I’m thinking of South Asia here, where trans and third-gender people have been part of the culture for at least many centuries and probably longer, but where transgender people today live with a great deal of disrespect and mistreatment. Some South Asian people say the disrespect is a result of colonialism and the importation of European values, while others say it’s an inevitable result of a traditionally male supremacist society.

In Southeast Asia on the other hand, transgender women have been part of the Thai culture for many centuries at least, and I understand transgender people there live with a lot more respect and acceptance, although I’m given to understand it’s no paradise. Interestingly, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation never colonized by European powers, which some people claim is one of the reasons why transgender acceptance there is relatively high.

I wish more people understood how common transgender and different gender experiences are and have been around the world.

Thanks for sharing what you’ve learned about gender in Hawaii!