Standing United, Resilient and Visible!

USA President Donald Trump’s declaration and signing of the order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” will eliminate recognition of transgender and nonbinary identities at the federal level, barring individuals from updating gender markers on passports and other federal documents.

The most positive way to respond to this despicable, and ignorant, move in the ongoing gender 'debate' is to rise above it and be who we have always been.

Back in the 1990s a Radical Faerie artist wrote this:

“Today's society recognizes only two genders. Since there is no existing place for a third sex today, we need to forge one. Like the berdache, the spirits have gifted us with our difference and our neither-gender status. The gift is freedom from society's polarization of masculine and feminine energy. Our experience and self expression are more fluid because we are not hemmed-in to society's restrictive gender roles. This gives us the freedom to explore and express ourselves from a broader range of human experience. Our neither-gender status gives us freedom from societal expectations as well as the responsibility to create our own way of life. The only way we can do that is to turn off the old tapes about gender conformity. We must live our lives honoring what makes us different.” Timothy J Leary, a Palm Springs based experimental artist, published in White Crane Journal in the late 1990s: Who Are the Third Sex in the 20th Century? (whitecraneinstitute.org) 

The denial and persecution of 'gender-nonconforming,' 'gender-variant,' 'non-binary' people ignores history as well as the lived experience of people today. But that history is no longer so hidden, with even pop stars bringing it into the conversation:

After Trump’s policy declaration, Ariana Grande said: “Let’s be very clear: queer and trans people were here before Donald Trump and will continued to be here after he’s dead. Whether or not you want to us to exist is secondary to the simple fact that we do. The sun does not care if you sign an executive order telling it to stop rising each morning. It just continues to rise.”

Rock band Garbage wrote on Instagram: “Queer, trans and non binary peoples have existed since the dawn of time. They will continue to exist whether you choose to recognize this or not. They will exist long past the current administration and long past all of our lifetimes.”

One clear response we can make to the ignorant declarations of the American government is to educate each other by highlighting the history of queer/gender-fluid people around the world.

Masculine Women, Feminine Men, and People who embody an Androgynous balance of the gender polarities, have always been around, in every culture and every age on planet Earth, and they have sometimes been regarded as a 'Third Sex' who fulfilled specific community roles that reflect their nature, often spiritual ones. Yet they have also often been a source of controversy, of disturbance to the mainstream world of men and women around them, to such an extent that enormous efforts have been put in over centuries to suppress this queer nature, with those who manifest it vilified, killed, called sinful, made criminal, named sick. Sadly, this still goes on today – for centuries religious texts were used to oppress and persecute gendervariance (alongside sex and marriage between people of the same gender), nowadays the biological science is often (erroneously) also quoted to justify adherence to a male-female binary 'normality.'

The American government's approach displays immense ignorance of the gender fluid reality that was once the norm on 'Turtle Island' -

“Rather than the physical body, Native Americans emphasised a person's "spirit", or character, as being most important. Instead of seeing two-spirit persons as transsexuals who try to make themselves into "the opposite sex", it is more accurate to understand them as individuals who take on a gender status that is different from both men and women. This alternative gender status offers a range of possibilities, from slightly effeminate males or masculine females, to androgynous or transgender persons, to those who completely cross-dress and act as the other gender. The emphasis of Native Americans is not to force every person into one box, but to allow for the reality of diversity in gender and sexual identities. “   The 'Two-Spirit' people of indigenous North Americans (firstpeople.us) 

 "The concept of Two-Spirit folks existed well before the arrival of European settlers on Turtle Island. Indigenous individuals who identified as Two-Spirit folks were seen as gifted and honoured in their community because they carried two spirits with them, both male and female. 2S folks were often the healers, medicine people, and visionaries within their given community and they were foundational members of their culture. Much of this can be attributed to the “double vision” 2S people are gifted with, being able to see both through the masculine and feminine lens."  The History of Two-Spirit Folks — The Indigenous Foundation

 The American Republicans claim to be proud Christians and are happy to quote even Old Testament declarations when it suits them, but they are clearly unaware that ancient Judaism recognised there was more to gender than the basic binary:

“Rabbinic literature, the body of texts written by Jewish leaders in antiquity, includes several other categories. In these texts, a person with both sets of external genitalia is called an “androgynos,” a term borrowed from Greek. A person with neither is called a “tumtum,” and a person who loses his male sexual organs is called a “saris.” There is also a term for someone whose sex assigned at birth is female but does not develop to female sexual maturity – in some cases, because they develop “male” traits: an “aylonit.””  What ancient rabbis knew about nonbinary genders | Sarah Imhoff | The Times of Israel 

Across Asia and the Pacific Islands third-gendered people have also long been recognised and associated with certain societal roles, frequently spiritual ones. 

Examples include the Hijra of India, the Kathoey of Thailand and the Mahu of the Pacific islands

“Māhū is a traditional third gender from Native Hawaiian culture. Historically māhū were assigned male at birth (AMAB), but in modern usage, māhū can refer to a variety of genders and sexual orientations.

“In pre-American Hawaiʻi, māhū were notable priests, healers, and teachers, usually of hula dance and chant. Māhū often performed the roles of goddesses in hula dances that took place in temples which were off-limits to women. Māhū were also valued as the keepers of cultural traditions, such as the passing down of genealogies and the Hawaiian language.”  Māhū - LGBTQIA+ Wiki 

Below is a statement issued this week from Nepal’s Gender and Sexual Minority Groups in response to the news from the USA. It would be incredibly powerful if LGBTQ+ communities around the world would rally around a campaign statement like this:

Today, we, the Gender and Sexual Minority (GSM/LGBTIQ+) communities of Nepal, strongly denounce US President Trump’s executive order targeting third genders, transgender, and non-binary genders.

We express grave concern over the potential global repercussions of this discriminatory policy, including:

Withdrawal of funding for LGBTI rights programs, including life-saving ART drugs for MSM and transgender individuals who are living with HIV.

Support for anti-LGBTI groups, which could embolden fascist movements worldwide.

Such policies from the leader of a powerful nation risk inspiring regressive measures in other countries, threatening hard-won rights and protections.

Nepal has a rich history of recognizing gender diversity, with historical references to six genders and the current legal recognition of three genders. We refuse to allow our identities and rights to be erased.

We urge:

US diplomatic missions to refrain from promoting discriminatory policies.

International allies and governments—such as the EU, UK, Canada, and Australia—to increase their support and funding for LGBTI rights programs globally.

We also invite President Trump to visit Nepal to witness our harmonious celebration of gender diversity and learn from our inclusive heritage. Together, we resist the erasure of our identities, celebrate our existence, and commit to thriving despite challenges.

Trump and Putin cannot undo centuries of gender diversity celebrated by indigenous cultures worldwide. We stand united, visible, and resilient.

  Gender and Sexual Minority (GSM/LGBTIQ+) communities of Nepal 

At Queer Spirit Festival we celebrate gender-fluidity of all LGBTQ+ people as we reclaim its spiritual roots: the suppression of 'in-between'/non-binary/third-gendered people is a suppression of the spirit in humanity, of our connection to the divine within ourselves:

“Mythological images imply that holiness is hermaphroditic, for it holiness is wholeness the complete human being is at once male and female – the man who has developed his feminine aspect, and the woman her masculine. In Buddhist icongraphy, therefore, the Bodhisvatta is very frequently a hermaphrodite... the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who, though masculine in name, is always feminine or near-feminine in form, especially in the Far East, where he appears as Kwan-yin, or Kannon – the 'goddess' of mercy.... it is not uncommon to find ardhanari or 'half-woman' images of Shiva, in which the body is female on the left and male on the right.” Alan Watts

This is why I am proud and excited when hundreds of us together at Queer Spirit chant “We're Here, We're Queer, We're Cosmic.”

We are here to be who we are, beyond all labels of gender and sexuality:

“'Masculine’ and ‘feminine’ are descriptions of experience, not the experience itself…. ‘The map is not the territory’ as philosopher Gregory Bateson said. We end up with a neo-Manichean split if we’re not careful. The basic premise is that we are all, men and women alike, both male and female, biogenetically as well as psychologically.”

“…the androgyne may be the archetype that is struggling to emerge in our culture. Androgyny is not unisex, where male and female lose their boundaries and mush together. Magnetic poles must be differentiated if they are to attract each other.” From Conscious Femininity by Canadian psychologist and Women's movement activist, Marion Woodman 1993

Raven Kaldera, in their 2002 work Hermaphrodeities, wrote:

“Transgendered people have long been robbed of their own spiritual history, not knowing that there were once times and places where ours was considered a spiritual path in and of itself... We are all sacred and it is time that the world knew it.”

Further reading:

Women's Bar Association Response to the "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" Executive Order

Trump’s new anti-trans executive order is ‘human rights violation’

Trump’s ‘Biological Truth’ Executive Order is Not Based in Biology or Truth