Gender inclusion in Buddhism w/ lesbian monk

Western Theravada nun Ayya Soma (Buddhist Insights @ Empty Cloud Monastery, New Jersey, streamed live on August 26, 2022); CC Liu, Ananda, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Hey, Gays, come to New Jersey! We celebrate complete nonheteronormative diversity!

Not-Self (Anatta) and LGBTQIA+ identities

Buddhism + Gender (Cabezon)

(Buddhist Insights @ Empty Cloud) Streamed live on August 26, 2022. Gender and Buddhism are not a new or novel combination of topics.

Wisdom Quarterly covered it years ago, focusing on the academic anthology entitled Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender (1991, edited by the prolific author Prof. Jose Ignacio Cabezon) with an excellent Theravada contribution by Prof. Donald Lopez, Ph.D.

How are LGBTQIA+ identities viewed in Buddhism? How might one understand anatta (the teaching of all things being impersonal and not-self) in the context of transgender life stories?

The Buddha didn't judge. Why would we?

In this talk, Italian-American Theravada Buddhist nun Ayya Soma (who may have been bisexual, lesbian, questioning, gender-fluid, and/or a tomboy prior to ordination and is a celibate now) shares some reflections based on early Buddhist texts from those schools that preceded the major reformed or universalist Mahayana school (a syncretic Brahminical/Hindu tradition).

• India recognizes a "third gender" (pandaka) 2014
• Search Wisdom Quarterly: Jose Ignacio Cabezon
• Pandaka: Sex Addiction and Perversion 2011
• Buddhism and sexual orientation (Wikipedia)
• What are the Seven Proclivities or anusaya?
• What are the perversions (vipallāsa)?

Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender

Paperback – Dec. 13, 1991 by Jose Ignacio Cabezon (Editor)

Buddhism + Gender (Cabezon)

This valuable academic work, edited by University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) Professor of Tibetan Buddhism Jose Ignacio Cabezon, Ph.D., has garnered a 5.0 out of 5 stars (with 5 ratings).

The compilation explores historical, textual, and social questions relating to the position and experience of women and gay people in the Buddhist world from India and Tibet to Sri Lanka, China, and Japan.

It focuses on four key areas:

1. 

   (BACK COVER)

   Buddhist history,
2. contemporary culture,
3. Buddhist symbols, and
4. homosexuality.

It also covers Buddhism's entire history, from its origins to the present day. The result of original and innovative research, the editor offers new perspectives on the history of the attitudes toward, and of the self-perception of, women in both ancient and modern Buddhist societies.

UC Santa Barbara Prof. Jose Ignacio Cabezon

Prof. Cabezon explores key social issues such as abortion and examines the use of rhetoric and symbols in Buddhist texts and cultures.

This anthology discusses the neglected subject of Buddhism and homosexuality.

"It fills an important gap in the field -- a serious, textually close reading of gender's influence on Buddhist thought and vice versa." - Anne Klein

Gender panel at Empty Cloud Monastery

The unbearable nervous laughter of [gay?] Ayya Soma and Ven. Suddhaso