A New Front: A brief comment on transgender history.

In many places in the world, and at various times in history, gender fluid people were valued and treasured. Here I have traced only a small number of the beautiful and horrible histories of Trans people. Particularly galling is the treatment of this group by modern Western societies and religions.

According to the University of Nebraska's Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, and the Indian Country Media Network, soon after the European settlers arrived in the New World, they were offended and appalled by many of the customs that were being practiced by the original inhabitants of the hemisphere. Among the most distasteful were the people who had Two-Spirits; fluidly sexual beings with the inclinations of both man and woman. Sadly many were put to death on sight. The disparaging French term “Berdache”, a male prostitute or a younger man in a gay relationship, was used by anthropologists to describe Two-Spirit people in North America, and efforts began to eliminate that role and practice in indigenous people and their tribes.

Two-Spirit people were defined by different terms in different tribes, but all were honored as having special attributes, roles, and skills. The Navajo called them the Nadleehi or one who is transformed; the Lakota, Winkte, or the male who wishes to behave as a female; The Cheyenne, Hetaneman, or half man and half woman; the Comanches, Ayekkwe; the Omaha, Minquga, and the Crows, Bote’.

Native American children at that time, often wore neutral clothes until they could decide their sexual identity for themselves. Many parents were pleased to have a Two-Spirit child as they were often believed to be able to see the world both as a man and as a woman at the same time. Upon reaching adulthood, the Two-Spirits often held the position of medicine men or women, shamans, visionaries, mystics, nurses during wars, counselors, matchmakers, midwives, singers, and artists as well as caretakers for the orphaned and elderly. Female-bodied Two-Spirits were known for their fearlessness in hunting and warfare. All Two-Spirit people were known for their compassion and intelligence, both of which were highly respected.

The Native Americans valued the Two-Spirits in many ways. When the Tuscarora Indians were attacked by the British in North Carolina in the early 1700’s, they were met by Two-Spirit women and men in women’s clothing who were often put on the front lines due to their fierceness, perseverance, and ability to frighten the European invaders.

In the late 1800s We`wha, a Zuni tribe biological male who identified as female, became the Zuni Ambassador to Washington, D.C. She was referred to in Washington as the “man-woman” and celebrated as a respected oddity.

Appallingly, when establishing Indian reservations, the US Government Bureau of Indian Affairs resettlement agents tried to force Two-Spirit people to conform to their born sex by cutting their hair, making them wear men’s clothing, do manual labor, and relinquish their treasured role within the tribe. Similar efforts were made by Christian missionaries and school teachers to regulate gender behavior. Those who could not assimilate either went into hiding or committed suicide. Eventually few would aspire to wear the now pejorative term of Two-Spirit. (Brayboy, 2017; Williams, 2010)

Similar fates awaited the revered Hijra or Kinner in India. Before colonization by the West, Hijra was seen as a third gender; demigods who played important roles as royal advisors and as a blessed and gifted people. However, the occupying British outlawed all activities labeled as gender fluid in English occupied India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Third gender roles diminished greatly and were restricted to blessing babies and marriages. Also, they were denied jobs and often left to begging or prostitution in order to exist. It wasn’t until 2017 that the Indian Supreme court claimed that gender was non-binary, and the legal situation for the Hijra may now improve (Salbi, 2016).

For more information on gender fluid groups in India and the rest of the world see: www.pbs.org/independentlens/content/two-spirits_map-html/

It is well known that in the United States we are finally beginning to address the suffering and uniqueness of our Transgender population. Heretofore, Trans voices and those of their advocates were muted, and their realities shunned. Once again, as with other sexual minorities, religion plays a role in who is found acceptable, and who is not. 2015 and 2017 Pew Research Center surveys underscore the point below. Clearly, we have much more advocating to do.

Noted is the percent of respondents by religion who say America has gone too far in accepting transgender people:

44% of all polled Protestants

61% of all surveyed white evangelicals

33% of white mainline churches, and 29% of black Protestants

27% of Catholics

20% of unaffiliated

16% of atheists and agnostics.

Religions in the United States that are most accepting of Transgender inclusion: Episcopal, Reformed Judaism, Unitarian Universalist, and United Church of Christ.

Religions that have the most barriers to Transgender inclusion include the Assemblies of God, the Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church, the Southern Baptist Convention.

In mid-century America Transgendered people and their social realities were hidden from most except in the sensational and highly publicized sexual reassignment surgery of Christine Jorgensen in 1953. There was a book about her and her surgery in 1967 and a film about her life in 1970. (Skidmore, 2011)

The film Glen or Glenda in 1953 brought to the American public a shockingly memorable, dramatic and socially constructed Hollywood view of a Transgendered person. Christine Jorgensen's celebrity and the images portrayed in Glen or Glenda were to shape the public's view of Transgendered people for the next forty years.

While Transgender rights have been late in coming to the lesbian, gay, and bi sexual social action agenda, a little-known fact is that several black Trans women were in the forefront of Trans rights including Lucy Hicks Anderson, Catlett Brown, and Miss Major. (Willis, 2018)

The struggle for Transgender rights is both old and new, and far and near.

What are your thoughts, reactions, and comments?