Gender identity might be one of the most polarising conversations on social media right now.
In most countries sex is defined as what we are physically born as – male or female.
But gender identity can be much more fluid. We may be a female physically, but identify
or feel more comfortable thinking of ourselves as a male.
That means some of us have a gender which is different from our sex.
Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of people talk about the gender history of their communities online.
This is Geronimo from the Native American
Navajo community in New Mexico.
I’m Francis Geronimo, I
am Chiricahua Apache Diné. I identify as a two-spirit individual.
I live on the Navajo reservation. There’s a lot of trees. Cactus. Some mountains over
there. Geronimo identifies as one of four
sacred and ancient gender identities from his culture.
We have masculine-masculine, masculine feminine, feminine-feminine, feminine-masculine.
Masculine-feminine is something I gravitate towards both spiritually, mentally, physically
and emotionally. The word for maculine-feminei is Nádleehí: someone who is male-bodied,
who has a feminine nature, or who also takes on the roles of women and men.
So I take it quite literally sometimes. I can dress as a female, I can dress as a male.
Traditionally you are supposed to tie up your hair in a Tsiiyééł.
So men’s traditionally would be right here and women’s would be somewhere up here.
We also wear bandanas. I know that I'm a male and that I can take
on the gender roles of a female. I weave, i cook, i clean
Eight thousand miles away in India’s capital, Delhi, gender has been more than just male
and female for centuries. And in 2014, India’s Supreme Court even recognised a “third gender”...
Hi, namaste. I am Leher. I am 23 and I was not born in a female body.
When i was born i was assigned a sex ‘male’ at birth and i changed my gender medically.
However, I am not what, in the western terminologies, you would call a trans woma or transgender.
In India we are considered the ‘third gender’ or the ‘sacred gender’ who has the power
to bless or to curse. We are regarded as highly sacred and respectable.
Gender has never been binary in India. It has always been very, very fluid.
Especially in Indian mythologies. We have scripture that describe more than 20 to 28
genders.
We have the story of Shikandhi. Shikanndhi was assigned female at birth, however the
person transformed themselves into a man to fight the battle of Mahabharatha.
Over in Australia, trans people have had a differentame amongst Aboriginal communities.
So a Brotherboy is a person that’s been born female, but has a masculine or female
spirit. Our understanding of being is so much more
than a scientific definition of what is xx chromosome or xy chromosome.
We can co-exist but it doesn't mean that you should perpreate hate and violence onto people
who don't necessarily believe what you believe
However Kai’s journey hasn’t been easy - as he still faces discrimination in his
own community.
As someone that was born a women and done women’s stuff and then transitioning into
man, it’s quite difficult at times to find your place as a person within my culture.
And i think im still on that journey looking for that.
And, for many cultures, history about gender fluidity was lost or silenced by colonialism.
Sistergirls and brotherboys history is quite difficult to document because of the effect
of colonisation in our communities, there’s alot of shame and stigma.
Colonisation is what has corrupted the mindsets of indian folks that today are maybe transphobic
or homophoic. You know pre-colonisation we were very highly accepting of various sexualiteis
and gender identities
When colonialism started to happen alot of our people died and were murdered so a lot
of the teachings and understandings of our people were lost.
Forced assimilation, religious conversion all contributed to that idea that two-spirited
individuals were bad people and they ended to go away.
I face alot of discrimination. It hurts my feelings. But i know it’s not their fault.
I know that it’s not their fault hat they got their culture and teachings and way of
life striped from their backs.
Increasingly the question of gender is becoming about much more than how you chose to self-identify.
It can decide whether or not you can access biologically divided spaces like toilets and
aid shelters - and some sports.
Questions over who should have access to those spaces is one of the reasons conversations
on gender have become so polarising in Western society.
Yet some people question the idea of gender – and believe stereotyped ideas around masculinity
and femininity are limiting. And in some other parts of the world, the
idea of just male and female have been seen as an oversimplification.