MaryJanee's pad...

The first boarding school for transgender students in India is opening today in Kochi in the southeast part of the subcontinent.

The inaugural class at Sahaj International School will have just 10 students, who will study under six trans instructors from the TransIndia Foundation. Activist and artist Kalki Subramaniam will speak at the opening day ceremony.

Students were selected from different areas of society, and include a migrant worker and a disabled person.

“In the beginning, we have a few sponsors supporting us. We are planning to seek financial help from government after proving its worthiness,” school organizer Vijayaraja Mallika told the Indian Express.

The goal, says Mallika, is to give the students “security, stability and salvation.”

So yesterday I made a post about how some Sikhs are afraid to say the word “gay,” and I got several messages saying how it’s because “Sikhi doesn’t support homosexuality,” or “it’s unnatural,” or “God made men and women only” (inferring sexuality and gender are the same thing), or “Sikhi is about procreation,” and of course many linked to the videos of Basics of Sikhi talking about the topic.

There is a post made by another user on tumblr that sums up my response to the linked videos complete. You can find that post HERE. As for the other statements, I’m going to explore them in this post.

Let’s start with the “unnatural” part of it. To put it lightly, you’re wrong. There are HUNDREDS of species, besides humans, in which homosexuality is exhibited. Some of these species are bison, brown bears, cats, dogs, chimpanzees, horses, dolphins, elephants, and even lions. Gurbani tells us that all of nature acts in accordance to God’s Will. So if Akaal Purakh didn’t want homosexuality to exist, homosexuality would not be prevalent in these hundreds of species. Therefore, the claim that non-hetero sexualities are unnatural is baseless.

The idea that Sikhi focusses on procreation is, again, false. Nowhere in Gurabni does it command people to marry only to bear children. Such an importance on procreation can be found in faiths into which you can be born. Sikhi isn’t a faith you are born into. You can be born into a Sikh family, but you earn your Sikhi yourself with your own actions. Moreover, if Sikhi was only about procreation, then there would be prohibitions put on infertile people from marrying, or it would be forbidden for women past the stage of menopause, and men past the age of virility, to get married. That’s not the case. The truth is that Sikhi does not talk about these things, because at the end of the day they just don’t matter in comparison to the grandness of God. Guru Sahib explains in Asaa Ki Vaar:

ਕੂੜੁ ਮੀਆ ਕੂੜੁ ਬੀਬੀ ਖਪਿ ਹੋਏ ਖਾਰੁ ॥ False is the husband, false is the wife; they mourn and waste away.

With that precedence set, we can infer that when Gurbani talks about Husband and wife, it is talking about the allegorical marriage of our soul (in Sikhi all souls are said to be brides) with the Husband Lord. Therefore, the Gurbani pangtis that are brought up, such as the two bodies one soul one, are in fact talking about God and the soul, not a heterosexual relationship between a man and a women, because as Guru Nanak Dev Ji Maharaj said, these unions are a temporal realities that fade, and in the big pictures this makes them a falsehood. Therefore, Guru Sahib essentially tells us to look beyond what we do in our beds and look into what we should do with our Sikhi sidak.

The cold hard truth is that there is no mention of homosexuality in Sikh scripture. Not even once. It’s not like the Guru Sahibaan and the Bhagats and Bhatts that revealed Gurbani weren’t aware of homosexuality. Guru Arjan Dev Ji, who is known as Bani ka Bohithaa (Boat of Gurbani- due to the fact that he revealed the most Gurbani in Sri Guru Granth Sahib), actually had several encounters with homosexuality that NEVER get talked about. None of this is recorded explicitly, but when you connect the dots, you see that Guru Ji has in fact met queer people and has known of queer people.

One of these examples is Sarmad. Sarmad was a devout follower of Sai Mian Mir, a Sufi saint. Any Sikh would know that Guru Arjan Dev Ji and Sai Mian Mir had a very close relationship, and it was Sai Ji that laid the foundation stone of Harmandir Sahib (now known as the Golden Temple- also called the “Sikh Mecca”). In Sikh belief we do not believe that the Guru Sahiban were regular human beings, we believe that the Guru Sahiban were antarjami. They could read us completely in the blink of an eye, every single detail. So, when Guru Arjan Dev Ji would hang out with Sai Mian Mir, he would know of Sarmad either through Sai Mian Mir talking about him, or because of his antarjami capabilities. Either way, Guru Sahib would know that Sarmad exists, and that he was in a loving and consenting sexual relationship with another man, Abhai Chand. Despite knowing of Sarmad’s existence, there is not Gurbani written against homosexuality.

However, forget degrees of separation. What if I told you that Guru Arjan Dev Ji came FACE TO FACE with a gay man? Well that is exactly what happened. In the Suraj Parkash Granth, a manuscript that is a source of Sikhi history, tells the story of Guru Arjan Dev Ji’s visit to Lahore. During this time, Guru Arjan Dev Ji as compiling Aad Granth Sahib (which would later be coronated as Sri Guru Granth Sahib), and hearing that Guru Ji had included Bani from Muslims like Sheikh Fareed Ji and Hindus like Bhagat Ravidaas Ji, poets and bards from all over the subcontinent would visit Guru Arjan Dev Ji in hopes that their poetry would be included in Aad Granth Sahib. However, the poetry was most often not accepted by Guru Ji, as that’s all it was- poetry. Guru Granth Sahib only contains Bani revealed from Sachkhand by Akaal Purakh, and while the poetry presented was beautiful, it was inspired by the human mind and therefore not Gurbani. When Guru Ji was in Lahore, four such poets visited him, and if you read that section of Suraj Parkash Granth, you will read that there was a man by the name of Shah Hussain, another Sufi saint, who visited Guru Ji.

The Suraj Parkash Granth doesn’t give much detail into Shah Hussain’s life aside from the fact that he had poetry he wanted to present to Guru Ji. However, if you read up on his life, Shah Hussain, like Sarmad, was in a sexual relationship with another man named Madho Laal. The love between Madho Laal and Shah Hussain are often recounted at Shah Hussain’s urs (death anniversary), and hundreds throng to his dargah, where Shah Hussain and Madho Laal are buried side by side.

Anyway, so Shah Hussain, who we know to be madly in love with Madho Laal, comes to Guru Sahib and the encounter they have is honestly quite beautiful. Shah Hussain was the last of the four poets to meet Guru Maharaaj, and present his work. Suraj Parkash Granth says that the entire time Shah Hussain recited his kalaam, Guru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaaj lovingly gazed towards him and praised his work, and was moved by the bairaag and love in his poetry. Here is an excerpt of the work Shah Hussain presented:

ਚੁਪ ਵੇ ਅੜਿਆ ਚੁਪ ਵੇ ਅੜਿਆ। ਬੋਲਣ ਦੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਜਾਇ ਵੇ ਅੜਿਆ। ਸਜਣਾ ਬੋਲਣ ਦੀ ਜਾਇ ਨਾਹੀਂ।ਰਹਾਉ। ਅੰਦਰਿ ਬਾਹਰਿ ਹਿਕਾ ਸਾਂਈਂ, ਕਿਸਨੂੰ ਆਖਿ ਸੁਣਾਈਂ। ਇਕੋ ਦਿਲਬਰ ਸਭ ਘਟ ਰਵਿਆ, ਦੂਜੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਕਦਾਈਂ। ਕਹੈ ਹੁਸੈਨ ਫਕੀਰ ਨਿਮਾਣਾ, ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਥੌਂ ਬਲਿ ਬਲਿ ਜਾਈਂ। Stay quiet O friend, stay quiet. This is not your place to speak. O sajana, O friend, this is not your place to speak. Inside and outside, there is only one Lord, to whom should I go and tell anything? One Lord, the Enchanter of the Hearts, is in every being, no one else is there. The humble Faqir Hussain says, I am sacrifice to Satguru again and again.

Moved by the poetry Guru Arjan Dev Ji blessed Shah Hussain and Shah Hussain left in happiness and bliss. While Suraj Parkash Granth doesn’t go into the details of the history of these Bhagats, as the focus is on Guru Arjan Dev Ji compiling Gurbani for Sri Aadi Granth Sahib, searching the history of Shah Hussain, you will see that he was in fact gay or bi. 

Guru Sahib in his Sakshaat Saroop met with Shah Hussain. As Guru Sahib is antarjami, wouldn’t he have known that Shah Hussain was gay or bi? Of course he did! Yet, he didn’t write anything against it when he had every authority to do so. That speaks for itself. The fact that the Gurus knew of homosexuality, and did not speak against it like they spoke against other vices humans commit, says something. 

No about the whole gender thing. Gender and sexuality are two completely different concepts. One is who you are programmed to get down with between the sheets, and the other is who you are and what you identify with. Being gay or bi is a sexual identity, not a gender identity. On top of that, Sikhi does not hold rigid genders. First of all, Sikh scripture (especially Dasam Granth Sahib) acknowledges the exiestence of varying gender idenities, such as the kinnar (also known as hijras or khusras). Even then, gender is not shown as something rigid, but rather as something fluid. In a shabad that explains the powers God has to transform things, Bhagat Kabeer Ji states:

ਨਾਰੀ ਤੇ ਜੋ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਕਰਾਵੈ ਪੁਰਖਨ ਤੇ ਜੋ ਨਾਰੀ ॥ The woman is transformed into a man, and the men into women.

Thus, Sikh scripture sets to foundation to not only reject the binary, but also reject the idea of rigid genders. (I am not an expert on trans* related things, so please let me know if I am making any blunders in the way I said that. Apologies.)

As a transgender woman, it was actually the compatibility of my transgender soul and Sikhi which made me fall in love with the faith. On the topic of transgender people and gender variance in Sikhi, it’s definitely worth mentioning a story from the B-40 Janamsakhi about Guru Nanak meeting Sheik Sharaf in Baghdad. Sarbat.net does the story way more justice than I ever could, so I’ll link their explanation here. 

The story concerns a meeting with a Sheikh Sharaf, who appears as a man dressed in women’s clothing and wearing lavish jewelry. He is crying and singing plaintively, and says to Baba Nanak that he is trying to find his beloved, meaning God. To this, Nanak asks Sheikh Sharaf to sing for him and his disciple Mardana, and upon hearing his ballad of unrequited love, tells him that God does not need him to cry out in this way to feel His love. The Janamsakhi includes an illustration of Guru Nanaj Dev Ji and Sheikh Sharaf, showing Sheikh Sharaf in full women’s attire. 

The historical accuracy of this story is definitely questionable; Sheikh Sharaf preceded the Guru by a number of centuries. However, Guru Nanak would have been aware of his writings. The fact that in the story there is no condemnation of Sheikh Sharaf’s cross-dressing, and the depiction of Guru Nanak Dev Ji Maharaj interacting with him kindly and without judgment shows not only that was gender variance known at the time, but that it was not considered condemnable and that the Gurus would have come across many such individuals during their travels. Since there is no condemnation of this gender variance in Sikh scripture, yet the Gurus would surely have known about the existence of such things, Sikhi clearly embraces and accepts gender variance and considers such things irrelevant to living a just life. 

Guru Nanak Dev Ji

The founder of the Sikh Religion & First Guru had built Sikhi on three basic guidelines that people still follow today, The Three Pillars of Sikhism. 

1. Naam Japna - Reciting the words of the Guru’s & focusing on Waheguru

2. Kirat Karna - To honestly earn by ones physical and mental effort while accepting both pains & pleasures as GOD’s gifts and blessings

3. Vand Chakna - To share ones wealth within the community, give to charity, distribute Langar and generally help others in the community who need help.