A gay bashing happened in my own city 2 weeks ago. A gay couple was brutally beaten on a Center City street after being asked if they were together. Allegedly the assailants used homophobic language during the attacks. One of the victims needed his jaw wired shut as a result.

The viciousness of this attack and the alleged use of anti-gay slurs like “dirty f****ts” paint a very disturbing and shameful picture, and as a gay man it is an uncomfortable reminder that there are still people who hate LGBT people and wish us harm. It triggers uncomfortable memories of the many times that I was physically and verbally abused because of my sexual orientation and the way I expressed myself.



I cannot lie to you and say that I am not angry or upset because of this attack, because I very much am. I am upset because two members of my community were brutally attacked for no reason and now must live in fear and anxiety, I am angry at the fact that my state does not hate crime protections for LGBT people on the books, and I am afraid, because I wonder, what if this had been two of my friends, or what if this were my boyfriend and I, just minding our own business and then suddenly, we’re being punched and beaten? One essay perfectly captured the way I (and I’m sure many others) felt about this situation: “You’re disheartened that it happened so close to you. You’re disheartened that it can happen anywhere. You’re disheartened, but you’re ultimately not surprised. People around you say they can’t believe this kind of thing can happen in 2014. None of the people who say this are gay.”

Yet something that hurts more than all of this is the dearth of empathy from my own religious community in regards to these issues. I can’t even count the amount of times when other Hindus have told me or other LGBT people, “I don’t understand why you’re fighting for this. Being gay is not who you are, it’s a material quality, it will pass away when the body passes away. All souls are the same, why do you deserve special treatment?” One person even went so far as to say that they thought my pride in being gay was “unusual” because alcoholics are not “proud” of their alcoholism. That hurts me so much more, because when people tell me “Well, we aren’t the body…” in response to LGBT rights, it is basically saying, “Your experience isn’t important, and furthermore, your suffering is not happening.” You can tell me all you want that being gay (or bisexual, or transgender, or intersex, and so on) is a material characteristic, it doesn’t change the fact that I have been punched in the face and been called a f****t more times than I can count because I am gay and it doesn’t change the fact that countless numbers of people like me have been assaulted, raped, or killed because of their sexual orientation or gender expression. You cannot erase facts.

What is always interesting to me is that, for the amount of people who say we’re not the body, there are plenty of swamis and spiritual leaders who contradict this principle. If we’re not the body and all souls are the same, and if my homosexuality is no more special than my skin color or sex, then why has one ISKCON swami said that homosexual people should be viewed as being “especially fallen”? Why did Swami Prabhupada say that gay people are lower than animals? Why has Baba Ramdev said that homosexuality is unnatural? Which is the correct position? If we only looked at these statements then it would seem that we are not the body, unless you’re an LGBT person, in which case we will obsess about you, your relationships (and their supposed detrimental affects on society), and your sexual life?

I recently asked my Facebook friends whether or not they thought it was bad to use philosophy to comfort people who are in distress, i.e., if someone is dying of cancer, would you tell them “Well, that’s your karma”? Pretty much all of them said that was a bad idea, that we should approach people who are suffering with compassion. Yet I wonder: if one would not say these things to a cancer patient, or to someone who has lost a loved one, why would one use philosophy to shut down conversations about the suffering faced by LGBT people every day? Why is it when I say God loves me as I am because I was made this way, I am accused of misrepresenting our faith?

It is my own personal theory that these kinds of people use their philosophical beliefs about the body to disengage from the reality of suffering on the material plane. Now, if I say that, they would retaliate with, “Well, that’s just what our scriptures say.” Let it be known that I’m not challenging Lord Krishna when He says that pleasure and suffering pass away like the seasons, or that the body is like articles of clothing which the soul discards at death– what I am saying is that we cannot allow these truths to stop us from viewing other human beings with compassion. When we reach for philosophy first, instead of coming down off of our pedestal and approaching others with compassion and a desire to understand and assist them, we are not practicing yoga, because Krishna outlined it in very simple terms: “The best yogi is one who regards every being like oneself and who can feel the pain and pleasures of others as one’s own, O Arjuna.” (BG 6:32)

While some of my fellow Hindus are conjecturing about the futility of social action, they ignore a major cause of suffering: apathy. While they lecture LGBT people on the futility of pride marches, civil rights legislation, safe spaces, and so on, another gay or lesbian couple is assaulted, another transgender woman is murdered, another bisexual person is bullied or harassed, governments pass legislation allowing for the execution of people who commit the “crime” of homosexuality, or another queer young person takes their own life because they can no longer bear the daily suffering they endure at the hands of their peers, their pastors, or their parents. When people do not speak up against discrimination, either out of apathy or because they believe it doesn’t affect them, they allow that discrimination to continue, and that is just as bad as the actions of those who discriminate.

I do not want your apathetic philosophical diatribes about how I don’t need to march in a pride parade. I do not want your lectures with quotes from scriptures and purports about how sex and gender are material characteristics. I don’t want your half-hearted statements about how much you care about equal rights but don’t want to get involved because social justice is “distracting”. What I want, what I need, what my community needs is your compassion and your commitment. What we want to hear is, “I’m sorry this is happening to you and I will do whatever I can to support you, because we are all equal in God’s eyes.”