by Martín Jaime (Editor)
Programa de Estudios de Género, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
Flor Tristán Centro de la Mujer Peruana
ISBN: 978-612-4033-24-7
Sexual Diversity and Religious Systems analyzes the relations between numerous expressions of sexual diversity and, some religious systems today. In contemporary societies, the relation between sexual diversity and the religious phenomenon has proven to be impressively rich.
On one hand, we witness the continuous rejection of sexual diversity within many religions through different strategies appealing to concepts like tradition, moral and nature. On the other, many groups has addressed the question and challenge within the LGBTI movement and within its own religious communities of thinking on the production of spirituality from the position of the sexual subject itself. In this scenario, we see how the work of representing spirituality within said communities is a way to go beyond the sexual subject and subvert spiritual expropriation. Currently, we can find several ways; we see the construction of religious communities based on sexual orientation and, in some cases, on gender identity and, at the same time, some religions with a brutal rejection on the same topic. Both ways live and meet at the same time.
This book, written in English and Spanish, consists of ten papers studying this phenomenon within Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Based on different methods and sources, they insist on understanding how religions influence and embody homoerotic and transgender practices and how the latter embrace and transform them. It takes us through the realities of many countries such as Chile, Argentina, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Iran.
Thus, in the face of this scenario, is crucial to take a comparative and systematic look on the relations between religious systems and LGTBI corposubjectivities in the contemporary world. In that way, this compilation seeks to present different perspectives of analysis on said relation from a comparative perspective within specific local and regional frames. These articles show us numerous analysis on the spirituality of people with homoerotic and transgender practices and desires, emphasizing on the study of historical, social and cultural dynamics where religious traditions play a relevant role on the encouragement or rejection of the rights of LGBTI people in contemporary societies. Also, this book aims at reflecting on spiritual productions (practices, rituals, perceptions, among others) carried out by LGBTI people within religious traditions.