1 March 2026

This Month in Queer Religious History*

Issan Dorsey: Sōtō Zen Monk and Teacher

1993 Book STREET ZEN Life and Work of Issan Dorsey Gay AIDS Drag Queen Schneider - Picture 1 of 3

Street Zen: The Life and Work of Issan Dorsey. by David Schneider.

In the landscape of American Buddhism, few paths have been as unconventional (or as profound) as that of Issan Dorsey (7 March 7, 1933- 6 September 1990). A former drag queen, drug addict, and US Navy veteran who became a Zen abbot and founded the first Buddhist AIDS hospice in the United States, Dorsey’s life was a testament to the principle that enlightenment is not found in escape from the world, but in the compassionate embrace of its most marginalized and suffering members. His story offers a powerful vision of queer religious leadership forged in the crucible of the AIDS epidemic.

Born Tommy Dorsey in 1933 in Santa Barbara, California, he was the oldest of ten children in a working-class Catholic family. From a young age, he felt like an outsider (a “sissy” in his own words), who preferred dance and piano to baseball. After a stint in junior college, he joined the US Navy, where he could pursue his dream of being an entertainer. However, during the Korean War, he and a male lover were expelled from the service for homosexual conduct. This expulsion sent him to San Francisco, a city that would become the backdrop for his life.

In the 1950s and ’60s, Tommy found his stage. He became a celebrated drag performer in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, billing himself as “Tommy Dee, the boy who looks like the girl next door.” His life became a whirlwind of nightclub performances, prostitution, and hard drug use. He shot heroin with Lenny Bruce and partied with jazz great Carmen McRae, all while living at the margins of mainstream society. This period of “sex, drugs, and drag” was also a time of deep personal struggle, marked by overdoses and time in jail. He later recalled waking up in a cell and checking his drag costume to see if he was on the men’s or women’s side of the jail.

The turning point came in the late 1960s. While managing a commune and a rock band in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, an experience with LSD while gazing at a photo of the sage Ramana Maharshi sparked a spiritual longing. Soon after, he wandered into the San Francisco Zen Center and began sitting zazen (meditation) under the legendary teacher Shunryu Suzuki Roshi . Despite his chaotic appearance, he was welcomed. Under Suzuki’s guidance and later his successor, Richard Baker Roshi, Tommy’s life began its slow, radical transformation. He was ordained as a Zen priest and given the name Issan, meaning “One Mountain.”

Issan’s unique background made him a unique member of this sometimes formal Zen Center community. Unafraid to embrace his past, he used his experience to welcome other outsiders, acting as a bridge for those who felt they didn’t belong. In 1980, he became involved with a new group called the “Gay Buddhist Club,” which met to meditate in a member’s basement. Under Issan’s guidance, this small group eventually formalized into the Hartford Street Zen Center (HSZC) in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro District. He was installed as its abbot in 1989, and the center was given the temple name Issan-ji (“One Mountain Temple”) in his honor.

As the 1980s progressed, the AIDS epidemic cut a devastating swath through the gay community of San Francisco. For Issan, the Dharma could not be separated from this reality. He began by inviting a student dying of AIDS to live in the temple. Soon, one became two, and what started as a simple act of compassion outgrew the temple’s capacity. In 1987, Issan formally founded the Maitri Hospice, first next door to the Zen center and later in a larger facility. It was the first Buddhist hospice for AIDS patients in the country. At a time when many were shunned by their families and communities, Issan created a home where gay men could die with dignity, surrounded by love, care, and the quiet practice of meditation.

The work was not without cost. When Issan himself was diagnosed with HIV, his understanding and his commitment were deepened. He spoke of how the truth of “I certainly am going to die” shifted from an intellectual concept to a lived reality that fueled his compassion. He continued to lead the hospice and the temple, embodying the ideal of the bodhisattva (one who postpones their own enlightenment to alleviate the suffering of others) until his own death from complications of AIDS on 6 September 1990. His last moments were spent at Maitri, in the home he had built for others, held by friends and students.

Issan Dorsey was a Dharma heir in the Soto Zen tradition, an abbot, and a pioneer of Buddhist caregiving. But more than that, he was a living example that one’s own struggles can become the very ground for living with wisdom and compassion. He took the lessons learned on the streets and in drag shows and applied them to the spiritual path, proving that enlightenment is available to everyone, especially those living on the margins. His life was a continuous, generous response to the cries of the world, and his spirit remains a guiding light for queer religious practitioners and all who seek to meet suffering with fearless love.

Sources

  1. Nakasone, Ronald Y. “Illness and Compassion: AIDS in an American Zen Community.” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 4 (1995): 488-493. Published online by Cambridge University Press, 29 July 2009. [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-quarterly-of-healthcare-ethics/article/abs/illness-and-compassion-aids-in-an-american-zen-community/CB70474828D3B1BF1FF025B3444026B7]
  2. Schneider, David. “Accidents & Calculations: The emergence of three AIDS hospices.” Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Winter 1992. [https://tricycle.org/magazine/issan-dorsey/]
  3. Schneider, David. Street Zen : The Life and Work of Issan Dorsey / Tensho David Schneider. First edition. Boston ; Shambhala, 1993.
  4. Whitney, Kobai Scott. “The Lone Mountain Path: The Example of Issan Dorsey” Lion’s Roar (formerly Shambhala Sun), March 1998. [https://www.lionsroar.com/the-lone-mountain-path-the-example-of-issan-dorsey/](https://www.lionsroar.com/the-lone-mountain-path-the-example-of-issan-dorsey/ ]
  5. Wikipedia contributors. Hartford Street Zen Center.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_Street_Zen_Center]
  6. Wikipedia contributors. “Issan Dorsey.”  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issan_Dorsey]

This Month in Queer Religious History

*Each month during 2025-2026, our 25th anniversary year, CLGS is honoring an individual, event, or movement of consequence in queer religious history. Although we will be able to highlight only a very few of those individuals and movements that have contributed to the thriving of LGBTQ+ persons and communities throughout history, we are eager to share with you the stories of some of the people and movements that have created positive change for LGBTQ+ people, our families, and our communities.