LGBTQ Hindu Indian Americans |
In honor of LGBT Pride Month, the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in Lanham, Maryland, hosted a townhall discussion June 16 about what the temple could do to make queer Hindus feel more included. The event, "Creating Spaces for LGBTQIA Hindus," was co-sponsored by the SSVT Center for Dharma Education, HAF, and Indiaspora.Moderated by Sivagami (Shiva) Subbaraman, Indian American director of the LGBTQ Resource Center at Georgetown University, the panelists talked about their experiences coming out and the struggles they had to overcome reconciling their sexual identities with their religious identity, according to an HAF press release. SSVT co-founder Siva Subramanian and BOT member Vasu Murthy opened the discussion by noting that Hinduism`s scriptures do not vilify LGBT identities, but noted that the scriptural openness is not always reflected in the attitude of many Hindus. They noted the SSVT`s statement that Hinduism is an all inclusive and open way of life that teaches that all beings are equal. To honor those scriptural ideals, SSVT`s constitution forbids discrimination against any one on the basis of race, gender, religion, etc.
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