WHAT FOLLOW are “ethnographic journeys” not only in the sense that they transport us to non-Western cultures, but also because they represent a personal journey for writers in search of gender identities that were extinguished by colonial powers. In a half-dozen articles, we hear from scholars and members of these cultures about what was lost when outsiders imposed a strictly binary gender code on societies around the world, pushing out more expansive understandings of gender and sexuality.
In Hawai‘i, European colonization meant quashing the concept of aikāne—intimate same-sex friendships that could be equal to opposite-sex partnerships. Scholar Dean Hamer explores one of the last gasps of an aikāne relationship, the love between King Kamehameha III and Kaomi Moe, who came to rule Hawai‘i alongside the King but later surrendered this connection so the King could remain on the throne. In North America, colonization decimated not only Native populations but also their acceptance of multiple genders and fluid roles. Chase Bryer, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, writes that modern Two-Spirit Native Americans are working to reclaim their cultural heritage and to re-envision themselves in traditional roles within their families and communities.
In Africa, the chibados of Angola and the yan daudu of Nigeria held important ceremonial posts and were respected as members of a third gender, horrifying the colonists. Kenyan writer John Motaroki explains that missionaries and colonial administrators condemned nonbinary identities as deviant and immoral, erasing their status and criminalizing traditional practices. Patriarchal ideas of gender also prevail in South Africa, where trans people like contributor Kelley Nele face discrimination in health care, education, and the workplace. A long series of laws imposed across the continent in the 19th, 20th, and even 21st centuries have outlawed “cross-dressing” and same-sex acts of intimacy, but resistance remains.
In India, the worst persecution falls on gender-nonconforming people who are members of the Dalit caste, once known as “untouchables.” Journalist Poorvi Gupta writes that Dalit trans people face overwhelming and overlapping prejudices, but they’re fighting for greater recognition and respect. In neighboring Nepal, a half-dozen genders were traditionally recognized, writes activist Sunil Babu Pant, ones that he and other Nepalese are pushing to revive—a return to tradition that rejects capitulation to Western norms.
Yet again we have proof that there’s no one concept of gender worldwide. Societies have for millennia devised numerous variations that go far beyond the simple binary. These articles also show that LGBT people everywhere are resistant to having an identity forced upon them. It’s a message that feels particularly timely now, as LGBT people globally face renewed threats.
