A Queer Dharmology
“Roger studied the ways that Christianity and Buddhism traditionally handled and mishandled the issue of sex.”
“Queer consciousness is not really about sex, although sex is a part of it. It is about relationships.”
For his day-to-day encounters, Roger would sometimes allow himself to be called gay; but when these quick encounters turned into discussions or debates, Roger would often clarify his preference to identify as queer.
This reveals something about Roger's historical perspective on the gay movement – and, perhaps, his sense of solidarity with a past of Stonewall and a present of Prop 8. But being queer, rather than gay in the contemporary, male-exclusive sense, was an important part of his identity, both as a scholar – his queer writings are definitely of a piece with his non-dualistic theology – and as a practitioner in both Buddhist and Christian traditions.
In his evolving studies from the 1980's until his death in 2007, Roger studied the ways that Christianity and Buddhism traditionally handled and mishandled the issue of sex. Indeed, as his research in this area grew deeper, this became the subject of a projected new book. That book was never written, though Roger published a range of preperatory articles in his last years (a short list is below).
The most promising of these was an exploratory article that he published in 2004. In this article, “Towards a Queer Dharmology of Sex,” initially written for the Society of Buddhist Studies, Roger set out some of his basic viewpoints, gave some preliminary practical and textual support for them, and outlined a sense of his future plans:
“...while asserting the absence of essence in beings, traditional Buddhist ethics assumes in practice an essentialism of male and female. When we queery and queer these assumptions we permit Buddhism as it is practiced (real Buddhism) to come into accord with Buddhist doctrine (ideal Buddhism).”
We are hoping to make this essay more available. Until then, please look for it in your library's digital collection. It shows Roger at his best: revitalizing some of our most valuable traditions for his readers as well as himself. Such revitalizations, written with Roger's particular genius for conciliation, give us great hope for this century of encounters.
“Not only the Buddha Nature, but also the Dharma, is queer. It queers samsara, it answers our unawakened mind that sees only samsara, and shocks it awake so we can see samsara as nirvana.”
Related writings by Roger Corless
- “Towards a Queer Dharmology of Sex” In Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal Vol. 5.2 (2004).
- “Buddhists and Buddhism.” Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered History in America. Ed. Marc Stein. Vol. 1. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004.
- “Coming Out in the Sangha: Queer Community in American Buddhism.” In The Faces of Buddhism in America. Edited by Charles S. Prebish and Kenneth K. Tanaka. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
- “Gay Buddhist Fellowship.” In Engaged Buddhism in the West. Edited by Christopher S. Queen. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000.
- “A Buddhist Understanding of HIV/AIDS.” Religion in the Age of AIDS: Strategy and Theology from the AIDS & Religion in America Convention (San Francisco: Public Media Center; Washington DC: AIDS National Interfaith Network, 1999).
- “Healing Internalized Self-Hatred: Meditations on the Lotus Sutra.” and “Buddhist Responses to HIV.” In Heart Lessons from an Epidemic: Buddhist Practice and Living with HIV, edited by Steve Peskind (Berkeley CA: Parallax Press).
