Religion Dispatches
…ually be taught to all the thousands of Tibetan monks and nuns in exile in India. In the pilot we just completed, several professors and graduate students taught life sciences, neurosciences, physics, math, and science philosophy to thirty-three monks and 5 nuns. Evolution was the first life sciences topic two of my co-teachers and I decided to focus on. For my section, the monks developed an experiment to test the hypothesis, a small piece of Dar…
Read More…espite complaints by U.S. conservatives that it threatens Lively’s rights. India: Resistance to Re-Criminalization but Uncertain Future for Legislative Fix In a show of defiance against the Indian Supreme Court’s recent ruling re-criminalizing homosexuality, a record 5,000 people turned out for Mumbai’s gay pride celebration last Saturday. (See photos here.) The Voice of America explores the response of India’s gay community to the ruling: “Despit…
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…ncy, a May poll found that 52 percent of Czechs support same-sex marriage. India: Profile of author whose stories in local language speak to isolated LGBT people Reuters profiles author Vasudhendra, who wrote stories about the life of his gay protagornist Mohandaswarmy for years before the author publicly came out himself. He tells Reuters that his stories, published in the regional language of the state of Karnataka, were initially written under…
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…ut of his mind believing someone had made a homosexual advance toward him. India: Report on activism to eliminate criminalization The Wall Street Journal posted a video report about LGBT rights advocates in India who recently rallied in New Delhi, three years after the Supreme Court re-imposed a colonial-era sodomy law. Some activists said that the ruling undermined the LGBT community’s legitimacy and contributed to violence against it. Africa: Ne…
Read More…, noting the difficulties in getting implementing acts through Parliament. India: Human Rights Watch Urges Repeal of Sodomy Law Human Rights Watch this week said there is an “urgent need” to repeal India’s “archaic” law that criminalizes same-sex relations. Fiji: Prime Minister Dismisses Marriage Equality As Rubbish, Says Couple Should Move to Iceland Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said in response to a suggestion that the country should conside…
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…hey oppose the distribution of condoms in prisons on the grounds that this promotes homosexuality. Supported by the churches, the prison service promotes abstinence as its main prevention approach. Lithuania: Conservative manifesto calls LGBT movement tyrannical A coalition of religious and intellectual leaders released a manifesto that condemned the 2016 Baltic Pride celebration “as an attack on human nature and the public good that follows in th…
Read More…djan headquarters of the country’s most prominent gay rights organization. India: Court rejects celebrity petition on challenge to criminal sodomy law On Wednesday the Supreme Court refused to reconsider the constitutionality of a colonial-era law criminalizing homosexuality; a petition had been filed by a number of prominent gay individuals. The Court, which had effectively recriminalized homosexuality in 2013 when it overturned a 2009 lower cour…
Read More…neglects to look at the discrimination harbored within its own walls. The Indian bishops are looking inward. In 1992, the CBCI General Assembly stated: “With a sense of sorrow we must admit that women feel discriminated against, even in the Church.” The Indian bishops recognize that no matter how much work is done on ending discrimination against women in the world, this work does not make much difference without ending discrimination in the Chur…
Read More…ent Hinduism or Buddhism, but certainly influence the issue of violence in Indian society. Indeed, if the demand is to quote a prominent public figure who can credibly speak for Buddhists on the topic of violence in India today, then only the Dalai Lama would suffice. (For the curious, his comments are here.) Another commenter noted “the Kakacupama Sutta was not a teaching given to young laywomen.” This is true. Buddhism’s historical emphasis on m…
Read More…egically At least two gatherings in the past week focused on the strategic promotion of LGBT equality abroad. On Friday, December 6, in Washington, D.C., the Center for Transatlantic Relations, which is part of the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, hosted a presentation called “LGBT Rights: A Geostrategic Issue for Democracies.” The panel, part of a series of discussions on the topic, featured Elizabe…
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