Interesting Article On Foreign Transgenders

[MeetJohnDoe]

The New York Times published this interesting article about transgenderism in Mexico...especially the cultural acceptance of it in some communities in southern Mexico. It is interesting to read about how these people fit into their society as compared to the roles and employment opportunities of transgenders in Thailand. There is also a good slideshow acompanying the article.

There may not be any direct connection between Mexican transgenders and Thailand but it's interesting to see the contrasts between the lifestyles set in the two cultures. Also, some of the quotes of the parents I found quite moving...like this one from one father: "It was God who sent him and why would I reject him? He helps his mother very much. Why would I get mad? God sent him for both of us..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/weekinreview/07lacey.html

[onni4me]

I hate links so I put it here for more easy-reading. This actually shows my point that people can and should be allowed to be different. We are so many.

A Lifestyle Distinct: The Muxe of Mexico

Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times AT THE DEBUT Carmelo López Bernal, 13, at the recent annual town-wide muxe celebration, the occasion for his first appearance in the identity of a girl.

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Slide Show

In Mexico, Beyond Gay and Straight

http://' target="_blank"> But nowhere are attitudes toward sex and gender quite as elastic as in the far reaches of the southern state of Oaxaca. There, in the indigenous communities around the town of Juchitán, the world is not divided simply into gay and straight. The local Zapotec people have made room for a third category, which they call “muxes” (pronounced MOO-shays) — men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned netherworld between the two genders.

“Muxe” is a Zapotec word derived from the Spanish “mujer,” or woman; it is reserved for males who, from boyhood, have felt themselves drawn to living as a woman, anticipating roles set out for them by the community.

Anthropologists trace the acceptance of people of mixed gender to pre-Colombian Mexico, pointing to accounts of cross-dressing Aztec priests and Mayan gods who were male and female at the same time. Spanish colonizers wiped out most of those attitudes in the 1500s by forcing conversion to Catholicism. But mixed-gender identities managed to survive in the area around Juchitán, a place so traditional that many people speak ancient Zapotec instead of Spanish.

Not all muxes express their identities the same way. Some dress as women and take hormones to change their bodies. Others favor male clothes. What they share is that the community accepts them; many in it believe that muxes have special intellectual and artistic gifts.

Every November, muxes inundate the town for a grand ball that attracts local men, women and children as well as outsiders. A queen is selected; the mayor crowns her. “I don’t care what people say,” said Sebastian Sarmienta, the boyfriend of a muxe, Ninel Castillejo García. “There are some people who get uncomfortable. I don’t see a problem. What is so bad about it?”

Muxes are found in all walks of life in Juchitán, but most take on traditional female roles — selling in the market, embroidering traditional garments, cooking at home. Some also become sex workers, selling their services to men. .

Acceptance of a child who feels he is a muxe is not unanimous; some parents force such children to fend for themselves. But the far more common sentiment appears to be that of a woman who takes care of her grandson, Carmelo, 13.

“It is how God sent him,” she said.

Katie Orlinsky contributed reporting from Juchitán, Mexico.

[PeaceBlondie]

Juchitan, in far southern Oaxaca along the trans-isthmus highway, is a very special place, where being a woman confers almost as much prestige and power as being a man. The culture of those Zapotecs has been described as nearly matriarchal.

I worked during the years 1998-2001 further south in Mexico, among Mayas. One of our team members asked about gays in that tribe. He was told that if a gay Maya there wished to be gay, he was allowed to dress and behave as a female, but not have leadership roles. I once asked a young unmarried man (around 19, well past marrying age) what he was going to do on Saturday night in the big city. He replied secretly but unashamedly that he was going to a gay discotheque.

I also had a haircut in Guatemala City by Maya hairdressers who were dressed as males, but were clearly gay. The existence of gays has been observed in almost every culture ever known to social anthropology.

Semantic point of order: these Zapotecs may be cross dressers and transvestites, but not transgendered. However, the article states that some of these men take hormones.