Insight OUT Refuge: LGBTQI Sangha & Allies
Transcending: Trans Buddhist Voices Book Launch & Meditation
Monday, February 24th, 2020 | 6:30-8:30pm
During this month’s Insight OUT Refuge: LGBTQI Sangha, we invite the LGTBQI community and allies to join us for a meditation, discussion, and celebration of the Transcending: Trans Buddhist Voice book launch. This event is open to all.
Join the authors of Transcending: Trans Buddhist Voices for a book launch and discussion of this groundbreaking collection—sharing the many voices and experiences of trans, genderqueer, and nonbinary Buddhists. Author/presenters include zavé martohardjono, Finn Schubert, and Chance Krempasky.
The event will consist of a meditation and discussion, followed by a book signing. Copies of Transcending as well as “Developing Trans*Competence: A Guide for Meditation and Retreat Centers” will be available for sale.
Fee by donation: Suggested starting donation is $15 but whatever you offer is greatly appreciated and no one is ever turned away for lack of funds. Proceeds will be shared with NYI and Trans Lifeline, an organization that provides peer support and hotline services to trans people.
About Insight OUT Refuge: LGBTQI Sangha:
Insight OUT meets on the 4th Monday of each month from 6:30-8:30pm. Our community is open to students of all Buddhist traditions, as well as those who are in the beginning stages of exploring their meditation practice and have an interest in the Dharma. All those who identify as LGBTQI are welcome.
We gather to form a multicultural community in which we can support each other in our practice with a commitment toward social change.
About the book:
Transcending brings together more than thirty contributors from both the Mahayana and Theravada traditions to present a vision for a truly inclusive trans Buddhist sangha in the twenty-first century. Shining a light on a new generation of Buddhist role models, this book gives voice to those who have long been marginalized within the Buddhist world and society at large. While trans, genderqueer, and nonbinary practitioners have experienced empowerment and healing through their commitment to the Buddha, dharma, and sangha, they also share their experiences of isolation, transphobia, and aggression. In this diverse collection we hear the firsthand accounts, thoughts, and reflections of trans Buddhists from a variety of different lineages in an open invitation for all Buddhists to bring the issue of gender identity into the sangha, into the discourse, and onto the cushion. Only by doing so can we develop insight into our circumstances and grasp our true, essential nature.
“Contributors to this book bring a Buddhist lens to the spectrum of sexual and gender orientations with brilliance, creativity, and great personal courage. Their collective wisdom expands the relevance of dharma in contemporary culture by calling forth the intrinsic openness of our awakening hearts.”
-Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance, True Refuge, and The RAIN of Compassion
“I believe that we will never see a true inclusive Buddhadharma until all voices of our diverse and beautiful community are expressed…The voices of Transcending embrace the beauty of the relative self and identity as a ground from which we begin our work of liberation. This anthology is more than a book about transgender Buddhist practitioners sharing their lives; it is a text that will save the lives of counteless transgender and queer preactitioners who need to know that there is a place for them in this rich tradition.”
-Lama Rod Owens, coauthor of Radical Dharma