Gay Marriage for Buddhists?
The Pennsylvania Senate is considering an amendment to the state constitution that would ban same-sex marriage. In response, the Rev. Kyoki Roberts, head priest of the Zen Center of Pittsburgh, wrote a letter published Monday, March 24, in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (scroll down).
The Rev. Roberts writes that the amendment "is in direct violation of my religious beliefs as a Zen Buddhist priest." Further, his "code of ethics guides my actions toward kindness, compassion and generosity and not toward anger, hatred and bigotry. ... It is time we take down (not put up) the signs saying 'No gays allowed.'"
How does Buddhism view gay marriage and homosexuality? There's an excellent discussion of this on the ReligiousTolerance.org website. In short, there is no prohibition or judgment specific to homosexuality in the canonical teachings. However, in many Asian countries there is a strong cultural aversion to homosexuality, and this cultural aversion has seeped into the Buddhist institutions of those countries.
Western Buddhists on the whole accept homosexuality without moral judgment, and in my experience western sanghas give same-sex relationships the same respect given to opposite-sex relationships. There may be exceptions, but I haven't heard of them.
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Comments
Though gender isn’t really that important, I believe that Rev. Kyoki Roberts is a woman.
The comment by Kate is so hypocritical. In the one breath she said gender isn’t important but the next breath said Rev Kyoki is a woman.
What is your point?
Sorry, I realize that my previous comment didn’t really make sense (except to myself).
I wanted her to be recognized as a woman, I suppose, because I am also a buddhist woman from the same area of Pennsylvania.
I’m not sure what I meant by gender not being important, maybe that the same sentiments coming from a person of any other gender would have been equally as rad and welcomed (like, overall who cares because I’m glad they took action and wrote to the paper).
Lately I’ve been really addled and unable to express myself clearly. Or maybe I didn’t really have point and should have kept quiet.
Either way, I’m glad you voiced yourself.
As a lesbian practicing Buddhism in Pennsylvania, I enjoyed this post. In my meditation group my relationship with my partner is accepted unconditionally. It was nice to see a Zen leader like Rev. Roberts state for the record such a compassionate message.