“I didn’t take any risks!” was perhaps the most provocative thing politician, social activist, and radically independent thinking Helen Suzman could have said to me. In case you are not familiar with her history and accomplishments, the late Helen Suzman, member of South African Parliament for thirty-six years, was the sole Progressive Party member in opposition to the apartheid regime … Read More
Dr. Jose Cabezon on Gay Buddhist Ethics & Gender Identity
This article was originally printed in EnlightenNext magazine. On June 11, 1997, in San Francisco, gay Buddhist activists met with H.H. the Dalai Lama to take the revered Tibetan Buddhist leader to task for his position that gay sexuality was in violation of Buddhist sexual ethics. In his bookBeyond Dogma, the Dalai Lama cites Buddhist rules that classify homosexual activity … Read More
The Back of the Synagogue Is Not the Back of the Bus
An interview with Esther Kosovsky, educator, and Tamar Frankiel, President of Academy of Jewish Religion. “She converted to Orthodox Judaism after being a feminist!?” my colleagues exclaimed to me. “We have to speak with her!” We were discussing the work of Tamar Frankiel, author and educator, whose book The Voice of Sarah portrays the purpose and meaning in the traditional roles for women in … Read More