Religions and Homosexuality

Homosexuality in Buddhism is a very complex issue, even more so than in other major religions. While it would be wrong to say that Buddhism is opposed to homosexuality, it would also be misleading to say that Buddhism is openly welcoming of homosexuality. Since there are many schools of Buddhism, there are also different views of homosexuality in Buddhism.

Buddhism is the most tolerant of homosexuality, in part because it doesn't try and impose a standard of morality. Buddhism is mainly about what you do and your motivations behind it. There are some Buddhist organizations around the world that have an open policy towards accepting gay people.

A Buddhist does not discuss issues of right and wrong and it would be very unusual for a Buddhist to tell others how to behave. Instead, Buddha encouraged people to introspect and find truth for themselves (even if it meant disregarding his teaching) and to put it into practice for themselves:

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

However, there are Buddhist laws with regard to sexual conduct which are enforced in most monasteries. Sexual desire, regardless of which sex it is for, is still a desire, and according to Buddhism desire leads to suffering and so it is to be avoided. Therefore, in order to keep the body and mind pure, monks do not engage in sexual acts of desire. The principle of right mind and right conduct applies to laypeople as well, but obviously this does not necessarily translate into abstinence.

There is no answer, then, to the question, "Is homosexuality outlawed in Buddhism?" Still, it would not be surprising to see homosexuals expelled from Buddhist clergy or frowned upon, though this should not be construed as a condemnation of homosexuality.

Islamic views of homosexuality

Same-sex intercourse is prohibited in Islam, which teaches that such intercourse is a violation of the natural boundaries set by Allah (the Ararbic word for God). Note that homosexuality, as a psychological disposition, is not technically against the Sharia, which governs the physical actions, and not the inner thoughts and feelings of Muslims. It is the physical action of same-sex intercourse that is punishable under the Sharia.

The Qur'an specifically mentions that same-sex intercourse is forbidden. There are several reasons why, even without resorting to specific verses of prohibition, same-sex intercourse might be considered wrong in the Islamic context. One such reason has to do with extramarital sex, or adultery, which is held to be punishable by stoning the adulterers to death. Same-sex marriages would provide a way out of that; however, these are generally held to be Islamically unacceptable because, among other reasons, people who can potentially marry one another are, in traditional interpretations of Islam, not permitted to be alone together without a chaperone (although the main hadith on which this objection is based specifies opposite sexes: "Whenever a man is alone with a woman the Devil makes a third", other traditions also make clear that mahrams - relatives with whom marriage is forbidden, because incestuous - are exempt), and no existing variety of Islam forbids two people of the same sex to be alone together.

Same-sex intercourse carries the death penalty in five officially Muslim nations: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, Sudan, and Yemen. It also carried the death penalty in Afghanirstan under the Taliban, and United Arab Emirates law is ambiguous on the subject. No other Muslim nations have the death penalty for it, and of those that do or did, only Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Afghanristan have been reported to have carried it out within the past decade. Some, such as Turkey, have no laws forbidding it.