title: Robert M. La Follette

text: La Follette was admitted to the state bar association in 1880. That same year, he won election as the district attorney for Dane County, Wisconsin, beginning a long career in politics. He became a protégé of George E. Bryant, a wealthy Republican Party businessman and landowner from Madison. In 1884, he won election to the House of Representatives, becoming the youngest member of the subsequent 49th Congress. His political views were broadly in line with those of other Northern Republicans at the time; he supported high tariff rates and developed a strong relationship with William McKinley. He did, however, occasionally stray from the wishes of party leaders, as he voted for the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. He also denounced racial discrimination in the Southern United States and favored the Lodge Bill, which would have provided federal protections against the mass disenfranchisement of African Americans in the South. "Milwaukee Sentinel" referred to him as being "so good a fellow that even his enemies like him". Views on racial and ethnic matters were not central to La Follette's political thinking. Author Jorn Brøndal wrote that La Follette, "on at least one occasion referred to an African American as a 'coon' and a 'blamed nigger', if only for humorous effect". His wife was a stronger proponent of civil rights.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: At 35 years old, La Follette lost his seat in the 1890 Democratic landslide. Several factors contributed to his loss, including a compulsory-education bill passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature in 1889. Because the law required major subjects in schools to be taught in English, it contributed to a divide between the Catholic and Lutheran communities in Wisconsin. La Follette's support for the protective McKinley Tariff may have also played a role in his defeat. After the election, La Follette returned to Madison to begin a private law practice. Author Kris Stahl wrote that due to his "extraordinarily energetic" and dominating personality, he became known as "Fighting Bob" La Follette.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: In his autobiography, La Follette explains that he experienced a political epiphany in 1891 after Senator Philetus Sawyer attempted to bribe him. La Follette claimed that Sawyer offered the bribe so that La Follette would influence his brother-in-law, Judge Robert G. Siebecker, who was presiding over a case involving state funds that Republican officials had allegedly embezzled. La Follette's public allegation of bribery precipitated a split with many friends and party leaders, though he continued to support Republican candidates like John Coit Spooner. He also strongly endorsed McKinley's run for president in the 1896 election, and he denounced Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan as a radical. Rather than bolting the party or retiring from politics, La Follette began building a coalition of dissatisfied Republicans, many of whom were relatively young and well-educated. Among his key allies were former governor William D. Hoard and Isaac Stephenson, the latter of whom published a pro-La Follette newspaper. La Follette's coalition also included many individuals from the state's large Scandinavian population, including Nils P. Haugen, Irvine Lenroot, and James O. Davidson.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: Beginning in 1894, La Follette's coalition focused on winning the office of Governor of Wisconsin. With La Follette serving as his campaign manager, Haugen sought the Republican nomination for governor in 1894, but he was defeated by William H. Upham. La Follette ran for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 1896, but he was beaten by Edward Scofield; La Follette alleged that Scofield only won the nomination after conservative party leaders bribed certain Republican delegates. La Follette declined to run as an independent despite the pleas of some supporters, and after the election, he turned down an offer from President William McKinley to serve as the Comptroller of the Currency. In 1897, La Follette began advocating the replacement of party caucuses and conventions, the traditional method of partisan nominations for office, with primary elections, which allowed voters to directly choose party nominees. He also denounced the power of corporations, charging that they had taken control of the Republican Party. These progressive stances had become increasingly popular in the wake of the Panic of 1893, a severe economic downturn that caused many to reevaluate their political beliefs.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: La Follette ran for governor for the second time in 1898, but he was once again defeated by Scofield in the Republican primary. In 1900, La Follette made a third bid for governor, and won the Republican nomination, in part because he reached an accommodation with many of the conservative party leaders. Running in a strong year for Republicans nationwide, La Follette decisively defeated his Democratic opponent Louis G. Bomrich in the general election, winning just under 60 percent of the vote.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: Upon taking office, La Follette called for an ambitious reform agenda, with his two top priorities being the implementation of primary elections and a reform of the state's tax system. La Follette initially hoped to work with the conservative faction of the Republican Party to pass these reforms, but conservatives and railroad interests broke with the governor. La Follette vetoed a primary election bill that would have applied only to local elections, while the state Senate voted to officially censure the governor after he attacked the legislature for failing to vote on his tax bill. Conservative party leaders attempted to deny La Follette renomination in 1902, but La Follette's energized supporters overcame the conservatives and took control of the state convention, implementing a progressive party platform. In the 1902 general election, La Follette decisively defeated the conservative Democratic nominee, Mayor David Stuart Rose of Milwaukee.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: In the aftermath of the 1902 election, the state legislature enacted the direct primary (subject to a statewide referendum) and La Follette's tax reform bill. The new tax law, which required railroads to pay taxes based on property owned rather than profits, resulted in railroads paying nearly double the amount of taxes they had paid before the enactment of the law. Having accomplished his first two major goals, La Follette next focused on regulating railroad rates, but the railroads prevented passage of his bill in 1903. During this period, La Follette became increasingly convinced of the need for a direct income tax in order to minimize tax avoidance by the wealthy. During his governorship, La Follette appointed African-American William Miller for a position in his office.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: After the legislature adjourned in mid-1903, La Follette began lecturing on the Chautauqua circuit, delivering 57 speeches across the Midwest. He also earned the attention of muckraker journalists like Ray Stannard Baker and Lincoln Steffens, many of whom supported La Follette's progressive agenda. La Follette's continued movement towards progressivism alienated many Republican Party leaders, and La Follette's followers and conservative party leaders held separate conventions in 1904; ultimately, the state Supreme Court declared that La Follette was the Republican Party's 1904 gubernatorial nominee. In the general election, La Follette won 51 percent of the vote, but he ran far behind Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, who took 63 percent of the state's vote. In that same election, Wisconsin voters approved the implementation of the direct primary.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: During the 1904 campaign, La Follette pledged that he would not resign as governor during his term, but after winning re-election he directed state representative Irvine Lenroot, a close political ally, to secure his election to the United States Senate. Shortly after La Follette delivered the inaugural message of his third term as governor, Lenroot began meeting with other legislators to assure that La Follette would be able to win election to the Senate; at that time, the state legislature elected senators. La Follette was formally nominated by the Republican caucus on January 23, 1905, and the state legislature chose him the following day. La Follette delayed accepting the nomination and continued to serve as governor until December 1905, when he announced his resignation. Throughout 1905, La Follette continued to push his progressive policies, including the state regulation of railroad rates. The state legislature passed a relatively weak regulation bill that La Follette considered vetoing, but he ultimately signed the law. Lieutenant Governor James O. Davidson succeeded La Follette as governor and went on to win re-election in 1906.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: La Follette immediately emerged as a progressive leader in the Senate. At first, he focused on a railroad regulation bill making its way through the Senate; he attacked the bill, eventually known as the Hepburn Act, as a watered-down compromise. He also began campaigning across the country, advocating for the election of progressive senators. Conservative party leaders, including Spooner and Nelson W. Aldrich, detested La Follette, viewing him as a dangerous demagogue. Hoping to deprive La Follette of as much influence as possible, Aldrich and his allies assigned La Follette to insignificant committees and loaded him down with routine work. Nonetheless, La Follette found ways to attack monopolistic coal companies, and he pressed for an expansion of the railroad regulation powers of the Interstate Commerce Committee.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: With the help of sympathetic journalists, La Follette also led the passage of the 1907 Railway Hours Act, which prohibited railroad workers from working for more than 16 consecutive hours. Though he initially enjoyed warm relations with President Roosevelt, La Follette soured somewhat on the president after Roosevelt declined to support some progressive measures like physical valuation of Railroad properties. When Roosevelt did not support La Follette's bill to withdraw mineral land from corporate exploitation, La Follette told to Belle that Roosevelt "throws me down every day or so". Meanwhile, La Follette alienated some of his supporters in Wisconsin by favoring Stephenson, his main donor, over Lenroot in an election to fill the seat of retiring Senator John Coit Spooner. After the Panic of 1907, La Follette strongly opposed the Aldrich–Vreeland Act, which would authorize the issuance of $500 million in bond-backed currency. He alleged that the panic had been engineered by the "Money Trust", a group of 97 large corporations that sought to use the panic to destroy competitors and force the government to prop up their businesses. La Follette was unable to prevent the passage of the bill, but his 19-hour speech, the longest filibuster in Senate history up to that point, proved popular throughout the country.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: Beginning in 1908, La Follette repeatedly sought election as the president. La Follette hoped that the backing of influential journalists like Lincoln Steffens and William Randolph Hearst would convince Republican leaders to nominate him for president in 1908, but he was unable to build a strong base of support outside of Wisconsin. Though he entered the 1908 Republican National Convention with the backing of most Wisconsin delegates, no delegates outside of his home state backed his candidacy. At the start of the convention, Secretary of War William Howard Taft was President Roosevelt's preferred choice, but Taft was opposed by some conservatives in the party. La Follette hoped that he might emerge as the Republican presidential nominee after multiple ballots, but Taft won the nomination on the first ballot of the convention. La Follette was nonetheless pleased that the party platform called for a reduction of the tariff and that Taft indicated that he would emulate Roosevelt's support for progressive policies. Taft defeated William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 election, and several progressives were victorious in the concurrent congressional elections. In early 1909, La Follette launched "La Follette's Weekly Magazine", which quickly achieved a circulation of well over 30,000. In March 1924, La Follette contributed to the appointment of African-American Walter I. Cohen as Comptroller of the Port of New Orleans.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: Along with Jonathan P. Dolliver, La Follette led a progressive faction of Republicans in the Senate that clashed with Aldrich over the reduction of tariff rates. Their fight for tariff reduction was motivated by a desire to lower prices for consumers, as they believed that the high rates of the 1897 Dingley Act unfairly protected large corporations from competition and thereby allowed those corporations to charge high prices. Despite a widespread desire among consumers for lower prices, and a party platform that called for tariff reduction, Aldrich and other party leaders put forward the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act, which largely preserved the high tariff rates of the Dingley Act. With the support of President Taft, the Payne–Aldrich Tariff passed the Senate; all Republican senators except for La Follette's group of progressives voted for the tariff. The progressives did, however, begin the process of proposing the Sixteenth Amendment, which would effectively allow the federal government to levy an income tax.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: In late 1909, Taft fired Louis Glavis, an official of the Department of the Interior who had alleged that Secretary of the Interior Richard A. Ballinger favored the illegal expansion of coal mining on government land in Alaska. The resulting Pinchot–Ballinger controversy pitted Ballinger and Taft against Gifford Pinchot, the head of the United States Forest Service and a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt. La Follette's progressives strongly criticized the Taft administration for its handling of the controversy and initiated a congressional investigation into the affair.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: La Follette's successful re-election campaign in early 1911 further bolstered his position as the leader of the progressive faction of the Republican Party. In January 1911, after consulting with sympathetic journalists and public officials, La Follette launched the National Progressive Republican League, an organization devoted to passing progressive laws such as primary elections, the direct election of U.S. senators, and referendums. La Follette hoped that the league would also form a base of support for a challenge against Taft for the 1912 Republican presidential nomination. The league won the endorsement of nine senators, 16 congressmen, four governors, and well-known individuals like Pinchot and Louis Brandeis, but notably lacked the support of former President Roosevelt. Explaining his refusal to join the league, Roosevelt asserted that he viewed the organization as too radical, stating his "wish to follow in the path of Abraham Lincoln rather than in the path of John Brown and Wendell Phillips".


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: By mid-1911, most progressives believed that the battle for the 1912 Republican nomination would be waged between La Follette and Taft, but La Follette himself feared that Roosevelt would jump into the race. Many progressive leaders strongly criticized La Follette for focusing on writing his autobiography rather than on campaigning across the country. La Follette believed that his autobiography would help him win votes, and said: "Every line of this autobiography is written for the express purpose of exhibiting the struggle for a more representative government which is going forward in this country, and to cheer on the fighters for that cause." Roosevelt announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in early 1912, but La Follette rejected the request of Pinchot and some other progressives leaders to drop out of the race and endorse the former president.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: In Philadelphia on February 2, 1912, La Follette delivered a disastrous speech to the Periodical Publishers Banquet. He spoke for two hours before an audience of 500 nationally influential magazine editors and writers. Congressman Henry Cooper, a friend and ally of the senator, was there and made a memorandum:La Follette killed himself politically by his most unfortunate (worse than that speech). It was a shocking scene. He lost his temper repeatedly–shook his fist–at listeners who had started to walk out too tired to listen longer–was abusive, ugly in manner...From the very outset his speech was tedious, inappropriate (for a banquet occasion like that), stereotyped; like too many others of his [it was] extreme in matter and especially in manner...LaFollette’s secretary, came over to me…and with a dejected, disgusted look said softly to me–”This is terrible–he is making a d___d fool of himself.” It ends him for the Presidency.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: Most of the audience decided La Follette had suffered a mental breakdown, and most of his supporters shifted to Roosevelt. La Follette's family said he was distraught after learning that his daughter, Mary, required surgery. She recovered but his candidacy did not. Nonetheless, La Follette continued to campaign, focusing his attacks on Roosevelt rather than Taft.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: La Follette hoped to rejuvenate his campaign with victories in the 1912 Republican primaries, but was able to win in only Wisconsin and North Dakota. He continued to oppose Roosevelt at the 1912 Republican National Convention, which ultimately re-nominated Taft. Roosevelt's supporters bolted the Republican Party, established the Progressive Party, and nominated Roosevelt on a third party ticket. La Follette continued to attack Roosevelt as a traitor to the progressive cause. He remained neutral in the three-way general election contest between Roosevelt, Taft, and the Democratic nominee, Woodrow Wilson. With the Republican Party split, Wilson emerged triumphant in the 1912 election. La Follette's conduct during the campaign destroyed his standing as the leader of progressive Republicans in the Senate, as many progressives believed that La Follette's refusal to work with Roosevelt had damaged the progressive cause and abetted Taft's re-nomination as Republican candidate.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: La Follette initially hoped to work closely with the Wilson administration, but Wilson ultimately chose to rely on congressional Democrats to pass legislation. Nonetheless, La Follette was the lone Republican senator to vote for the Revenue Act of 1913, which lowered tariff rates and levied a federal income tax. La Follette, who wanted to use the income tax for the purpose of income redistribution, influenced the bill by calling for a higher surtax on those earning more than $100,000 per year. La Follette and his fellow progressives challenged Wilson's proposed Federal Reserve Act as being overly-friendly towards the banking establishment, but Wilson convinced Democrats to enact his bill. La Follette also clashed with Southern Democrats like James K. Vardaman, who directed the farm benefits of the Smith–Lever Act of 1914 away from African-Americans. In 1915, La Follette won passage of the Seamen's Act, which allowed sailors to quit their jobs at any port where cargo was unloaded; the bill also required passenger ships to include lifeboats.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: In the 1914 mid-term elections, La Follette and his progressive allies in Wisconsin suffered a major defeat when conservative railroad executive Emanuel L. Philipp won election as governor. La Follette fended off a primary challenge in 1916 and went on to decisively defeat his Democratic opponent in the general election, but Philipp also won re-election. By 1916, foreign policy had emerged as the key issue in the country, and La Follette strongly opposed American interventions in Latin America. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, La Follette praised the Wilson administration's policy of neutrality, but he broke with the president as Wilson pursued policies favorable to the Allied Powers. Theodore Roosevelt called him a "skunk who ought to be hanged" when he opposed the arming of American merchant ships.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: La Follette opposed United States entry into World War I. On April 4, 1917, the day of the vote on a war declaration by the US Congress, La Follette in a debate before the US Senate said, "Stand firm against the war and the future will honor you. Collective homicide can not establish human rights. For our country to enter the European war would be treason to humanity." Eventually, the U.S. Senate voted to support entry to the war 82–6, with the resolution passing the House of Representatives 373–50 two days later. La Follette faced immediate pushback, including by the "Wisconsin State Journal", whose editorial claimed La Follette to be acting on behalf of German interests. The newspaper said, "It reveals his position to be decidedly pro-German (and) un-American... It is nothing short of pathetic to witness a man like La Follette, whose many brave battles for democracy have endeared him to the hearts of hundreds of thousands of Americans, now lending himself to the encouragement of autocracy. And that is all it is". After the U.S. declared war, La Follette denounced many of the administration's wartime policies, including the Selective Service Act of 1917 and the Espionage Act of 1917. This earned the ire of many Americans, who believed that La Follette was a traitor to his country, effectively supporting Germany.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in late 1917, La Follette supported the Bolsheviks, whom he believed were "struggling to establish an industrial democracy". He denounced the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in 1919, which he thought stemmed from Wilson's desire to prevent the spread of socialism. During the First Red Scare, a post-war period in the United States marked by the widespread fear of socialism and anarchism, La Follette condemned the Palmer Raids, sought the repeal of the Espionage Act, and proposed amnesty for political prisoners like Eugene V. Debs. Along with a diverse array of progressive and conservative Republican senators, he helped prevent the U.S. from ratifying the Treaty of Versailles. La Follette believed that the League of Nations, a vital component of the Treaty of Versailles, was primarily designed to protect the dominant financial interests of the United States and the Allied Powers.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: La Follette retained influence in Wisconsin after the war, and he led a progressive delegation to the 1920 Republican National Convention. Nationwide, however, the Republican Party had increasingly embraced conservatism, and La Follette was denounced as a Bolshevik when he called for the repeal of the 1920 Esch–Cummins Act. After the Republican Party nominated conservative senator Warren G. Harding, La Follette explored a third-party presidential bid, though he ultimately did not seek the presidency because various progressive groups were unable to agree on a platform. After the 1920 presidential election, which was won by Harding, La Follette became part of a "farm bloc" of congressmen who sought federal farm loans, a reduction in tariff rates, and other policies designed to help farmers. He also resisted the tax cuts proposed by Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, and his opposition helped prevent Congress from cutting taxes as deeply as had been proposed by the secretary of the treasury.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: In 1922, La Follette decisively defeated a primary challenge from conservative allies of President Harding, and he went on to win re-election with 81 percent of the vote. Nationwide, the elections saw the defeat of many conservative Republicans, leaving La Follette and his allies with control of the balance of power in Congress. After the Supreme Court struck down a federal child labor law, La Follette became increasingly critical of the Court, and he proposed an amendment that would allow Congress to repass any law declared unconstitutional. La Follette also began investigations into the Harding administration, and his efforts ultimately helped result in the unearthing of the Teapot Dome scandal. Harding died in August 1923 and was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge, who was firmly in the conservative wing of the Republican Party.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: In 1920–21, La Follette continued his support for the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War, in addition to his vigorous denunciation of imperialism and militarism in that conflict and beyond. In the American and British versions, he continued to oppose the treaty oversight settlement and continued to reject the League of Nations. He advocated self-government for Ireland, India, Egypt, and withdrawal of foreign interest from China. By 1922, he focused primarily on domestic affairs.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: By 1924, conservatives were ascendant in both major parties. In 1923, La Follette began planning for a third party run for the presidency, sending his allies to various states to build up a base of support and ensure ballot access. In early 1924, a group of labor unions, socialists, and farm groups, inspired by the success of Britain's Labour Party, established the Conference for Progressive Political Action (CPPA) as an umbrella organization of left-wing groups. Aside from labor unions and farm groups, the CPPA also included groups representing African Americans, women, and college voters. The CPPA scheduled a national convention to nominate a candidate for president in July 1924. La Follette had changed his previous pro-Bolshevik stance after visiting the Soviet Union in late 1923, where he had seen the impact of Communism on civil liberties and political rights. With other left-wing groups supporting La Follette, the Communist Party nominated its first ever candidate for president, William Z. Foster.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: On July 3, 1924, one day before the CPPA convention, La Follette announced his candidacy in the 1924 presidential election, stating that, "to break the combined power of the private monopoly system over the political and economic life of the American people is the one paramount issue." The CPPA convention, which was dominated by supporters of La Follette, quickly endorsed his presidential bid. La Follette's first choice for his running mate, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Louis Brandeis, refused to join the campaign. The convention instead nominated Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana, a progressive Democrat who had refused to endorse John W. Davis, the Democratic nominee for president. Though the Socialists pushed for a full slate of candidates, at La Follette's insistence, the CPPA did not establish a formal third party or field candidates for races other than the presidency. La Follette would appear on the ballot in every state except Louisiana, but his ticket was known by a variety of labels, including "Progressive", "Socialist", "Non-Partisan", and "Independent".


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: After the convention, the Socialist Party of America, acting on the advice of perennial presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs, endorsed La Follette's candidacy. The American Federation of Labor and numerous other worker's groups also threw their support behind La Follette. Among the notable individuals who endorsed La Follette were birth control activist Margaret Sanger, African-American leader W. E. B. Du Bois, economist Thorstein Veblen, and newspaper publisher E. W. Scripps. Harold L. Ickes and some other progressives who had supported Roosevelt's 1912 candidacy threw their backing behind La Follette, though others, including Gifford Pinchot, endorsed Coolidge. Another group supporting La Follette was the Steuben Society a German-American organization that claimed a membership of six million.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: La Follette's platform was based on many of the issues that he had been campaigning on throughout his political career. He called for government ownership of the railroads and electric utilities, cheap credit for farmers, the outlawing of child labor, stronger laws to help labor unions, more protection of civil liberties, an end to American imperialism in Latin America, and a referendum before any president could again lead the nation into war. Professional gamblers initially gave La Follette a 16-to-1 odds of winning, and many expected that his candidacy would force a contingent election in the House of Representatives. As election day approached, however, those hoping for a La Follette victory became more pessimistic. The various groups supporting La Follette often clashed, and his campaign was not nearly as well-financed as those of Davis and especially Coolidge. Corporate leaders, who saw in La Follette the specter of class warfare, mobilized against his third-party candidacy. Republicans campaigned on a "Coolidge or chaos" platform, arguing that the election of La Follette would severely disrupt economic growth. Having little fear of a Democratic victory, the Republican Party mainly focused its campaign attacks on La Follette. In August and September, La Follette expressed his opposal to the Ku Klux Klan, describing the organization as containing "seeds of death" in its own body and his hatred for immigration quotas on the basis of racial discrimination, while defending control of immigration regarding economic issues. In response to La Follette's statements regarding the Klan, Imperial Wizard Hiram Wesley Evans denounced La Follette as being the "arch enemy of the country".


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: Ultimately, La Follette took 16.6 percent of the vote, while Coolidge won a majority of the popular and electoral vote. La Follette carried his home state of Wisconsin and finished second in eleven states, all of which were west of the Mississippi River. He performed best in rural areas and working-class urban areas, with much of his support coming from individuals affiliated with the Socialist Party. La Follette's 16.6 percent showing represents the third best popular vote showing for a third party since the American Civil War (after Roosevelt in 1912 and Ross Perot in 1992), and with him winning of his home state of Wisconsin. The CPPA dissolved shortly after the election as various groups withdrew support.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: La Follette died in Washington, D.C. of a cardiovascular disease, complicated by bronchitis and pneumonia, on June 18, 1925, four days after his 70th birthday. He was buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery on the near west side of Madison, Wisconsin. After his death, his senate seat was offered to his wife, Belle Case La Follette, but she declined the offer. Subsequently, his son Robert M. La Follette Jr. was elected the senator from Wisconsin.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: After her husband's death, Belle Case remained an influential figure and editor. By the mid-1930s, the La Follettes had reformed the Progressive Party on the state level in the form of the Wisconsin Progressive Party. The party quickly, if briefly, became the dominant political power in the state, electing seven Progressive congressmen in 1934 and 1936. Their younger son, Philip La Follette, was elected Governor of Wisconsin, while their older son, Robert M. La Follette Jr., succeeded his father as senator. La Follette's daughter, Fola La Follette, was a prominent suffragette and labor activist and was married to the playwright George Middleton. A grandson, Bronson La Follette, served several terms as the Attorney General of Wisconsin and was the 1968 Democratic gubernatorial nominee. La Follette has also influenced numerous other progressive politicians outside of Wisconsin, including Floyd B. Olson, Upton Sinclair, Fiorello La Guardia, and Wayne Morse. Senator and 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has frequently been compared to La Follette.


title: Robert M. La Follette

text: In 1957, a Senate Committee chaired by Senator John F. Kennedy selected La Follette to be one of the five senators to be listed in the senate "hall of fame", along with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, and Robert A. Taft. A 1982 survey asking historians to rank the "ten greatest Senators in the nation's history" based on "accomplishments in office" and "long range impact on American history", placed La Follette first, tied with Henry Clay. Writing in 1998, historian John D. Buenker described La Follette as "the most celebrated figure in Wisconsin history". La Follette is represented by one of two statues from Wisconsin in the National Statuary Hall. An oval portrait of La Follette, painted by his cousin, Chester La Follette, also hangs in the Senate. The Robert M. La Follette House in Maple Bluff, Wisconsin, is a National Historic Landmark. Other things named for La Follette include La Follette High School in Madison, the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the town of La Follette, Wisconsin.


title: Indian School of Business

text: The Indian School of Business (ISB) is a private business school established in India in 2001. It has two parallel campuses in India, in Hyderabad (Telangana) and Mohali (Punjab). It offers certificates in various post-graduate management programs. ISB became the 100th Triple Accredited business school in the world (AMBA, EQUIS, AACSB) upon achieving AMBA accreditation on 12 May 2020.


title: Indian School of Business

text: ISB is currently the highest ranked business school in India as ranked by the Forbes, Financial Times, Economist, Poets&Quants and Bloomberg Businesssweek Global MBA Rankings


title: Indian School of Business

text: The Indian School of Business (ISB) was started in 1996 by a group of businessmen and academics. Co-founders Rajat Gupta and Anil Kumar, senior executives of McKinsey & Company, directed teams of McKinsey consultants to start the school. Gupta recruited U.S. business leaders while Kumar recruited Indian leaders for its executive board. Formal partnerships were established with international business schools Wharton and Kellogg. Pramath Sinha, then a junior partner at McKinsey in India, was persuaded to take a leave of absence to be the school's first dean. Rajat Gupta became the school's first chairman and was succeeded by Adi Godrej in 2011. The then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Sri N. Chandrababu Naidu played an important role for establishment of ISB in Hyderabad. The foundation stone for the campus was laid in 1999 and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2001. The Government of Punjab sanctioned the Mohali Campus in 2010; its foundation stone was laid in September 2010 by Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, and was inaugurated in December 2012 by the then Union Minister of Finance, P. Chidambaram.


title: Indian School of Business

text: It is the older campus and was designed by Vikram Lall and established in 2001 and is spread across . It includes the academic centre, a recreation centre, and four student villages each accommodating 130 to 210 students.


title: Indian School of Business

text: The modern Mohali campus began operations on 14 April 2012, and offers ISB's Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) and additional short-term executive education programs. The campus was designed by Perkins Eastman Architects led by Aaron Schwarz. The entire campus is Wi-Fi enabled. The academic block houses lecture theatres, faculty offices and lounge, the learning resource centre (LRC), and an atrium which can serve as a 500-seat auditorium. The campus also hosts four other research institutes:


title: Indian School of Business

text: ISB is accredited by AMBA, EQUIS and AACSB. ISB became the 100th Triple Accredited institution in the world upon achieving AMBA accreditation on 12 May 2020.


title: Indian School of Business

text: ISB is not accredited by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and has not applied for such accreditation, as it offers a certificate program and not a degree or a diploma. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has ruled that for the purposes of US Visa and Green Cards, the post-graduate PGP certificate awarded by ISB is not equivalent to a Master of Business Administration degree, unlike similarly named certificates awarded by the Indian Institutes of Management.


title: Indian School of Business

text: ISB is the academic partner for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneurs Certificate programme in India which provides management education to "under-served women".


title: Indian School of Business

text: The Young Leaders' Programme (YLP) select undergraduate students for mentoring over a period of two years while they work. These individuals are also awarded a scholarship of 100,000 (approx. US$2000) during the course of the programme. Mentored students can join ISB following successful completion of the work-mentorship programme. 45 undergraduate students were selected for when the programme began in 2011.


title: Indian School of Business

text: YLP at Hyderabad includes integrated budgetary system (IBS), integrated financing system (IFS), management information service (MIS) marketing, and management control system (MCS).


title: Indian School of Business

text: The Management Programme in Public Policy (MPPP) began in 2015 and was developed by the Bharti Institute of Public Policy in consultation with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The programme is oriented towards mid-career professionals, examining public policy perspectives on a wide range of economic and management subjects. The first class of students were drawn from government, public sector and civil society organisations.


title: Indian School of Business

text: Every year ISB Organizing Policy Conclave Program, This Policy Conclaveis a policy summit that brings together luminaries from the public sector, private sector and the civil society along with the brightest minds at ISB to discuss policy issues. The idea is to focus on shaping the dialogue, setting the narrative and focusing agenda on issues that really matter for the India beyond 2020.


title: Indian School of Business

text: "ISBInsight" (stylized ISB"Insight") is the biannual research periodical of ISB, featuring articles based on management research from Indian and emerging markets. It presents research across management areas such as strategy, marketing, information technology, accounting, behavioural studies, finance, economics and public policy. It also publishes interviews with leaders and decision makers from industry, academia, government and non-governmental organisations.


title: Indian School of Business

text: Worldwide, the "Financial Times" has ranked ISB  32 (No.1 from India) in its Global MBA Ranking 2022 .


title: Indian School of Business

text: Poets and Quants ranks ISB as the 17th best business school (No.1 from India) outside the US It is ranked fifth in the Asia Pacific region (No.1 in India) by Bloomberg Businessweek's global rankings for best business schools.


title: Radiculopathy

text: Radiculopathy, also commonly referred to as pinched nerve, refers to a set of conditions in which one or more nerves are affected and do not work properly (a neuropathy). Radiculopathy can result in pain (radicular pain), weakness, altered sensation (paresthesia) or difficulty controlling specific muscles. Pinched nerves arise when surrounding bone or tissue, such as cartilage, muscles or tendons, put pressure on the nerve and disrupt its function.


title: Radiculopathy

text: In a radiculopathy, the problem occurs at or near the root of the nerve, shortly after its exit from the spinal cord. However, the pain or other symptoms often radiate to the part of the body served by that nerve. For example, a nerve root impingement in the neck can produce pain and weakness in the forearm. Likewise, an impingement in the lower back or lumbar-sacral spine can be manifested with symptoms in the foot.


title: Radiculopathy

text: The radicular pain that results from a radiculopathy should not be confused with referred pain, which is different both in mechanism and clinical features. "Polyradiculopathy" refers to the condition where more than one spinal nerve root is affected.


title: Radiculopathy

text: Radiculopathy most often is caused by mechanical compression of a nerve root usually at the exit foramen or lateral recess. It may be secondary to intervertebral disk herniation (most commonly at C7 and then the C6 level), degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis, facet joint degeneration/hypertrophy, ligamentous hypertrophy, spondylolisthesis, or a combination of these factors. Other possible causes of radiculopathy include neoplastic disease, infections such as shingles, HIV, or Lyme disease, spinal epidural abscess, spinal epidural hematoma, proximal diabetic neuropathy, Tarlov cysts, or, more rarely, sarcoidosis, arachnoiditis, tethered spinal cord syndrome, or transverse myelitis.


title: Radiculopathy

text: Repeated, longer term exposure (5 years or more) to certain work-related activities may put people at risk of developing lumbosacral radiculopathy. These behaviours may include physically demanding work, bending over or twisting at the trunk, lifting and carrying, or a combination of these activities.


title: Radiculopathy

text: Less common causes of radiculopathy include injury caused by tumor (which can compress nerve roots locally) and diabetes (which can effectively cause ischemia or lack of blood flow to nerves).


title: Radiculopathy

text: Radiculopathy is a diagnosis commonly made by physicians in primary care specialties, orthopedics, physiatry, and neurology. The diagnosis may be suggested by symptoms of pain, numbness, paresthesia, and weakness in a pattern consistent with the distribution of a particular nerve root, such as sciatica. Neck pain or back pain may also be present. Physical examination may reveal motor and sensory deficits in the distribution of a nerve root. In the case of cervical radiculopathy, Spurling's test may elicit or reproduce symptoms radiating down the arm. Similarly, in the case of lumbosacral radiculopathy, a straight leg raise maneuver or a femoral nerve stretch test may demonstrate radiculopathic symptoms down the leg. Deep tendon reflexes (also known as a Stretch reflex) may be diminished or absent in areas innervated by a particular nerve root.


title: Radiculopathy

text: Diagnosis typically involves electromyography and lumbar puncture. Shingles is more common among the elderly and immunocompromised; usually (but not always) pain is followed by appearance of a rash with small blisters along a single dermatome. It can be confirmed by quick laboratory tests. Acute Lyme radiculopathy follows a history of outdoor activities during warmer months in likely tick habitats in the previous 1–12 weeks. In the U.S., Lyme is most common in New England and Mid-Atlantic states and parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota, but it is expanding to other areas. The first manifestation is usually an expanding rash possibly accompanied by flu-like symptoms. Lyme radiculopathy is usually worse at night and accompanied by extreme sleep disturbance, lymphocytic meningitis with variable headache and no fever, and sometimes by facial palsy or Lyme carditis. Lyme can also cause a milder, chronic radiculopathy an average of 8 months after the acute illness. Lyme can be confirmed by blood antibody tests and possibly lumbar puncture. If present, the above conditions should be treated immediately.


title: Radiculopathy

text: Although most cases of radiculopathy are compressive and resolve with conservative treatment within 4–6 weeks, guidelines for managing radiculopathy recommend first excluding possible causes that, although rare, require immediate attention, among them the following. Cauda equina syndrome should be investigated in case of saddle anesthesia, loss of bladder or bowel control, or leg weakness. Cancer should be suspected if there is previous history of cancer, unexplained weight loss, or low-back pain that does not decrease by lying down or is unremitting. Spinal epidural abscess is more common among those with diabetes mellitus or immunocompromised, who use intravenous drugs, or had spinal surgery, injection or catheter; it typically causes fever, leukocytosis and increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate. If any of the previous is suspected, urgent magnetic resonance imaging is recommended for confirmation. Proximal diabetic neuropathy typically affects middle aged and older people with well-controlled type-2 diabetes mellitus; onset is sudden causing pain usually in multiple dermatomes quickly followed by weakness.


title: Radiculopathy

text: If symptoms do not improve after 4–6 weeks of conservative treatment, or the person is more than 50 years old, further tests are recommended. The American College of Radiology recommends that projectional radiography is the most appropriate initial study in all patients with chronic neck pain. Two additional diagnostic tests that may be of use are magnetic resonance imaging and electrodiagnostic testing. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the portion of the spine where radiculopathy is suspected may reveal evidence of degenerative change, arthritic disease, or another explanatory lesion responsible for the patient's symptoms. Electrodiagnostic testing, consisting of NCS (nerve conduction study) and EMG (electromyography), is also a powerful diagnostic tool that may show nerve root injury in suspected areas. On nerve conduction studies, the pattern of diminished Compound muscle action potential and normal sensory nerve action potential may be seen given that the lesion is proximal to the posterior root ganglion. Needle EMG is the more sensitive portion of the test, and may reveal active denervation in the distribution of the involved nerve root, and neurogenic-appearing voluntary motor units in more chronic radiculopathies. Given the key role of electrodiagnostic testing in the diagnosis of acute and chronic radiculopathies, the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine has issued evidence-based practice guidelines, for the diagnosis of both cervical and lumbosacral radiculopathies. The American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine has also participated in the Choosing Wisely Campaign and several of their recommendations relate to what tests are unnecessary for neck and back pain.


title: Radiculopathy

text: Ideally, effective treatment aims to resolve the underlying cause and restores the nerve root to normal function. Conservative treatment may include bed rest, physical therapy, or simply continuing to do usual activities; for pain, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, nonopioid or, in some cases, narcotic analgesics may be prescribed. A systematic review found moderate quality evidence that spinal manipulation is effective for the treatment of acute lumbar radiculopathy and cervical radiculopathy. Only low level evidence was found to support spinal manipulation for the treatment of chronic lumbar radiculopathies, and no evidence was found to exist for treatment of thoracic radiculopathy. Evidence also supports consideration of epidural steroid injection with local anesthetic in improving both pain and function in cases of lumbosacral radiculopathy.


title: Radiculopathy

text: With a recent injury (e.g. one that occurred one week ago), a formal physical therapy referral is not yet indicated. Often mild to moderate injuries will resolve or greatly improve within the first few weeks. Additionally, patients with acute injuries are often too sore to participate effectively in physical therapy so soon after the insult. Waiting two to three weeks is generally recommended before starting formal physical therapy. In acute injury resulting in lumbosacral radiculopathy, conservative treatment such as acetaminophen and NSAIDs should be the first line of therapy.


title: Radiculopathy

text: Therapeutic exercises are frequently used in combination with many of the previously mentioned modalities and with great results. A variety of exercise regimens are available in patient treatment. An exercise regimen should be modified according to the abilities and weaknesses of the patient. Stabilization of the cervicothoracic region is helpful in limiting pain and preventing re-injury. Cervical and lumbar support braces typically are not indicated for radiculopathy, and may lead to weakness of support musculature. The first part of the stabilization procedure is achieving a pain free full range of motion which can be accomplished through stretching exercises. Subsequently, a strengthening exercise program should be designed to restore the deconditioned cervical, shoulder girdle, and upper trunk musculature. As reliance on the neck brace diminishes, an isometric exercise regimen should be introduced. This is a preferred method of exercise during the sub-acute phase because it resists atrophy and is least likely to exacerbate the condition. Single plane resistance exercises against cervical flexion, extension, bending, and rotation are used.


title: Radiculopathy

text: While conservative approaches for rehabilitation are ideal, some patients will not improve and surgery is still an option. Patients with large cervical disk bulges may be recommended for surgery; however, most often, conservative management will help the herniation regress naturally. Procedures such as foraminotomy, laminotomy, or discectomy may be considered by neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons. Regarding surgical interventions for cervical radiculopathy, the anterior cervical discectomy and fusion procedure is more commonly performed than the posterior cervical foraminotomy procedure. However, both procedures are likely equally effective and without significant differences in their complication rates.


title: Radiculopathy

text: Cervical radiculopathy has an annual incidence rate of 107.3 per 100,000 for men and 63.5 per 100,000 for women, whereas lumbar radiculopathy has a prevalence of approximately 3-5% of the population. According to the AHRQ's 2010 National Statistics for cervical radiculopathy, the most affected age group is between 45 and 64 years with 51.03% of incidents. Females are affected more frequently than males and account for 53.69% of cases. Private insurance was the payer in 41.69% of the incidents followed by Medicare with 38.81%. In 71.61% of cases the patients' income was considered not low for their zipcode. Additionally over 50% of patients lived in large metropolitans (inner city or suburb). The South is the most severely affected region in the US with 39.27% of cases. According to a study performed in Minnesota, the most common manifestation of this set of conditions is the C7 monoradiculopathy, followed by C6.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The internal carotid artery (Latin: arteria carotis interna) is an artery in the neck which supplies the anterior circulation of the brain. In human anatomy, the internal and external carotids arise from the common carotid arteries, where these bifurcate at cervical vertebrae C3 or C4. The internal carotid artery supplies the brain, including the eyes, while the external carotid nourishes other portions of the head, such as the face, scalp, skull, and meninges.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: Terminologia Anatomica in 1998 subdivided the artery into four parts: "cervical", "petrous", "cavernous", and "cerebral". However, in clinical settings, the classification system of the internal carotid artery usually follows the 1996 recommendations by Bouthillier, describing seven anatomical segments of the internal carotid artery, each with a corresponding alphanumeric identifier—C1 cervical, C2 petrous, C3 lacerum, C4 cavernous, C5 clinoid, C6 ophthalmic, and C7 communicating. The Bouthillier nomenclature remains in widespread use by neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists and neurologists. The segments are subdivided based on anatomical and microsurgical landmarks and surrounding anatomy, more than angiographic appearance of the artery. An alternative embryologic classification system proposed by and colleagues is invaluable when it comes to explanation of many internal carotid artery variants. An older clinical classification, based on pioneering work by Fischer, is mainly of historical significance.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The internal carotid artery is a terminal branch of the common carotid artery; it arises around the level of the fourth cervical vertebra when the common carotid bifurcates into this artery and its more superficial counterpart, the external carotid artery.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The cervical segment, or C1, or cervical part of the internal carotid, extends from the carotid bifurcation until it enters the carotid canal in the skull anterior to the jugular foramen.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: At its origin, the internal carotid artery is somewhat dilated. This part of the artery is known as the carotid sinus or the carotid bulb. The ascending portion of the cervical segment occurs distal to the bulb when the vessel walls are again parallel.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The internal carotid runs vertically upward in the carotid sheath and enters the skull through the carotid canal. During this part of its course, it lies in front of the transverse processes of the upper three cervical vertebrae.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: It is relatively superficial at its start, where it is contained in the carotid triangle of the neck, and lies behind and medial to the external carotid, overlapped by the sternocleidomastoid muscle, and covered by the deep fascia, the platysma, and integument: it then passes beneath the parotid gland, being crossed by the hypoglossal nerve, the digastric muscle and the stylohyoid muscle, the occipital artery and the posterior auricular artery. Higher up, it is separated from the external carotid by the styloglossus and stylopharyngeus muscles, the tip of the styloid process and the stylohyoid ligament, the glossopharyngeal nerve and the pharyngeal branch of the vagus nerve. It is in relation, behind, with the longus capitis, the superior cervical ganglion of the sympathetic trunk, and the superior laryngeal nerve; laterally, with the internal jugular vein and vagus nerve, the nerve lying on a plane posterior to the artery; medially, with the pharynx, superior laryngeal nerve, and ascending pharyngeal artery. At the base of the skull the glossopharyngeal, vagus, accessory, and hypoglossal nerves lie between the artery and the internal jugular vein.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The petrous segment, or C2, of the internal carotid, is that which is inside the petrous part of the temporal bone. This segment extends until the foramen lacerum. The petrous portion classically has three sections: an ascending, or vertical, portion; the genu, or bend; and the horizontal portion.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: When the internal carotid artery enters the canal in the petrous portion of the temporal bone, it first ascends a short distance and then curves anteriorly and medially. The artery lies at first in front of the cochlea and tympanic cavity; from the latter cavity it is separated by a thin, bony lamella, which is cribriform in the young subject, and often partly absorbed in old age. Farther forward, it is separated from the trigeminal ganglion by a thin plate of bone, which forms the floor of the fossa for the ganglion and the roof of the horizontal portion of the canal. Frequently this bony plate is more or less deficient, and then the ganglion is separated from the artery by fibrous membrane. The artery is separated from the bony wall of the carotid canal by a prolongation of dura mater and is surrounded by a number of small veins and by filaments of the carotid plexus, derived from the ascending branch of the superior cervical ganglion of the sympathetic trunk.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The lacerum segment, or C3, is a short segment that begins above the foramen lacerum and ends at the petrolingual ligament, a reflection of periosteum between the lingula and petrous apex (or petrosal process) of the sphenoid bone. The lacerum portion is still considered "extradural" since it is surrounded by periosteum and fibrocartilage along its course. It is erroneously stated in several anatomy textbooks that the internal carotid artery passes through the foramen lacerum. This at best has only ever been a partial truth in that it passes through the superior part of the foramen on its way to the cavernous sinus. As such it does not traverse the skull through it. The inferior part of the foramen is actually filled with fibrocartilage. The broad consensus is that the internal carotid artery should not be described as travelling through the foramen lacerum.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The cavernous segment, or C4, of the internal carotid artery begins at the petrolingual ligament and extends to the proximal dural ring, which is formed by the medial and inferior periosteum of the anterior clinoid process. The cavernous segment is surrounded by the cavernous sinus.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: In this part of its course, the artery is situated between the layers of the dura mater forming the cavernous sinus, but covered by the lining membrane of the sinus. It at first ascends toward the posterior clinoid process, then passes forward by the side of the body of the sphenoid bone, again curves upward on the medial side of the anterior clinoid process, and perforates the dura mater forming the roof of the sinus. The curve in the cavernous segment is called the carotid siphon. This portion of the artery is surrounded by filaments of the sympathetic trunk, and on its lateral side is the abducent nerve, or cranial nerve VI.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The cavernous segment also gives rise to small capsular arteries that supply the wall of the cavernous sinus.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The clinoid segment, or C5, is another short segment of the internal carotid that begins after the artery exits the cavernous sinus at the proximal dural ring and extends distally to the distal dural ring, after which the carotid artery is considered "intra-dural" and has entered the subarachnoid space.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The clinoid segment normally has no named branches, though the ophthalmic artery may arise from the clinoid segment.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The ophthalmic segment, or C6, extends from the distal dural ring, which is continuous with the falx cerebri, to the origin of the posterior communicating artery. The ophthalmic segment courses roughly horizontally, parallel to the optic nerve, which runs superomedially to the carotid at this point.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The communicating segment, or terminal segment, or C7, of the internal carotid artery passes between the optic and oculomotor nerves to the anterior perforated substance at the medial extremity of the lateral cerebral fissure. Angiographically, this segment extends from the origin of the posterior communicating artery to the bifurcation of the internal carotid artery.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The internal carotid then divides to form the anterior cerebral artery and middle cerebral artery. The Circle of Willis provides a collateral pathway for blood supply to the brain.


title: Internal carotid artery

text: The sympathetic trunk forms a plexus of nerves around the artery known as the carotid plexus. The internal carotid nerve arises from the superior cervical ganglion, and forms this plexus, which follows the internal carotid into the skull.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: Thoma Bravo, LP, is an American private equity and growth capital firm with offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Miami. It is known for being particularly active in acquiring software companies and has over $114 billion in assets under management. It is the successor to the firm Golder Thoma & Co., which was established in 1980 by Stanley Golder and Carl Thoma. Thoma Bravo is led by managing partners Seth Boro, Orlando Bravo, Scott Crabill, Lee Mitchell, Holden Spaht and Carl Thoma.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In 2021 it was the highest growing major buyout firm in the world. In February 2019, the French business school HEC Paris, in conjunction with Dow Jones, named Thoma Bravo, the best-performing buyout investor after studying 898 funds raised between 2005 and 2014. The company focuses on the application, infrastructure and cybersecurity software and technology-enabled business service sectors, and uses a "consolidation" or "buy and build" investment strategy.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: Called by the "Financial Times", "one of the most active acquirers of software companies in the world", it has done over 300 software deals since 2003 and oversees a portfolio of over 40 software companies.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: According to public data analyzed by "Forbes", its funds returned 30% net annually. Since 2015, Thoma Bravo has sold or listed 25 investments worth $20 billion, four times their cost.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: Thoma Cressey Equity Partners began investing in the enterprise software sector in 2002 with the acquisition of Prophet21, a provider of software for durable goods distributors.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In 2014, the company acquired Riverbed Technology for $3.6 billion. Riverbed later filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in December 2021.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: After the purchase of edtech company Instructure in 2020, the purchase was accused of being "rushed" and "riddled by conflicts of interest" by a large shareholder at the time.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In March 2022, Thoma Bravo acquired the enterprise cloud software company, Anaplan for $10.7 billion (€9.6bn). The acquisition completed in June 2022 following Thoma Bravo cutting the takeover offer down to $10.4 billion after alleging that the company had violated the acquisition terms by overpaying new hires.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In August 2022, the company agreed to buy Nearmap, its first Australian acquisition, for (US$730 million).


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In December 2022, the company outbid Vista Equity Partners to announce its acquisition of Coupa Software for $6.15 billion in cash, and a total enterprise value of $8 billion.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In 2022, Thoma Bravo made a series of security related investments. In April, it announced acquisition of identity security company, SailPoint for $6.9 billion with financing from private lenders. SailPoint specializes in providing secure access to remote work software and cloud infrastructure protection. In August, it agreed to buy Ping Identity for $2.8 billion in an all-cash transaction. In October, it agreed to buy ForgeRock for $2.3 billion in an all-cash deal.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In April 2022, Thoma Bravo divested of its companies, the cloud-first security solutions provider, Barracuda Networks to KKR for an undisclosed sum.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In May 2022, Thoma Bravo acquired Bottomline Technologies for $2.6 billion in an all-cash transaction.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In 1980 Stanley Golder and Carl Thoma established Golder Thoma & Co, a company that has been credited as creating the “consolidation” or “buy and build” investment strategy. In 1984, Bryan Cressey was recruited to join the firm from First Chicago, and the firm's name was changed to Golder Thoma Cressey. With the promotion of Bruce Rauner to partner, it became Golder, Thoma, Cressey, Rauner, Inc. (GTCR).


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In 1998, the firm split into two firms: GTCR Golder Rauner, for raising larger funds and pursuing larger investments; and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners, which continued the firm's longstanding focus on the "middle market".


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In 2008, Thoma Cressey Bravo became Thoma Bravo after Bryan Cressey left the company to establish a separate healthcare services fund, Cressey & Co.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: The firm closed its 12th fund in September 2016, with $7.6 billion. Thoma Bravo raised $12.6 billion for its 13th fund, which was announced in January 2019.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In October 2019, Thoma Bravo’s co-founder and managing partner, Orlando Bravo, was named the first Puerto Rican-born billionaire as he debuted at 287th place on the Forbes 400 ranking of the wealthiest Americans.


title: Thoma Bravo

text: In December 2021, it was reported that Thoma Bravo had taken more multi-billion dollar public companies private in the past year than any other buyout firm. At the same time, company executives sought to raise $35 billion for more acquisitions.


title: Morgause

text: The Queen of Orkney, today best known as Morgause and also known as Morgawse and other spellings and names, is a character in later Arthurian traditions. In some versions of the legend, including the seminal text "Le Morte d'Arthur", she is the mother of Gawain and Mordred, both key players in the story of King Arthur and his downfall. Mordred is the offspring of Arthur's accidental incest with Morgause, the king's estranged half-sister. She is furthermore a sister of Morgan le Fay and the wife of King Lot of Orkney, as well as the mother of Gareth, Agravain, and Gaheris, the last of whom murders her.


title: Morgause

text: The corresponding character of Arthur's sister in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th-century Latin chronicle "Historia Regum Britanniae" is named Anna, and is depicted as a daughter of Uther Pendragon and Igraine. In Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival", Anna is replaced by Sangive, whom the poet Der Pleier calls Seife. They are usually cast in the role of Lot's wife and Gawain's mother. Gawain is usually given various sisters, and in "Parzival" he also has a brother named Beacurs.


title: Morgause

text: The mother of Gawain's Welsh forerunner, Gwalchmei ap Gwyar, is thought to be Gwyar. In later Welsh Arthurian literature, Gawain is considered synonymous with the native champion Gwalchmei; "Gwyar" (meaning "gore" or "spilled blood/bloodshed") is likely the name of Gwalchmei's mother, rather than his father as is the standard in the Welsh Triads. (Matronyms were sometimes used in Wales, as in the case of Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion fab Dôn, and were also fairly common in early Ireland.) Gwyar is named as a female, a daughter of Amlawdd Wledig, in one version of the hagiographical genealogy "Bonedd y Saint", while the 14th-century "Birth of Arthur" substitutes Gwyar for Geoffrey's Anna as Gwalchmei/Gawain's mother. Other sources do not follow this substitution, however, indicating that Gwyar and Anna/Morgause originated independently.


title: Morgause

text: The earliest known form of a Morgause-type name is Orcades, given to her in the First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' "Perceval" (the former of which was once attributed to Wauchier de Denain and dated c. 1200). In the works by Chrétien and his continuators, she features as the mother of her sons Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, Gareth and Mordred, and her daughters include Clarissant and Soredamor. As Morcades she also appears in "Les Enfances Gauvain" (early 13th century) and again in Heinrich von dem Türlin's "Diu Crône" (c. 1230). It is likely that her name was originally a place name, as "Orcades" coincides with the Latin name for the Orkney Islands, the land traditionally ruled by Gawain's parents. Medievalist Roger Sherman Loomis suggests that this toponym was corrupted into "Morcades" (or "Morchades", "Morcads") and finally "Morgause" due to the influence of the name "Morgan".


title: Morgause

text: Her parallel in the late 13th-century "Arthour and Merlin" is named Belisent and the 15th-century Italian compilation "La Tavola Ritonda" calls her Albagia. Der Pleier's 13th-century German "Meleranz" named the parents of Gaheris (but not Gawain, whose mother is Seife) as the King of Gritenland and Arthur's sister Anthonje.


title: Morgause

text: In Thomas Malory's 1485 compilation of Arthurian legends "Le Morte d'Arthur", Morgause (Margawse) is one of three daughters born to Gorlois of Tintagel, Duke of Cornwall, and his wife Lady Igraine. According to Malory (following the French prose cycles), her mother is widowed by, and then remarried to, the high king Uther Pendragon (Arthur's father). Afterwards, she and her sisters, Elaine and Morgan ("le Fay", later the mother of Yvain), are married off to allies or vassals of their stepfather. The young Morgause is wed to the Orcadian King Lot and bears him four sons, all of whom go on to serve Arthur as Knights of the Round Table: Gawain, one of his greatest knights; Agravain, a wretched and twisted traitor; Gaheris; and Gareth, a gentle and loving young knight.


title: Morgause

text: Years later, her spouse joins the failed rebellions against Arthur that follow in the wake of King Uther's death and the subsequent discovery and coronation of his heir. Acting as a spy during the war, Morgause comes to Carleon where she visits the young King Arthur, ignorant of their familial relationship, in his bedchamber and they conceive Mordred. Her husband, who has unsuspectingly raised Mordred as his own son, is later slain in battle by King Pellinore. All of her sons depart their father's court to take service at Camelot, where Gawain and Gaheris avenge Lot's death by killing Pellinore, thereby launching a long blood feud between the two families.


title: Morgause

text: Nevertheless, Morgause has an affair with Sir Lamorak, a son of Pellinore and one of Arthur's best knights. One time, Lancelot and Bleoberis find Lamorak and Meleagant fighting over which queen is more beautiful, Morgause or Guinevere. Eventually, her son Gaheris discovers them "in flagrante" at castle Rethename. Enraged, he grabs Morgause by her hair and swiftly beheads her, but spares her unarmed lover (who is left naked in bed covered in her blood, and is killed later by four Orkney brothers in an unequal fight). Gaheris is consequently banished from court of Arthur (though he reappears later in the narrative, eventually being slain by Lancelot). In the "Post-Vulgate Cycle", Gaheris' brothers Gawain and Agravain initially plot to kill him in revenge for Morgause's death until they are persuaded by Gareth and Bors to end the bloodshed in the family. In Malory's telling, however, Lancelot calls the slaying of Morgause "shameful" but Gawain seems to be angry at Gaheris only for leaving Lamorak alive at the spot. Her death was first included in the Post-Vulgate "Queste"; Malory used the variant from the Second Version of the Prose "Tristan".


title: Morgause

text: The act of Mordred's conception is described variably in the different works of Arthurian romance. In the Vulgate "Merlin", the episode takes place earlier, back when Arthur was only Kay's mere squire (prior to the drawing of Excalibur) and completely oblivious about his true heritage. During a meeting of the lords of Britain, when King Lot is out hunting, Arthur sneaks into the queen's chamber and pretends to be her husband; she eventually discovers the deception, but forgives him the next morning. Conversely, a flashback scene in the Post-Vulgate "Merlin Continuation" portrays the Queen of Orkney as aware and willing in her incestous tryst with Arthur.


title: Morgause

text: In modern Arthuriana, the character of Morgause is often conflated with that of Morgan le Fay; in John Boorman's film "Excalibur" (1981), for instance, Morgause's role as the mother of Mordred is transferred to "Morgana". According to E. R. Huber, "What becomes clear on reading "Le Morte d'Arthur" and its medieval predecessors is that Morgause was not a villain until the modern period." Some modern authors such as Alfred Tennyson or Howard Pyle use the name Bellicent.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: The relationship between religion and homosexuality has varied greatly across time and place, within and between different religions and denominations, with regard to different forms of homosexuality and bisexuality. The present-day doctrines of the world's major religions and their denominations differ in their attitudes toward these sexual orientations.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Homosexuality was considered a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association until 1973, when activists pushed the organization to change this designation. It was only in 1987 that homosexuality was completely removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It was in the wake of the AIDS epidemic, which began in 1981, that the acceptance of homosexuality in the wider culture began to increase from something which previously had been close to non-existent.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Among the religious denominations which generally reject these orientations, there are many different types of opposition, ranging from quietly discouraging homosexual activity, explicitly forbidding same-sex sexual practices among their adherents and actively opposing social acceptance of homosexuality, supporting criminal sanctions up to capital punishment, and even to condoning extrajudicial killings. Religious fundamentalism often correlates with anti-homosexual bias. Psychological research has connected religiosity with homophobic attitudes and physical antigay hostility, and has traced religious opposition to gay adoption to collectivistic values (loyalty, authority, purity) and low flexibility in existential issues, rather than to high prosocial inclinations for the weak. Attitudes toward homosexuality have been found to be determined not only by personal religious beliefs, but by the interaction of those beliefs with the predominant national religious context—even for people who are less religious or who do not share their local dominant religious context. Many argue that it is homosexual actions which are sinful, rather than same-sex attraction itself. To this end, some discourage labeling individuals according to sexual orientation. Several organizations assert that conversion therapy can help diminish same-sex attraction.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: However, some adherents of many religions view homosexuality and bisexuality positively, and some denominations routinely bless same-sex marriages and support LGBT rights, a growing trend as much of the developed world enacts laws supporting LGBT rights.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Historically, some cultures and religions accommodated, institutionalized, or revered same-sex love and sexuality; such mythologies and traditions can be found around the world. The status of homosexuality in Hinduism is ambiguous. Hindu texts contain few specific references to same-sex relations, though some punish it. Ayoni sex, which includes oral and anal sex, was not seen as a serious crime, and could be practiced in some cases. Sikh wedding ceremonies are non-gender specific, and so same-sex marriage is possible within Sikhism.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Regardless of their position on homosexuality, many people of faith look to both sacred texts and tradition for guidance on this issue. However, the authority of various traditions or scriptural passages and the correctness of translations and interpretations are continually disputed.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have traditionally forbidden sodomy, believing and teaching that such behavior is sinful. Today some denominations within these religions are accepting of homosexuality and inclusive of homosexual people, such as Reform Judaism, the United Church of Christ and the Metropolitan Community Church. Some Presbyterian and Anglican churches welcome members regardless of same-sex sexual practices, with some provinces allowing for the ordination and inclusion of gay and lesbian clerics, and affirmation of same-sex unions. Reform Judaism incorporates lesbian and gay rabbis and same-sex marriage liturgies, while Reconstructionist Judaism and Conservative Judaism in the US allows for lesbian and gay rabbis and same-sex unions.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: The Torah (first five books of the Hebrew Bible) is the primary source for Jewish views on homosexuality. It states that: "[A man] shall not lie with another man as [he would] with a woman, it is a (, "abomination")" (Leviticus 18:22). (Like many similar commandments, the stated punishment for willful violation is the death penalty, although in practice rabbinic Judaism no longer believes it has the authority to implement death penalties.)


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Orthodox Judaism views homosexual acts as sinful. In recent years, there have been approaches claiming that only the sexual anal act is forbidden and considered an abomination by the Torah, while sexual orientation and even other sexual activities are not considered a sin. Conservative Judaism has engaged in an in-depth study of homosexuality since the 1990s, with various rabbis presenting a wide array of responsa (papers with legal arguments) for communal consideration. The official position of the movement is to welcome homosexual Jews into their synagogues, and also campaign against any discrimination in civil law and public society, but also to uphold a ban on anal sex as a religious requirement.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism in North America and Liberal Judaism in the United Kingdom view homosexuality to be acceptable on the same basis as heterosexuality. Progressive Jewish authorities believe either that traditional laws against homosexuality are no longer binding or that they are subject to changes that reflect a new understanding of human sexuality. Some of these authorities rely on modern biblical scholarship suggesting that the prohibition in the Torah was intended to ban coercive or ritualized homosexual sex, such as those practices ascribed to Egyptian and Canaanite fertility cults and temple prostitution.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and its traditional interpretations in Judaism and Christianity have historically affirmed and endorsed a patriarchal and heteronormative approach towards human sexuality, favouring exclusively penetrative vaginal intercourse between men and women within the boundaries of marriage over all other forms of human sexual activity, including autoeroticism, masturbation, oral sex, non-penetrative and non-heterosexual sexual intercourse (all of which have been labeled as "sodomy" at various times), believing and teaching that such behaviors are forbidden because they're considered sinful, and further compared to or derived from the behavior of the alleged residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Christian denominations hold a variety of views on homosexual activity, ranging from outright condemnation to complete acceptance. Throughout the majority of Christian history, most Christian theologians and denominations have considered homosexual behavior as immoral or sinful. Most Christian denominations welcome people attracted to the same sex, but teach that homosexual acts are sinful. These denominations include the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox church, the Oriental Orthodox churches, Confessional Lutheran denominations such as the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the United Methodist Church, and some other mainline denominations, such as the Reformed Church in America and the American Baptist Church, as well as Conservative Evangelical organizations and churches, such as the Evangelical Alliance, and fundamentalist groups and churches, such as the Southern Baptist Convention. Pentecostal churches such as the Assemblies of God, as well as Restorationist churches, like Iglesia ni Cristo, the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also take the position that homosexual sexual activity is sinful.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Liberal Christians are generally supportive of homosexuals. Some Christian denominations do not view monogamous same sex relationships as bad or evil. These include the United Church of Canada, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the churches of the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the Church of Sweden, the Lutheran, reformed and united churches in Evangelical Church of Germany, the Church of Denmark, the Icelandic Church, the Church of Norway and the Protestant Church of the Netherlands. In particular, the Metropolitan Community Church, a denomination of 40,000 members, was founded specifically to serve the Christian LGBT community, and is devoted to being open and affirming to LGBT people. The United Church of Christ and the Alliance of Baptists also condone gay marriage, and some parts of the Anglican and Lutheran churches allow for the blessing of gay unions. Within the Anglican communion there are openly gay clergy; for example, Gene Robinson and Mary Glasspool are openly homosexual bishops in the US Episcopal Church and Eva Brunne in Lutheran Church of Sweden. The Episcopal Church's recent actions vis-a-vis homosexuality have brought about increased ethical debate and tension within the Church of England and worldwide Anglican churches. In the United States and many other nations, the religious people are becoming more affirming of same-sex relationships. Even those in denominations with official stances are liberalizing, though not as quickly as those in more affirming religious groups.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Passages from the Mosaic Covenant and its broader Old Testament context have been interpreted to mean that anyone who is engaging in homosexual practices should be punished with death (Leviticus 20:13; cf. Genesis 19:4–25; Judges 19:22–20:48; 2 Peter 2:6–10; Jude 7). HIV/AIDS has also been portrayed by some Christian fundamentalists such as Fred Phelps and Jerry Falwell as a punishment by God against homosexuals. In the 20th century, theologians like Karl Barth, Jürgen Moltmann, Hans Küng, John Robinson, Bishop David Jenkins, Don Cupitt, and Bishop Jack Spong challenged traditional theological positions and understandings of the Bible; following these developments some have suggested that passages have been mistranslated, are taken out of context, or that they do not refer to what is generally understood as "homosexuality."


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Conservative denominations generally oppose same-sex sexual relations based on Old Testament and New Testament texts that describe human sexual relations as strictly heterosexual by God's design. As such, it is argued that sexual desires and actions that contradict God's design are deemed sinful and are condemned by God (e.g. ; cf. ). Since love does not rejoice in unrighteousness or iniquity (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:6), and since homosexual desires and actions are believed to remain contrary to God's design and condemned by God as sinful/iniquity (e.g. "in general", Romans ; "passively", 1 Corinthians ; "actively", including but not limited to "pederasty," 1 Corinthians ; 1 Timothy ; considered sexually "immoral", Galatians ; Colossians ; Ephesians ), adherents of conservative denominations believe that genuine love for God and humanity is best expressed by following God rather than the world (Acts ; cf. Jeremiah ; Romans ).


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Where the Catholic view is founded on a natural law argument informed by scripture and proposed by Thomas Aquinas, the traditional conservative Protestant view is based on an interpretation of scripture alone. Protestant conservatives also see homosexual relationships as an impediment to heterosexual relationships. They interpret some Biblical passages to be commandments to be heterosexually married. Catholics, on the other hand, have accommodated unmarried people as priests, monks, nuns and single lay people for over 1,000 years. A number of self-described gay and 'ex-gay' Christians have reported satisfaction in mixed-orientation marriages.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: The Catholic Church teaches that those who are attracted to persons of the same sex are called to practice chastity, just like everyone else has to before they get married. The Catholic Church does not regard homosexual activity as an expression of the marital sacrament, which it teaches is only possible within a lifelong commitment of a marriage between a man and a woman. According to the Church's sexual ethics, homosexual activity falls short in the complementarity (male and female organs complement each other) and fecundity (openness to new life) of the sexual act. Few studies of parishioners' individual views are sometimes at variance with the church's non-acceptance of homosexuality.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: All homosexual or same-sex sexual activity is forbidden by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in its law of chastity, and the church teaches that God does not approve of same-sex marriage and may punish same-sex sexual behavior with a disciplinary council. Members of the church who experience homosexual attractions, including those who self-identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual remain in good standing in the church if they abstain from same-sex marriage and all sexual relations outside an opposite-sex marriage, but all, including those participating in same-sex activity and relationships, are allowed to attend weekly church worship services. However, in order to receive church ordinances such as baptism, and to enter church temples, adherents are required to abstain from same-sex relations. Additionally, in the church's plan of salvation noncelibate gay and lesbian individuals will not be allowed in the top tier of heaven to receive exaltation unless they repent, and a heterosexual marriage is a requirement for exaltation.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: The LDS Church previously taught that homosexuality was a curable condition and counseled members that they could and should change their attractions and provided therapy and programs with that goal. From 1976 until 1989 the Church Handbook called for church discipline for members attracted to the same sex equating merely being homosexual with the seriousness of acts of adultery and child molestation—even celibate gay people were subject to excommunication. Church publications now state that "individuals do not choose to have such attractions", its church-run therapy services no longer provides sexual orientation change efforts, and the church has no official stance on the causes of homosexuality. These current teachings and policies leave homosexual members with the option of potentially harmful attempts to change their sexual orientation, entering a mixed-orientation opposite-sex marriage, or living a celibate lifestyle without any sexual expression (including masturbation).


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: All of the major Islamic schools disapprove of homosexuality. Islam views same-sex desires as an unnatural temptation, and sexual relations are seen as a transgression of the natural role and aim of sexual activity. Islamic teachings (in the "hadith" tradition) presume same-sex attraction, extol abstention and (in the Qur'an) condemn consummation.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: The discourse on homosexuality in Islam is primarily concerned with activities between men. There are, however, a few hadiths that mention homosexual behavior among women. Although punishment for lesbianism is rarely mentioned in the histories, al-Tabari records an example of the casual execution in the year 170 AH (786 or 787 AD) of a pair of lesbian slavegirls in the harem of al-Hadi in a collection of highly critical anecdotes pertaining to that Caliph's actions as ruler.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Bahá'í law limits permissible sexual relations to those between a man and a woman in marriage. Believers are expected to abstain from sex outside matrimony. Bahá'ís do not, however, attempt to impose their moral standards on those who have not accepted the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. The Bahá'í Faith takes no position on the sexual practices of those who are not adherents. While requiring uprightness in all matters of morality, whether sexual or otherwise, the Bahá’í teachings also take account of human frailty and call for tolerance and understanding in regard to human failings. In this context, to regard homosexuals with prejudice would be contrary to the spirit of the Bahá’í teachings.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Among the religions that originated in ancient and medieval India, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, teachings regarding homosexuality are less clear than among the Abrahamic traditions, and religious authorities voice diverse opinions. In 2005, an authority figure of Sikhism condemned same-sex marriage and the practice of homosexuality. However, many people in Sikhism do not oppose gay marriage. Hinduism is diverse, with no supreme governing body, but the majority of swamis opposed same-sex relationships in a 2004 survey, and a minority supported them. Ancient religious texts such as the Vedas often refer to people of a third gender known as hijra, who are neither female nor male. Some see this third gender as an ancient parallel to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex identities.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Hinduism does not have a central authority. Many Hindu sects have taken various positions on homosexuality, ranging from positive to neutral or antagonistic. Referring to the nature of Samsara, the Rigveda, one of the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism says 'Vikruti Evam Prakriti' ("Perversity/diversity is what nature is all about", or, "What seems unnatural is also natural"). A "third gender" has been acknowledged within Hinduism since Vedic times. Several Hindu texts, such as Manu Smriti and Sushruta Samhita, assert that some people are born with either mixed male and female natures, or sexually neuter, as a matter of natural biology (while at the same time there are examples of speaking negatively in regards to male homosexuality as shown by the Manu Smrititi and Arthashastra). In addition, each Hindu denomination had developed distinct rules regarding sexuality, as Hinduism is not unified and is decentralized in essence.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Hindu groups are historically not unified regarding the issue of homosexuality, each one having a distinct doctrinal view.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: The Indian Kama Sutra, written around 150 BC, contains passages describing eunuchs or "third-sex" males performing oral sex on men. The text describes Kama as one of the three objectives to be achieved in life. Though it forbids the educated Brahmins, bureaucrats and wisemen from practicing Auparishtaka (oral sex).


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Similarly, some medieval Hindu temples and artifacts openly depict both male homosexuality and lesbianism within their carvings, such as the temple walls at Khajuraho. Some infer from these images that at least part of the Hindu society and religion were previously more open to variations in human sexuality than they are at present.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Ayoni sex, which includes oral and anal sex, never came to be viewed as much of a sin like in Christianity nor a serious crime and could be practiced in some cases. Close friendship between people of same genders has also been seen as permissible in Hindu texts.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Several Hindu priests have performed same-sex marriages, arguing that love is the result of attachments from previous births and that marriage, as a union of spirit, is transcendental to gender.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: The most common formulation of Buddhist ethics are the Five Precepts and the Eightfold Path, one should neither be attached to nor crave sensual pleasure. The third of the Five Precepts is "To refrain from committing sexual misconduct." However, "sexual misconduct" is a broad term, and is subjected to interpretation relative to the social norms of the followers.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: The determination of whether or not same-gender relations is appropriate for a layperson is not considered a religious matter by many Buddhists.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: According to the Pāli Canon and Āgama (the Early Buddhist scriptures), there is not any saying that same or opposite gender relations have anything to do with sexual misconduct, and some Theravada monks express that same-gender relations do not violate the rule to avoid sexual misconduct, which means not having sex with someone under age (thus protected by their parents or guardians), someone betrothed or married or who has taken vows of religious celibacy.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Some later traditions gradually began to add new restrictions on sexual misconduct, like non-vagina sex, though some academics argue it usually involves situations seem as coerced sex. This non-vagina sex as sexual misconduct view is not based on what Buddha's said, but from some later Abhidharma texts.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Buddhism is often characterized as distrustful of sensual enjoyment and sexuality in general. Traditionally, sex and lust are seen as hindering to spiritual progress in most schools of Buddhism; as such monks are expected to refrain from all sexual activity, and the Vinaya (the first book of the Tripitaka) specifically prohibits sexual intercourse, then further explain that anal, oral, and vaginal intercourse amount to sexual intercourse, which will result in permanent exclusion from Sangha. A notable exception in the history of Buddhism occurred in Japan during the Edo period, in which male homosexuality, or more specifically, love between young novices and older monks, were celebrated.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: References to pandaka, a eunuch/impotence category that is sometimes interpreted to include homosexual males, can be found throughout the Pali canon as well as other Sanskrit scriptures. In the Chinese version of Sarvastivada Vinaya, the pandaka is mentioned as also trying to have sex with women, not just men. Leonard Zwilling refers extensively to Buddhaghosa's Samantapasadika, where "pandaka" are described as being filled with defiled passions and insatiable lusts, and are dominated by their libido. Some texts of the Abhidharma state that a "pandaka" cannot achieve enlightenment in their own lifetime, (but must wait for rebirth) and Asanga and Vasubandhu discussed if a pandaka was able to be enlightened or not. According to one scriptural story, Ananda—Buddha's cousin and disciple—was a "pandaka" in one of his many previous lives.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: Some later classic Buddhist masters and texts disallow contact between monks/Bodhisattva and "pandakas"/women and classify non-vagina sex as sexual misconduct, including for lay followers.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: The third of the five precepts of Buddhism states that one is to refrain from sexual misconduct; this precept has sometimes been interpreted to include homosexuality. The Dalai Lama of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism previously interpreted sexual misconduct to include lesbian and gay sex, and indeed any sex other than penis-vagina intercourse, including oral sex, anal sex, and masturbation or other sexual activity with the hand; the only time sex is acceptable is when it performed for its purpose of procreation. In 2009, when interviewed by Canadian TV news anchor Evan Solomon on about whether or not homosexuality is acceptable in Buddhism, the Dalai Lama responded that "it is sexual misconduct." However, the Dalai Lama supports human rights for all, "regardless of sexual orientation." In the most recent interview on this topic (March 10, 2014), the Dalai Lama said gay marriage is "OK", provided it's not in contradiction with the values of one's chosen religion. Also in an Indian and Tibetan tradition, the Nalandabodhi sangha has stated that they are welcoming of all sexual orientations.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: In Thailand, some accounts propose that "homosexuality arises as a karmic consequence of violating Buddhist proscriptions against heterosexual misconduct. These karmic accounts describe homosexuality as a congenital condition which cannot be altered, at least in a homosexual person's current lifetime, and have been linked with calls for compassion and understanding from the non-homosexual populace." However, Buddhist leaders in Thailand have also condemned homosexuality, ousted monks accused of homosexual acts, and banned kathoey from ordination. In 2009, Senior monk Phra Maha Wudhijaya Vajiramedh introduced a "good manners" curriculum for novices in the monkhood, stating to the BBC that he was concerned by "the flamboyant behaviour of gay and transgender monks, who can often be seen wearing revealingly tight robes, carrying pink purses and having effeminately-shaped eyebrows." However, in Thailand, several leaders in the Theravada tradition including Phra Payom Kalayano have expressed support for LGBT rights.


title: Homosexuality and religion

text: A later popular Japanese legend attributed the introduction of monastic homosexuality to Japan to Shingon founder Kukai, although scholars now dismiss the veracity of this assertion, pointing out his strict adherence to the Vinaya. Nonetheless, the legend served to "affirm same sex relation between men and boys in seventeenth century Japan." However, Japanese Buddhist scholar and author of ""Wild Azaleas"" Kitamura Kigin argued that there was a tendency in monasteries to avoid heterosexuality and to encourage homosexuality.