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Buddhism

While there are many transgendered Buddhists, most Buddhist teachers and groups are probably affected by transphobia as much as any other social group.  In Buddhist Thailand, transsexual kathoeys are generally not welcome to become Buddhist monks.  However, Buddha himself was filled with extraordinary compassion towards all creatures, including the gender-variant. 

Buddhist monk Basnagoda Rahula of the Houston Buddhist Vihara describes his personal understanding about Buddha’s stance on transsexuals, transitioning and 'changing your sex' -

The Vinaya Pitaka, the ancient Buddhist texts that define the rules for Buddhist monks and nuns, record two incidences of sex change that a monk and a nun had gone through. A group of monks and nuns bring the two incidences to the Buddha’s notice. The Buddha accepts their changed status. He allows the former male disciple who became a female to live with female disciples, and the former female disciple to live with males.

These episodes indicate the Buddha’s open-mindedness toward transsexual persons. He accepted their bodily changes even though some in his society attributed such changes to the influence of bad Karmas. Some of the sections in the Vinaya Pitaka are obviously later additions, which do not represent the Buddha’s true voice. There is every reason to believe that the Buddha accepted all kinds of people irrespective of any differences they had undergone.

The Buddha’s statement that one becomes a noble person not by birth but by one’s behavior confirms this conclusion. “Birth” means wealth, social status, and physical appearance including the gender of a particular person. Change of a certain person’s gender has no connection to the evaluation of that person. Only wholesome behavior—wholesome words, actions, and thoughts—makes a person noble. (Original article available here .)

Buddhist Scholar Peter A. Jackson wrote a detailed article, Male Homosexuality and Transgenderism in the Thai Buddhist Tradition, in the book, Queer Dharma: Voices of Gay Buddhists, edited by Winston Leyland.  Referring to Buddha’s attitude towards transgendered monks, Jackson writes –

The Vinaya describes cases of ordained monks changing gender and taking on the physical characteristics of women and, conversely, of ordained nuns changing gender to take on the physical characteristics of men. When these cases were brought to the Buddha's attention he is reported as saying that he had approved their ordinations and they had maintained the rainy season retreat (Pali: vassa, Thai: phansa) of the sangha, that is, they had demonstrated their worthiness as members of the sangha. He then gives permission for the monk who became a woman to live with the order of nuns and follow the nuns' code of conduct, and for the nun who became a man to live with the order of monks and follow the monks' code of conduct (Vinaya, Vol. 1, p. 220).  (Full text available here .)

Michael Dillon – FTM transsexual Buddhist monk

Michael Dillon (1915-1962) was reputedly the first transsexual to undergo surgical female-to-male gender reassignment surgery.  Late in his life, he became a Buddhist monk, living in India.  According to the Transgender Zone website, his carefully-kept secret was revealed by the media –

Michael was devastated at this revelation of a secret he had sedulously concealed, and he fled to Calcutta, then took refuge in a Buddhist monastery at Sarnath, Bengal. He was ordained a monk of the Tibetan order, taking the name Lobzang Jivaha, and spent his time studying Buddhism and writing.  He gave what money he had to help struggling students. The hardships of life in primitive conditions, made worse by the meagre vegetarian diet required by Buddhism, took their toll; his health failed, and he died in hospital at Dalhousie, Punjab, on 15 May 1962, aged 47.

Two books by him were published in London in 1962: The Life of Milarepa, about a famous 11th Century Tibetan yogi, and Imji Getsul, an account of life in a Buddhist monastery.  (Full article available here.) http://www.transgender-portal.com/features/michaeldillon.htm

A book that chronicles his life, The First Man-made Man by Pagan Kennedy, is available from amazon.com . 

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