Apr 23, 2018
Little pride sticker I made.
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Little pride sticker I made.
https://twitter.com/TheGynocrat/status/927201610362535937
It's nothing new.
Hijras (South Asia)
With thousands of years of documented history, hijras are one of the oldest and best-known examples of gender variance. The word is a blanket term applied to people Westerners might define as transgender, intersex, or eunuchs.
Throughout history, hijras in southern Asia have been associated with sacred powers. They deliver blessings at weddings and births and are feared for their powerful curses. The focus on their efforts for recognition and rights typically centers on India. That’s in part because British rule dramatically changed the lives of hijras there. The colonial government made the simple act of being a hijra a criminal offense. Hijras responded by forming their own tight-knit communities, and developing their own language.
In 2014, the Supreme Court of India followed precedents in Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in recognizing hijras as a legally designated third gender. That decision helped people in India seeking legal recognition for their identities.
Activists claim it doesn’t go far enough, though. Many hijras still find themselves resorting to begging or survival sex work to get by. In Indian politics, “hijra” is still used as a public insult.
Two-Spirit (North America)
For an example of colonially stifled gender variance closer to home, one needs look no further than the various gender identities recognized and celebrated in indigenous tribes.
Navajo tribes recognized four genders that roughly correlate with cisgender and transgender men and women, using the terms nadleehi for those who "transform" into femininity and dilbaa for those "transform" into masculinity. The Mohave people used the terms alyha and hwame to describe similar identities. And the Lakota tribe believed the wintke people among them had supernatural powers like India’s hijras.
The two-spirit community is experiencing a renaissance of activism lately, but this isn’t a recent phenomenon, strictly speaking. We’wha was a famous lhamana (i.e., two-spirit) member of the Zuni tribe. She may have been the first out-of-the-closet gender-variant person to meet a U.S. president when she was introduced to Grover Cleveland in 1886.
Two-spirit people in North America have benefited from acceptance within their communities. Already they have reclaimed a piece of their identities by popularizing the term “two-spirit” in place of the French colonial term berdache.
Il Femminiello (Naples) and Elagabalus (Rome)
Even within the boundaries of colonial Europe, gender-variant people existed. Documented in paintings from as early as the eighteenth century, il femminiello were individuals assigned male at birth who dressed and behaved like women in Naples, Italy.
While largely segregated within the city, il femminiello were considered a blessing and good fortune upon the families they were born into. To this day, gender-variant pilgrims still venerate the “Madonna of Transformation” in the country’s southern regions.
These are not the only gender-variant people in the region’s history. Elagabalus was crowned emperor of the Roman empire in the third century, but insisted that subjects use the term empress and dressed as a woman. According to some historical accounts, Elagabalus may have even summoned the empire’s finest doctors in order to pursue a sexual-confirmation surgery.
In today’s Italy, activists can celebrate the recent marriage of Alessia Cinquegrana. Cinquegrana, who was crowned Miss Trans Italy in 2014, is reportedly the first trans woman in the nation to marry a man without first obtaining sexual-confirmation surgery.
(Written by Lucy Diavolo for Teen Vogue)
[picture one caption: feminine bigender people are rad]
[picture two caption: masculine bigender people are rad]
“Are you a boy or a girl?”
Parents, schools and elected officials are working to catch up and adapt to the needs of children and teens who don't fit into familiar gender categories.
as a NonBinary elder (i’m genderqueer), this makes me so hopeful for the future. kudos to Max and all other nb young ppl quoted!
i kno it’s not easy to exist outside the gender binary, but i believe tht being true to yourself is worth the fight. not only is it liberating to live authentically, but it doesn’t change the fact tht we’re still worthy of love, acceptance, and support.
I AM A NON BINARY TRANS RACIAL POLYGENDER SCOLIOSEXUAL APACHE ATTACK HELICOPTER AND MY PRONOUNS ARE FUCK/FUCKER/FUCKSELF RESPECT MY PRONOUNS YOU CIS HET WHITE SKUM.
The retarded side of tumblr