Why I Support the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry

CLGS is unique in its attempt to create bridges between those who study and those who practice religion in translesbigay communities. It is this commitment to fostering connections between scholarship and praxis­theory and dedicated activism, that I find so refreshing.

How does/should scholarship impact real religious communities (queer and otherwise)? How should scholarly work, in turn, be impacted by the needs of queer religious persons and communities? Grappling with these issues—keeping this healthy tension between theory and praxis, between religion as an object of study and as the experience of lived communities—is at the heart of CLGS's mission.

Equally important, to my mind, is CLGS's sustained commitment to fostering diversity at all levels: sexual/gender, racial/ethnic, and religious. As a gay latino Buddhist who is also a scholar of Buddhism these issues are important to me. The fact that they are also important to CLGS makes my affiliation to this unique institution a natural fit.

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