What native Hawaiian culture has to teach about gender identity
Trans activist and educator Hina Wong-Kalu on how Hawaii’s past and present regarding gender fluidity.
It can often seem as though the world has always be an unwelcoming place for the LGBTQ community, but many cultures across the world disprove that.
Though not without their problems, many African, South Asian and Native cultures have a strong history of non-differentiation between people who identify as LGBTQ and anybody else.
In Hawaii and other Pacific Islands, the term mahu describes people who embrace both the feminine and masculine traits of their personality.
Hina Wong-Kalu, a transgender educator and activist from Hawaii, explained how in native Polynesian cultures fluid gender and sexuality was and is celebrated as being part of the human experience.
Hina transitioned from male to female and, though she presents as female, continues to embrace both the feminine and masculine aspects of her identity equally.
