Do you hate trans and non-binary people? Traditions are not on your side

Also published on Wordpress.

Well, some aren’t. I am certain some of you are familiar of what I am going to say below.

There are traditional cultures which recognise the third gender, in which you were assigned as either male or female at birth and then you end up identifying as the other gender, both genders or neither.

South Asian cultures recognise the Hijra.

Some Indigenous North Americans recognise the two-spirit (note: the English term for this concept is contentious).

Different Polynesian societies traditionally recognise third genders: Faʻafafine of the Samoans, Māhū of the Hawaiians and Tahitians (may be pejorative in Hawaii), Fakaleiti of the Tongans, Whakawahine of the Maoris and Akava’ine of the Cook Islanders.

The Balkans have the Sworn Virgins, people who were assigned as female at birth, identify as male later on and live a celibate life.

In the South American countries of Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname, the Warao people have Tide Wena, who identify neither as male nor female.

In Indonesia, the Bugis people take it even further by recognising five genders: Oroané, Makkunrai, Calalai, Calabai and Bissu.

Oroané and Makkunrai are males and females respectively. Calalai and Calabai are males and females who were assigned as the other genders at birth, respectively. Bissu are both male and female and they may or may not be born intersex.

In some cases, people who identify as the third (or fourth, or fifth) gender are highly revered by their respective societies due to perceived supernatural prowess. The Bissu are a good example.

No, I don’t think those third genders validate their modern (and western-centric) counterparts.

Apart from the poor comparability (I may have oversimplified descriptions or misunderstood the concepts), it is also intellectually dishonest to determine rightness based on how “traditional” something is; if that’s how we do things, we should also validate anti-LGBT+ bigotry as well, considering it is the tradition in many places.

But, at the same time, those facts demonstrate how humans have always had the ability to be fluid with genders. The rigid male-female binary is not as innate and “traditional” as you think it is.

You have to use other arguments.

And no, biology is not on your side, either. I can remind you that intersex people exist and non-trans women can also have high testosterone level in their bodies.

Even our corporeal existence isn’t black and white.

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