Buddhist perspective on sexuality issues

In the Sannoga Sutta, the Buddha talks about dwelling on sexual identity and links it to bondage.

The Blessed One said: "A woman attends inwardly to her feminine faculties, her feminine gestures, her feminine manners, feminine poise, feminine desires, feminine voice, feminine charms. She is excited by that, delighted by that. Being excited & delighted by that, she attends outwardly to masculine faculties, masculine gestures, masculine manners, masculine poise, masculine desires, masculine voices, masculine charms. She is excited by that, delighted by that. Being excited & delighted by that, she wants to be bonded to what is outside her, wants whatever pleasure & happiness that arise based on that bond. Delighting, caught up in her femininity, a woman goes into bondage with reference to men. This is how a woman does not transcend her femininity."

A man attends inwardly to his masculine faculties, masculine gestures, masculine manners, masculine poise, masculine desires, masculine voice, masculine charms. He is excited by that, delighted by that. Being excited & delighted by that, he attends outwardly to feminine faculties, feminine gestures, feminine manners, feminine poise, feminine desires, feminine voices, feminine charms. He is excited by that, delighted by that. Being excited & delighted by that, he wants to be bonded to what is outside him, wants whatever pleasure & happiness that arise based on that bond. Delighting, caught up in his masculinity, a man goes into bondage with reference to women. This is how a man does not transcend his masculinity."

On transgender, according to this monk, it seemed this issue was mentioned in the Vinaya Pitaka. Here’s a text message of Ven. Dr Rahula.

The Vinaya Pitaka, the ancient Buddhist texts that define the rules for Buddhist monks and nuns, record two incidences of sex change that a monk and a nun had gone through. A group of monks and nuns bring the two incidences to the Buddha’s notice. The Buddha accepts their changed status. He allows the former male disciple who became a female to live with female disciples, and the former female disciple to live with males. These episodes indicate the Buddha’s open-mindedness toward transsexual persons. He accepted their bodily changes even though some in his society attributed such changes to the influence of bad Karmas. Some of the sections in the Vinaya Pitaka are obviously later additions, which do not represent the Buddha’s true voice. There is every reason to believe that the Buddha accepted all kinds of people irrespective of any differences they had undergone. The Buddha’s statement that one becomes a noble person not by birth but by one’s behavior confirms this conclusion. “Birth” means wealth, social status, and physical appearance including the gender of a particular person. Change of a certain person’s gender has no connection to the evaluation of that person. Only wholesome behavior—wholesome words, actions, and thoughts—makes a person noble. - Bhante Rahula Basnagoda, PhD

And this are my thoughts on gays and lesbians and transexuals:

By reenforcing our attachment to our genders, it will create karmic imprints that will potentially result in us being reborn in future lives as the gender that we are attached to, in many, many lifetimes. Or, sometimes it happens the opposite way. We might be reborn itno the gender that we hate so much. This is something to consider. Be careful.

All things are ultimately empty of inherent existence , including our concepts of sexuality. If anyone has too much attachment to gender or sexuality, I would strongly advice the person to study Emptiness... especially the Madhyamika school of emptiness. In the end, we will arrive at the conclusion that there is no such thing as inherently gay or lesbian or even heterosexual in anyone. These are just concepts that persons impute on themselves. Don't take my word for it, check it out, study Nagarjuna's, Chandrakirti's and Tsongkhapa's texts on the subject.