Some Thoughts on Gay Marriage
Anonymous - Krishna.com

With all of the latest developments in the debate over gay marriage, one may ask if Hare Krishna teachings can accept this type of same-sex union. There are going to be many opinions on this, on all sides of the issue, so I’ll try to limit my blog to just a few of my own thoughts in the hope of stirring up some useful discussion.

In my 26 years of reading the Bhagavad-gita and listening to lectures by Srila Prabhupada on our philosophy, it seems that our purpose in human life is to give up mundane sex desire and transform our lust into love of God. Marriage seems to be a purificatory process to get us to that point, and sex within marriage is condoned for the procreation of God-conscious children.

How does gay marriage fit into this picture? You could argue that the closer you align your lifestyle with these Vedic ideals of marriage, gradually giving up the attraction to mundane sex by remaining committed to one partner, raising a family or simply having companionship in devotional service to God, the closer you are to finding harmony between what may initially appear as a contradiction in terms and the guidelines of Lord Krishna’s teachings.

The argument over marriage being defined as “the union of a man and a woman,” in my opinion, is one that is frozen in time and does not accommodate for the reality that we now live in a world where a sizeable percentage of the population is [openly] gay. Principles of religion need to apply according to time, place, and circumstance to remain relevant to the practitioner. At the very least, there needs to be some accommodation made for whole sections of society that don’t fit neat, sweeping blanket statements of a doctrine. This doesn’t mean you can expect to see Vedic marriage ceremonies being performed for same-sex couples any time soon, but it could mean that we as a religious movement will begin to accept civil unions between same-sex couples who are trying to advance their spiritual life just as much as heterosexual couples are.

Someone brought up the argument that many heterosexual couples who are devotees of Krishna are having sex, and not always for the purpose of having children. Therefore, what is wrong with gay sex? Sex is sex. To that I’ll simply say that two wrongs don’t make a right. Giving up mundane sex is our common goal, whatever our sexual orientation. If that means being in a committed relationship (marriage or otherwise) to one partner and trying to gradually develop more and more love for Krishna while reducing sex life, then I would suppose that we’re talking about similar paths and comparing oranges to oranges.

And that is, so I’m told, what gay couples who are Hare Krishna devotees are trying to do. I also remember reading that Srila Prabhupada, our founder, advised two of his gay disciples to try and focus their loving propensity on the Deity form of Lord Krishna (the Supreme, All-attractive Male—or, for lesbians—the female energy form of God as Radharani), to reduce their attraction for mundane sex through the process of Deity worship. And that advice, namely to fill our hearts and minds with thoughts of pleasing Lord Krishna or Srimati Radharani, is good advice for all spirit souls, no matter what our bodily designation or conditioning.

(from Krishna.com/blog)