocialy of the teacher-disciple relatnship. And as the Greek mol, there were clear l and rol that need to be followed; nanshoku was not hedonism but a homosexualy that was socially nstcted.