WASHINGTON—Expressing its concern that the fixation had grown “a little out of control,” the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reported Thursday that it was pretty creeped out by how obsessed Americans are with it. “At first, the constant attention was flattering, but at this point, it’s starting to get kind of weird,” said the legal statute ratified in 1791, explaining how unsettling it was to hear U.S. citizens talking about it all the time and see all the comments written about it online. “Look, I understand that I’m a constitutional amendment and there’s a lot of admiration that comes with that, but that doesn’t mean you have to completely worship me this way. It’s not healthy. Maybe try to find something else to focus on—there are other amendments, too, you know? The 17th Amendment is great.” The Second Amendment later admitted how relieved it was to be protected from “all the psychos out there” by a 3/8-inch-thick pane of bulletproof glass.
Expanding consciousness through new paradigms of wholeness
September 5 – 8, San Diego, California
<<<<< >>>>> Register Now! There’s still time to get event and hotel discounts! “Early Bird” registration fee is in effect until August 12; special hotel room pricing has been extended until August 15!For details about Assembly registration and hotel arrangements, please see our updated Assembly Fact Sheet, below!
<<<<< >>>>> From the Aloha settingto our dynamic program,and activities –You are warmly invited to join us in person! This is your opportunity for reconnecting in community, rejuvenating in nature and re-discovering the Self each person has that can heal a fractured world.More information, including hotel and event registration, can be found on The Prosperos website at: Assembly 2025 announcement.
RESERVATIONS: Special Prosperos event room rate: $179 per night, 2 Queen beds or 1 King bed (+ tax)
To reserve your room online: You can use this link for booking. NOTE: Use the edit link on the right side of the link’s landing page to customize your arrival and/or departure dates.
If you run into any difficulty booking a room, please contact Joseph Stanley, Sales Coordinator: jstanley@islandpalms.com, (619) 222-0561, during business hours. (CAUTION: After hours and on weekends, you will automatically be transferred to the out-of-state Central Reservations office, which does not know about our group.)a GETTING THERE:
By air: Closest airports are San Diego (SAN), Long Beach (LBG), Los Angeles (LAX), & Orange County (JWA).
Taxi from San Diego airport runs $20 – $30, depending on traffic. Transport time and cost from other airports varies; try Super Shuttle at 800-258-3826
By rail: The leisurely choice! Find Amtrak at: https://www.amtrak.com/home.html. Amtrak has two stations in San Diego. Taxi from the Old Town Station to the hotel costs $16-$20.
By car: Hotel is south & west of the I-405 or I-5 Fwy (see map on hotel website)
From the north: Take I-5 south (or 405 Fwy south, then I-5 south), exit at Exit 20. Stay right onto the ramp for Camino Del Rio south. It becomes Rosecrans St.; stay on Rosecrans St. southwest for 2.5 miles. Turn left onto Shelter Island Dr. At the roundabout, take the first exit, turn right, and continue along Shelter Island Dr. to the hotel.
From the south:Take I-5 north to Harbor St. west to Scott St. Turn left onto Shelter Island Dr. At the roundabout, take first exit, turn right and continue on Shelter Island Dr. to the hotel.
Parking: Directly on hotel property, or in a covered garage behind the hotel on 1st Street. Self parking $25/day; no valet parking. Save money! Ask other attendees about sharing rides from your home area,or from the airport where you land! ASSEMBLY FEES: a Full registration includes all class activities, plus Sunday evening Banquet. General or Life Member: $279.00 Child 14-18: $105.00 Early Bird (before August 12): $249.00 Children 13 and under: Free Banquet only: $85.00 (Please let us know of any special dietary needs)You may pre-register online via The Prosperos website: https://www.theprosperos.org/prosperos-events/assembly-2025On-site registration and sign-in will take placeFriday, Sept. 5, 6-7 pm, and Saturday, Sept. 6, 9-10 am –Join us for a Welcome Reception on Friday, Sept. 5, beginning at 6:00 p.m.–For more information, please contact The Prosperos International Ontological Center P.O. Box 4969, Culver City, CA 90231 – www.TheProsperos.org SD/0925/Assem
Cosmic Disc Aug 5, 2025 James Webb Telescope JUST SHOCKED THE WORLD #JamesWebb#SpaceTelescope#DeepSpace The James Webb Space Telescope has just captured images that left scientists and the world stunned. These latest observations reveal mysterious cosmic structures that defy current scientific explanations. Astronomers are baffled by the unusual light patterns emerging from a distant galaxy cluster. The data suggests the possibility of unknown forces at work in the vastness of deep space. Experts are now reevaluating long-held theories about the origins of the universe. The shocking discovery has sparked global discussions across scientific communities. Many believe this could be the beginning of a new era in space exploration. Humanity now faces profound questions about our place in the cosmos.
Gandhi employed a strategy of non-violent civil disobedience, known as Satyagraha, to challenge British rule in India. Through mass movements like the Salt March and the “Quit India” campaign, he mobilized millions to protest peacefully, ultimately weakening the British Empire’s resolve and leading to India’s independence.
Gandhi’s approach involved several key elements:
Satyagraha (Truth Force):This philosophy emphasized truth and non-violence as a means to achieve political and social change.
Non-violent civil disobedience:Gandhi encouraged Indians to refuse to cooperate with British laws and policies through peaceful means, such as boycotts, non-violent protests, and civil disobedience.
Mass mobilization:He mobilized millions of Indians across various social strata to participate in these movements, creating widespread pressure on the British government.
Symbolic acts of defiance:The Salt March, where Gandhi led a 240-mile march to the sea to protest the British salt tax, was a powerful symbol of resistance.
Focus on Indian self-reliance:Gandhi promoted the Swadeshi movement, encouraging Indians to use locally made goods and boycott British products, fostering economic independence.
Negotiation and compromise:While advocating for complete independence, Gandhi also engaged in negotiations with the British authorities, seeking a peaceful transfer of power.
Specific examples of Gandhi’s methods:
The Salt March (1930):.Opens in new tabThis iconic protest against the British salt tax demonstrated the power of non-violent resistance and garnered international attention.
The Quit India Movement (1942):.Opens in new tabThis movement, launched during World War II, demanded immediate independence for India and further escalated the pressure on the British.
Impact of Gandhi’s methods:
Weakened British authority:.Opens in new tabThrough sustained non-violent resistance, Gandhi and his followers eroded the British government’s legitimacy and control over India.
In essence, Gandhi’s approach was a combination of philosophical principles, strategic mobilization, and symbolic acts of defiance that ultimately forced the British to relinquish their control over India.
(Goodreads.com)
“It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. Violence is any day preferable to impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent.”
One of America’s leading experts in cults and mind-control provides an eye-opening analysis of Trump and the indoctrination tactics he uses to build a fanatical devotion in his supporters.
Over the past two years, Trump’s behavior has become both more disturbing and yet increasingly familiar. He relies on phrases like, “fake news,” “build the wall,” and continues to spread the divisive mentality of us-vs.-them. He lies constantly, has no conscience, never admits when he is wrong, and projects all of his shortcomings on to others. He has become more authoritarian, more outrageous, and yet many of his followers remain blindly devoted. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert and a major Trump supporter, calls him one of the most persuasive people living. His need to squash alternate information and his insistence of constant ego stroking are all characteristics of other famous leaders— cult leaders.
In The Cult of Trump, mind-control and licensed mental health expert Steven Hassan draws parallels between our current president and people like Jim Jones, David Koresh, Ron Hubbard and Sun Myung Moon, arguing that this presidency is in many ways like a destructive cult. He specifically details the ways in which people are influenced through an array of social psychology methods and how they become fiercely loyal and obedient. Hassan was a former “Moonie” himself, and he draws on his forty years of personal and professional experience studying hypnosis and destructive cults, working as a deprogrammer, and a strategic communications interventionist. He emphasizes why it’s crucial that we recognize ways to identify and protect ourselves and our loved ones.
The Cult of Trump is an accessible and in-depth analysis of the president, showing that under the right circumstances, even sane, rational, well-adjusted people can be persuaded to believe the most outrageous ideas. Hassan’s book is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the Trump phenomenon and looking for a way forward.
Dr. Steven Hassan is one of the world’s foremost experts on undue influence. Licensed mental health counselor and an exit counselor. Hassan was an early advocate of exit counseling, and is the author of two books on the subject of “cults”, and what he describes as their use of mind control, thought reform, and the psychology of influence in order to recruit and retain members.
Himself a former member of the Unification Church, after spending one year assisting with involuntary deprogrammings, he developed what he describes as his own non-coercive methods for helping members of alleged cults to leave their groups, and developed therapeutic approaches for counseling former members in order to help them overcome the purported effects of cult membership.
The Dock – Fu May 22, 2025 Come on the journey of a lifetime with Leon Logothetis aka the Kindness Guy – five-time best selling author, host of the Kindness Diaries on Netflix and Discovery+ and a former broker who transforms from suicidal to spiritual seeker, traveling through India to find life’s meaning. He meets spiritual leaders and serves others while discovering inner truth. Directed by – Steven Priovolos Stars – Kute Blackson, Mike Dooley, Sister Draupadi Check out more Human Interest Documentaries for free and in English here • Human Interest Documentaries
Alan Alexander Milne (January 18, 1882 – January 31, 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as children’s poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winnie-the-Pooh overshadowed his previous work. Wikipedia
Joseph, a popular figure in the Bible’s Book of Genesis, can be seen as a gender-nonconformist who inspires LGBTQ people today.
Queer Bible scholars focus on how Joseph wore a robe that is usually known in English as a “coat of many colors,” but could be translated as a rainbow-colored “princess dress.”
The story of Joseph and his princess dress (Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28) is part of the three-year cycle of lectionary readings. It will be read again at many churches worldwide on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026.
Even before birth, there was something queer about Joseph. According to ancient commentaries known as midrash, Joseph and his half-sister Dinah were miraculously switched in the womb, meaning that they changed gender even before they were born. The Bible describes Joseph as well-built and attractive. He is known as Joseph the All-Comely in Orthodox tradition and ranked as “the most handsome man in the Bible” in at least one poll.
Joseph’s father, Jacob, loved him more than any of this other children, so he had a special robe made for him. In Hebrew the robe is called “ketonet passim.” Its meaning is considered unclear by many traditional Bible scholars. Various translations use terms such as “a robe with long sleeves,” “an elaborately embroidered coat” or “a varicolored tunic.”
Joseph dreams of grain in an illustration by Owen Jones from “The History of Joseph and His Brethren,” 1869 (Wikipedia)
The only other use of the term is in II Samuel 13, where princess Tamar wears a “ketonet passim” and the author helpfully explains that this is “how the virgin daughters of the king were clothed in earlier times.”
Traditional Bible scholars found it confusing that Joseph would wear an article of female clothing, the meaning is clear enough to today’s queer people of faith. Joseph was able to interpret dreams, and his rainbow robe also suggests the multi-colored garments that are sometimes worn by shamans and magicians.
Joseph wears his princess dress as he tells his brothers about his dreams in an illustration of Genesis Chapter 37 by Sweet Publishing (Wikipedia)
From a queer perspective, it’s sadly not surprising that when Joseph’s 11 brothers saw “that dreamer” in his princess dress, they got so upset that they attacked him and sold him into slavery. There is even an ancient tradition that the Egyptian officer Potiphar bought Joseph as a sex slave. The Bible story goes on to tell how Joseph triumphed in the end, rising to become Egypt’s second most powerful man and rescuing his family from starvation during a famine.
Resources on the queer Joseph of Genesis
The icon of Joseph at the top of this post was created by Matthew, a practicing Roman Catholic whose artwork appears at Queer Catholic Icons on Instagram as @queer.catholic.icons. “Joseph’s gender non-conformity and othered-ness is clear throughout Joseph’s story, attributes that make Joseph beloved by LGBTQ people of faith. I depicted Joseph standing in the desert, the place where we meet with God, and wearing a multicolored garment,” Matthew wrote.
There are many books, artworks, articles and videos that provide more queer insights into Joseph.
A scholarly paper titled “A Queer Interpretation of Michelangelo’s Renaissance Painting ‘Jacob and Joseph’ in the Sistine Chapel” was presented at two Biblical studies conferences in Europe in July 2024 by Karin Hügel of the University of Amsterdam. The abstract begins, “In the context of Michelangelo’s fresco ‘Jacob and Joseph’ in the Sistine Chapel, the beautiful effeminate Joseph, Jacob’s son, can be understood as a quasi-queer ancestor of Jesus Christ….”
Joseph by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, Papal Palace in the Vatican, 1511-1512 (Wikipedia)
“Josephine: A Trans Story of Biblical Proportions” by author J Mase III, a black/trans/queer poet, and illustrator Wriply Bennet was published in 2023. Inspired by the work of Peterson Toscano, it provides counter narratives to dismantle anti-trans Biblical rhetoric.
Raised in a Christian and Muslim home, Mase won a Lambda Literary Award for transgender nonfiction in 2020 for “The Black Trans Prayer Book.” It also appears on Q Spirit’s list of the top LGBTQ Christian books of 2020. Stories, prayers, poems, spells, incantations, theological narrative and visual offerings by black trans, non-binary and intersex people are collected in this interfaith, multi-dimensional theological and artistic work. The aim is to celebrate their valuable role in faith
Joseph wears a rainbow dress in a photo by queer artist Laura Sommer of Heidelberg, Germany. She describes herself as “disabled, Autistic, queer, non-binary, aro/ace (aromantic/asexual), Christian and a neeeeeeerd.” On her website Wibbley Wobbley Minds, she uses Playmobil toy figurines to recreate the life of Joseph and other stories from the Bible and literature.
The story of Joseph is re-imagined through a queer lens in the 1990s Midwest with “Queering My Religion: Biblical Stories of Queer Love in the ‘90s” by Jeff Crim. It was independently published in 2024. Based in Tennessee, the author is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Jade (Jude) Sylvan won the Billings Preaching Prize at Harvard Divinity School in 2019 with a video sermon on Joseph and the princess dress. Sylvan wrote “Beloved King,” a musical about David and Jonathan, as one of the requirements for a master of divinity degree at Harvard.
There’s even a Joseph of Genesis patch that can be ordered in the colors of the rainbow flag, the trans pride flag, bi pride flag, asexual pride flag, nonbinary pride flag and more from the NeuroqueerCrafting (formerly Sapphic Stiches) Etsy shop.
A popular mainstream retelling of the story is “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” a musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
___ Top image credit: Joseph by Matthew of Queer Catholic Icons ___ This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBT and queer martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit in August 2020, was expanded with new material over time, and was most recently updated on May 22, 2025.
Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian author who writes regularly about LGBTQ spirituality.She holds degrees in religion, journalism and art history.She was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its national ecumenical officer, advocating for LGBTQ rights at the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches.
Kuan Yin, the genderfluid spirit of compassion in Buddhism, is sometimes thought of as a queer Christ figure or LGBTQ role model. Buddhists celebrate the enlightenment of Kuan Yin every year in July or August. This year the date is July 13, 2025.
Transcending gender identity, Kuan Yin appears in whatever form is necessary to help people in need: sometimes female, sometimes male, sometimes androgynous.
Christians honor Christ as savior, and Kuan Yin is a type of Buddhist savior figure called a bodhisattva — an enlightened person who is able to reach nirvana (heaven) but delays doing so out of compassion in order to save others from suffering.
Artists often show Kuan Yin with eyes in the hands and feet. They are like the wounds of Christ, but Kuan Yin can see with them. Kuan Yin is also associated with the mother of Christ. When Christianity was persecuted in Edo-era Japan, the “hidden Christians” created states of Mary disguised as Kuan Yin. Comparisons to Mary are more common than comparisons to Christ. For example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York published the 2021 article, “Compassion, Mercy, and Love: Guanyin and the Virgin Mary: How two independent cultures—feudal Europe and imperial China—depicted divine figures with incredible visual similarities.”
Also known as the goddess of mercy, Kuan Yin goes by different names in different places, including Avalokiteshvara in India, Tara (female) or Chenrezig (male) in Tibet, and Kannon in Japan.
Writers and scholars who have explored the queer side of Kuan Yin include Patrick S. Cheng, an Episcopal priest who teaches at Chicago Theological Seminary; Hsiao-Lan Hu, religious studies professor at the University of Detroit Mercy; and Toby Johnson, a former Catholic monk turned author and comparative religion scholar.
New in 2024: Queer Asian Jesus prays alone in new artwork
A different kind of queer Asian Christ figure is portrayed in “Jesus Prays Alone” by Jason Antiquera, a Catholic missionary priest from the Philippines who works on mission in South Korea. He relocates the gospel story of Jesus praying alone in agony before his arrest. Instead of the garden of Gethsemane, the contemporary Asian Christ prays in Itaewon, an LGBTQ neighborhood in Seoul, South Korea.
Antiquera explained the connections when he introduced the digital artwork in a Facebook post in June 2024:
“This is a modern Gethsemane, not a garden, but street of clubs and bars where a lone man wrestles with an intrinsic problem: betray his identity or die. At the background are writings on the wall expressing hate and violence towards queer people with which Jesus is also grappling…. This scene symbolizes the struggles of LGBT people to reconcile their sexuality with their spirituality, to live as whole human beings even when church and society label them sinful or sick. In a world that often denies the value of queer lives, many LGBT people have felt utterly alone, trapped between denying themselves and confronting the “social death” of persecution and exclusion. Crouching in a back alley, the Jesus of today could be praying for a world where all God’s children are honored.”
In the introduction to his 2003 essay “Kuan Yin: Mirror of the Queer Asian Christ,” Cheng explains:
“Kuan Yin, the Asian goddess of compassion, can serve as a mirror of the queer experience. Specifically, Kuan Yin affirms three aspects in the life of queer people that are often missing from traditional images of the divine: (1) queer compassion; (2) queer sexuality; and (3) gender fluidity. In other words, Kuan Yin can be an important means by which gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people can see ourselves as being made in the image of God.”
Cheng writes clearly about the connection between Kuan Yin and Christ in the section where he describes his personal search for queer Asian Christ figures:
“I have been intrigued by the possibility of Kuan Yin serving as a christological figure for queer Asian people. For me, it has been difficult to envision the Jesus Christ of the gospels and the Western Christian tradition as being both queer and Asian (although I do recognize that queer theologians and Asian theologians have tried to do so in their respective areas). It is my thesis that Kuan Yin might serve as a symbol of salvation and wholeness for queer Asian people of faith….”
Click for the whole essay “Kuan Yin: Mirror of the Queer Asian Christ” in English or in Spanish.
Hsiao-Lan Hu presented a paper on “Queering Avalokiteśvara” at the 2012 American Academy of Religion annual meeting. She noted that the Lotus Sutra says that Avalokitesvara will appear to teach different beings in different forms, based on what they can accept.
In the summary of her paper, Hu writes, “Of the 33 forms listed in the Lotus Sutra, 7 are explicitly female, indicating that the Bodhisattva of Compassion transcends gender identity…. What is the theoretical ground in the Buddhadharma (Buddha’s teaching) that justify or even propel such conceptualization? How does that theoretical ground compare to modern-day queer theory?”
She summed up her paper in the 2013 Women’s and Gender Studies Newsletter from the University of Detroit Mercy:
“Avalokiteśvara’s multi-morphic manifestation affirms different beings in their specific identities, while his/her transformability points to the possibility of moving beyond the confinement of any particular identity. For people of minority identities, the Bodhisattva thus can be both a source of comfort and a model for coping with reality in which they often need to perform different roles.”
Another LGBTQ perspective on Kuan Yin is provided by Toby Johnson in the preface to the revised edition of his book “Gay Perspective: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe.” Johnson writes about Kuan Yin as the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara: ___________ “It is said there are Three Wonders of the Bodhisattva. The first is that he is androgynous, simultaneously both male and female, transcending the polarity of gender. That’s why he is such a sweet and lovable fellow: he blends the best of masculinity and the best of femininity.
The second wonder is that he sees there is no difference between nirvana and the life of suffering and rebirth in time, no difference between eternity and temporality, no difference between heaven and earth. This is why he could renounce his own nirvana and embrace all human experience. This life is nirvana; this is heaven on earth.
And the third wonder is that the first two wonders are the same!
That’s why this is such a nice myth for gay people to entertain. It says we’re really all One, all reflections of one another, that the distinction between male and female is illusory and needs to be transcended and that transcending gender is part and parcel with experiencing heaven now.
Avalokiteshvara is portrayed as the androgynous young being, beloved by everybody who knows him. That is very much like the ideal so many gay people find themselves looking for as a lover (and as a sense of themselves). And in the way that we gay people find the world a reflection of ourselves, so this myth says it really is. When we love another man or another woman, seeing their beauty and consciousness as like ours in homosexual attraction, that being we’re loving is the being that is ourself. No duality, no polarization.” ___________
A student of Joseph Campbell, Johnson has written 10 books, including the classic Gay Spirituality and Two Spirits. He is former production manager of Lethe Press and former editor of White Crane Journal. Johnson discusses Kuan Yin as an androgynous figure who embodies compassion in his articles “Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara” and “Avalokiteshvara at the Baths.”
Queer theologian Robert Shore-Goss applies the bodhisattva concept to queer Christian life in “Bodhisattva Christianity: A Case of Multiple Religious Belonging” in the 2013 book “Queering Christianity: Finding a Place at the Table for LGBTQI Christians.” Goss pastored Metropolitan Community Church in the Valley (North Hollywood, CA) after serving as chair of the religious studies department at Webster University in St. Louis.
Other queer Asian Christ figures
One of the few artists to explore queer Asian Christ figures is Jason Tseng, a Chinese American non-binary illustrator based in New York City. Tseng’s Queer Saints Project creates icons of queer ancestors.
Queer drag queen Christ by Jason Tseng, 2022
Contemporary icons that blend Asian and Christian iconography include “Korean Christ” by Robert Lentz, “Christ Sophia” by Br. Michael Reyes, OFM (Christ with Chinese characters and lotus blossom), and “Vincent Van Gogh: Peasant” by Lewis Williams (Van Gogh with Japanese characters and lotus blossom).
The queer Asian Christ also resonates in translations of the Rainbow Christ Prayer into various Asian languages. The prayer matches the colors of the rainbow flag with the seven models of the queer Christ from Patrick Cheng’s book “From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ.” Versions in Asian languages include:
Images of Kuan Yin posted here were created by Tony O’Connell, Stephen Mead, and William Hart McNichols. Mead is a gay artist and poet based in New York whose work has appeared internationally in cyberspace, books, and galleries. His Chroma Museum website features more than 500 montage images from his series on historical LGBTI figures and allies.
McNichols is a New Mexico artist and Catholic priest who has been criticized by church leaders for making LGBTQ-friendly icons of saints not approved by the church. His icons have been commissioned by churches, celebrities and national publications.
O’Connell is a gay artist based in Liverpool. Raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, he has been a practicing Buddhist since 1995. He creates an artwork celebrating Avalokitishvara / Kuan Yin every year on his/her birthday. Viewers who look closely at his painting here will see an eye in the palm of the Compassionate One’s hand.
“There is an amazing statue of Avalokiteshvara in a Liverpool museum with a text that explains how the mustache was painted over to alter his gender as the people who met the monks on the spice routes from India struggled with the idea of a manifestation of compassion being male and wanted to see him as female. It occurs to me that there are subtle ranges of the same personality between Avalokitishvara, Kuan Yin and Tara as one gender ambiguous enlightened mind,” O’Connell said.
He explains that Tara came into being in compassionate response to samsara, the cycle of birth and death: “There is a beautiful scripture that talks about how even with all his enlightened abilities to benefit living beings, Avalokiteshvara saw the suffering of samsara was almost beyond measure. His heart broke for living beings and he wept tears of compassion. When the first tear hit the ground a lotus flower grew up and blossomed to reveal Tara. Her first words as a Buddha were, ‘Do not weep- I will help you.’”
O’Connell also perceives Kuan Yin reflected in the life of Francis of Assisi, a Christian saint known for loving animals, hugging lepers, embracing poverty and praying for peace. “I see him not just as a saint but as wider and more inclusive than that, as an echo of the Bodhisattva Avalokitishvara – the Buddha of Compassion and also as a gender non compliant queer spiritual archetype who can be reclaimed and celebrated by marginalised minorities,” O’Connell explained when he created an image of Francis on a lotus throne with a rainbow and four arms representing the qualities of Avalokitishvara. It appears in Q Spirit’s profile of Francis of Assisi.
O’Connell affirmed LGBTQ people in 2021 by creating a linocut image of Tara and printing it on an actual rainbow flag made of fabric. The artwork appears at the top of this post. Tara is shown in a forest, inseparable from nature, with such authentic compassion that even the wild animals gather to listen.
The artist was drawn to Tara as a being who could choose any gender, but vowed to be reborn as female until the end of the world. O’Connell explains in depth:
The scripture that first attracted me to this remarkable deity describes her life before Her Enlightenment when She was still called Wisdom Moon. She was meditating when some monks passed by Her and were impressed by the level of spiritual energy She was emanating. Possibly without meaning to sound arrogant but defaulting stupidly to their learned cultural expectations they said that they hoped she would attain male rebirth in Her next Life so She could become a Buddha. She was very far advanced of their understanding of reality and recognising that gender is a conditioned illusion. She answered them quite forcefully, saying-
“In this world there is no man, There is no woman. There is no person, self or consciousness. Man and woman are merely imputed and have no essence; thus the minds of worldly beings are mistaken!”
She then vowed to always choose female rebirth until she attained full Buddhahood. It is for this reason that she stands not only as a powerful feminist symbol but also as a protector against homophobia and transphobia.
The full text of Tara’s vow is:
“There are many who wish to gain enlightenment in a man’s form, and there are but few who wish to work for the welfare of living beings in a female form. Therefore may I, in a female body, work for the welfare of beings right until Samsara has been emptied.”
Kuan Yin is honored in the Lotus Sutra, one of the most popular and influential Buddhist sutras (scriptures). It inspired Q Spirit supporter Ernesto Borges Torres to write a meditation that begins with these lines about Kuan Yin:
The Awakened affirm: If living beings are in need of experiencing salvation from a Buddha or other spiritual leader, from a goddess or a god, king or queen, wealthy person, householder or politician, from a lay woman or lay man, nun or monk, woman or man or girl or boy, from a dragon, demon, human or non-human being; the Great Bodhisattva Responder to the Cries of the World will appear in our bodies to liberate such living beings from suffering. When living beings suffer adversity, sorrow and pain, the Bodhisattva Responder to the Cries of the World, by means of the power of Her manifest Wisdom, is able to liberate them from the miseries of this world….
Kuan Yin discussed on social media
Multiple in-depth discussions of this post can be seen on Facebook here with various people adding valuable background info on Kuan Yin and his/her/their many incarnations:
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fkittredge.cherry%2Fposts%2F10154912152418575&width=500 ___ Top image credit: “Rainbow Tara” by Tony O’Connell ___ This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBTQ martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
This article was originally published in August 2017, was expanded with new material over time, and was most recently updated on July 12, 2025.
Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian author who writes regularly about LGBTQ spirituality.She holds degrees in religion, journalism and art history.She was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its national ecumenical officer, advocating for LGBTQ rights at the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches.
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