Question: Can LGBTQ people be born in the Pure Land?

these proud gays are clearly not interested in salvation

 Question: Can LGBTQ people be born in the Pure       Land?

 My answer: First of all, I make a difference   between   gays & lesbians and LGBTQ activists. Not   all gays and lesbians or other category of people who   practice sexual misconduct are members of LGBTQ   organizations. Unfortunately, I see a tendency   nowadays to equate all gays, lesbians, etc with   LGBTQ, thus referring to them as “LGBTQ people”.   This might be a deliberate act to identify in the   public  eye this type of deranged organizations with   all gays, lesbians or other people who practice sexual   misconduct. However, there are many gays and   lesbians who keep their wrong sexuality in their   bedrooms and do not intend to force it on society and   religion. 

Those who practice sexual misconduct like gays, lesbians, etc ( I explained in this article what is sexual misconduct according to the Buddhist teaching), are saved by Amida Buddha and can be born in the Pure Land on the condition that they accept themselves as ignorant people filled with blind passions who entrust to Amida. These kind of gays and lesbians are sincerely interested in escaping samsara and are NOT using the Dharma or Amida Buddha to justify their sexual misconduct or impose it on religion and society. They are just sinful people like anybody else who are not capable (although some of them try) to have a correct sexuality and who entrust to Amida Buddha. To entrust to Amida Buddha as a person aware of his/her sinfulness leads to the Pure Land. To be aware of one’s sinfulness and incapacity to save oneself is an important element of faith (shinjin).

A person of faith can’t think about himself or herself as being good and pure. However, LGBTQ members and activists are not like that! LGBTQ followers do not accept the Buddhist moral teaching, so they are trying in many ways to distort the Buddha Dharma or use it to justify their behavior and to impose their depravity on society and religion. They are not obeying the Dharma but try to change the Dharma. Thus, they have no real aspiration towards birth in the Pure Land. Their only aspiration is to impose their aberrant sexuality as normal in religion and society and they are using the Dharma as a mean for that goal.

pride of one's immorality means one is not interested in salvation

It is important to understand that LGBTQ has nothing in common with Buddhism and Buddhist morality. It is an ideological organization which promotes sexual misconduct and tries to impose it on the whole world. The LGBTQ ideology goes against the Buddhist moral teachings.

I doubt that a person who does not accept the Dharma as it is – as it was taught by the Buddha – but picks and choose what he likes and disregard what it does not conform with his blind passions, can really entrust to Amida Buddha. Why I say this? Because his attitude is not devotional and he cannot see himself or herself as a person of karmic evil. In order to be born in the Pure Land one must see himself as evil when compared with the Buddhist moral ideal, but if one does not accept the Buddhist moral ideal (LGBTQ members do not accept the Buddhist moral teachings on sexuality, and also promote abortion, etc) then with whom can he compare himself with? One who has the attitude of picking and choosing what he likes and distorts the Dharma and the Buddhist moral teachings when they do not conform with his personal views cannot develop a humble and devotional mind with whom to receive other teachings, and especially the teachings related with Amida Buddha. If Shakyamuni (the historical Buddha) is not taken serious when He taught what is sexual misconduct, when He gave advice to couples composed only of men and women, or if His moral teaching is considered not perfect so that it needs change, how can we entrust to Him in other matters?

In conclusion, sinners who accept themselves as sinners and humbly admit that they are practicing sexual misconduct while also not trying to change the Dharma to justify or institutionalize their behavior are saved if they entrust to Amida Buddha. However, those fake Buddhists in LGBTQ who use the Dharma and temples for imposing their wrong sexuality as normal can’t be born in the Pure Land because they have no genuine aspiration for escaping samsara. They are not looking for salvation, but for justification.

Gays, lesbians and all kinds of sinners are accepted as members of Amidaji as long as they keep their sexuality in their bedroom and admit that what they are doing is sexual misconduct. More than this, we don’t even need to know anything about a member’s sexuality, whether that is good or wrong, because it is not our concern. People are not questioned if they are gays or lesbians when becoming members. What we at Amidaji require from our members is to not get involved and do not support such deranged organizations like LGBTQ and do not promote any aberrant sexual behavior in the society. Sinners who accept themselves as sinners are accepted, as nobody among us is a genuine moral person, but sinners who pretend to be good and try to impose their sinful ways on the society and religion are told that Amidaji is not for them.

Related articles:

The definition of sexual misconduct according to the Buddhist teaching

You don't need to change the Buddhist morality when you are saved as you are  

A response to fake Buddhist followers blinded by worldly ideologies

Question: are gays and lesbians welcome in the dojo or temple? 

On the Buddhist meaning of marriage and the role of husband and wife 

On why it is important to defend all aspects of the Dharma  

The complexity of the reform we need