To stay within limit I am bundling my response to two posts.
1. About Michael's question about a google search on homsexuality and Buddhism.
It can be a minefield. I have some tentative conclusions: as far as the texts go, the Buddha said to avoid sexual misconduct. Now the question arises is same-sex sex equal to sexual misconduct? For most Buddhist traditions it is not. Not all traditions even required celibacy in their monks. To most the requirement is that the sexual relation be consensual and done with mindfulness.
As for the Dalai Lama, after challenges in the late 1990's, his position at the moment seems to be the following: anal oral sex is misconduct for any Buddhist -- male, female, gay, straight. Sex shoud be procreative only. He also says queers should not be discriminated against and their unions should be recognized by society. A mixed bag. Is he a homophobe? Who knows, more sexphobic to me (which often is misrepresented as homophobia for obvious reasons), but at least he doesn't advocate beheading queers as they did in Saudi Arabia recently. The media likes to portray him as homophobic since it helps in oppressing queers -- even the sweet Dalai Lama is against them so homosexuality cannot be right. It is the very conservative nature of the Dalai Lama and his tradition of Tibetan Buddhism that has led him to become the West's poster boy for Budhism.
Personally, I prefer Thich Nhat Hahn and his tradition of Vietnamese Buddhism. He is much more radical and much fiercer in his talks with Westerners (at least the ones I have attended). Hence he has a much lower visibility, though he too is an exile from his country and cannot return.
As one other poster noted: Buddhism ranges the gamut from conservative to progressive and hits most stops in between. The question always is when does Buddhism cease being Buddhism.
2. As for my questions about China and body counts. I do not think I mentioned Stalin in my post and apologize to Anne if she thought I accusing her of defending him. I do not know enough about him to really type about him. My real question was about what is the base line of acceptable body counts -- how is it established. Since I believe in co-dependent origination (interbeing) I realize that I am responsible for all that happens in the world since I exist and act within it. Also, were events like the Cultural Revolution aberrations or logical outcomes of policies pursued?
I will admit to a persoanl interest that the more I study Marxism the more I like it and its absence of homophobia. Yet much of its implementation has involved a great deal of homophobia, e.g., Stalin and the laws he wrote and Castro and his rectification camps and imprisonment of men with HIV/AIDS. Even my own bouncing from a list since I was queer which was anti-marxist. And yet Lenin got rid of laws criminalizing homosexuality. So I am trying to figure out how the train leapt the track.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister