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Body Norms, Body Shame, and Social Power It has been argued that the more marginalized and subordinated a social position…

— Interactions with Pentecost Wind is seen or heard when it makes contact with objects.  The Queer functions similarly.  Movement…

It was a hot summer evening in rural Garrard County, Kentucky. I watched as what appeared to be an elderly…

I didn’t like rule-breakers when I was a teenager. The bad kids, the alternative kids, the shouty kids — I kept…

That trans individuals have discovered Kuan Yin’s gender transition has been evident for a number of years, for example, from references like this one from blogger Stacie Ku: “Even if I didn’t grow up worshiping her, once I found out she was transgendered, she would have made my list of favorite deities anyway.” A blogger who was writing a novel whose main character is trans said she designated Kuan Yin as one of the character’s ‘‘role models.’’

Ardhanārīśvara is a hybridized deity form of Śiva and Śakti and is thus popularly depicted as half-male and half-female. A…

I’d already finished a full cupful of chilled tandai—and was heading for a second—when my brother-in-law approached me with words…

Queer theory in practice gives us, as LGBTQ+ people, a theoretical position from which we can counter discriminatory gender narratives, such as those explicated above. Queer theory allows us to put forward the idea that gender is unique to the individual. Spiritual seekers may need to understand these basic tenets, perhaps more than others, because we believe ourselves already to be enlightened, that our rules, including this long-held idea of “gender balance” to be revelatory and embedded in sacred texts.