history of the gender diverse project in Triratna
Gender Diverse Buddhists Triratna emerged as a result of conversations between our early group founders.
In 2014, while on a public ordination event at Adhisthana, Kamalanandi, Sal and Irian began talking about what it would be like to gather gender diverse people in Triratna together in order to create more support for people.
These conversations continued, and soon Jnanamitra and Shraddhasiddhi became involved.
Quite quickly two Facebook groups were set up, one for only gender diverse people, and one that was open to gender diverse people and their allies. These groups are still going today and have over 500 members from all around the world.
In 2016, we planned our first gender diverse open retreat at Adhisthana. Around the same time the College of Public Preceptors also started talking about how to support gender diverse people, and a small gender diverse working group with college members was formed. Later, Prasadacharin joined us as a representative of the European Chairs Assembly.
In the early days, there was excitement as the first retreat went very well, and it was such a relief to be on retreat with each other, discussing our lives and our Buddhist practice together.
first retreat
In 2016 and 2017, during our first and second retreat at Adhisthana, many of us visited Bhante Sangharakshita.
We told him about our work together and our lives, and he was very interested. Prasadacharin also visited Bhante and discussed his views on how to include gender diverse buddhists. Key takeaways from this conversation that Prasadacharin subsequently typed up, are that Bhante was very keen to emphasise that gender diverse people are not external to triratna, he said that gender diverse people were in the sangha and the order already, and that he was keen to support people.
He also said that perhaps Adhisthana wasn’t quite set up or ready to do this, and that maybe in time it would do more to be better ready. He also said that the work to be more inclusive of this gender diverse part of our sangha would take “discussion” and “patience”.
Bhante Sangharakshita’s blessing
When COVID-19 hit in 2020, we had run four retreats at Adhisthana, including one for gender diverse people training for ordination. At that point we had around 20 people who were gender diverse and had asked for ordination. During the lockdowns of the pandemic, we were able to move things online. We had a couple of events and did some study together online.
After the lockdowns lifted things have continued apace. Manchester Buddhist Centre, now has a regular gender diverse group that meets monthly, and Sheffield has a gender diverse study group. Glasgow Buddhist Centre has an active LGBTQ+ sangha, as well as mixed gender mitra study. The Brighton Buddhist Centre has a GSRD (gender, sexuality, relationship, diversity) group that many gender diverse buddhists attend, and the London Buddhist Centre also has an LGBTQIA+ offering that many people attend, which began as an idea on a gender diverse retreat at Adhisthana, after the lockdowns ended.
moving online
training and gender diversity awareness sessions
During the lockdowns of the pandemic, we were also busy training around gender awareness. Our team have delivered training and awareness sessions to: The College of Public Preceptors, The European Mitra Convenors (combined online), The European Chairs Assembly (both online and in person), The Australasia Women’s Public and Private preceptors, the European Safeguarding Officers, Taraloka team, Tiratanaloka team, Manchester Buddhist Centre, Nottingham Buddhist Centre, Bristol Buddhist Centre, Birmingham Buddhist Centre, Helsinki Buddhist Centre, Croydon Buddhist Centre, Cardiff Buddhist Centre.
In 2025, we are due to run our 8th gender diverse retreat at Adhisthana, and there are now many more events up and down the country, and many buddhist centres are becoming more switched on to the needs of gender diverse people.
