6 Cultures That Recognize More than Two Genders

Hindu society features the gender hijra, the most common nonbinary identity recognized in India today. Hijras are found in Hindu religious texts and throughout South Asian history. Many hijras are born with male sexual characteristics, though the hijra community also includes intersex people. A unique culture underlies the hijra identity: hijras often leave home to join groups that educate new initiates in spirituality. Hijras assume a religious role in Hindu culture, celebrating rituals like weddings and births. Many believe hijras possess the power to bless or curse others. In recent centuries a stigma arose against hijras, prompted by British colonialism; in fact, an 1871 British law categorized all hijras as criminals. Anti-hijra sentiment continued to build after that, despite Bangladesh, India, and Nepal all having recognized the rights of nonbinary people by 2014.

The Bugis ethnic group of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, recognizes three genders beyond the binary. Calalai refers to people who have female sexual characteristics but present in traditionally masculine ways, often cutting their hair short and dressing in men’s fashions. They also take on a social position similar to men’s, transcending some restrictions placed on women. Calabai are people who have male sexual characteristics but occupy a role like that traditionally occupied by women. Yet calabai don’t identify as women, reject the restrictions that women experience, and do not have their sexual characteristics altered. Calabai often oversee weddings and manage each aspect of the ceremonies. Bissu, another gender, embodies the totality of masculinity and femininity. Bugis people believe that bissu surpasses other genders, encapsulating a spiritual role. Bissu people often wear flowers and carry sacred daggers to symbolize their expansive identity. They perform spiritual rites and are thought to bridge the worldly and the divine.

Muxes constitute a community of people in Mexico who typically have male sexual characteristics but embrace a feminine identity. The word muxe bears a similarity to the Spanish word for “woman,” mujer. Muxes often take on household roles that typically belong to women, such as sewing, cooking, and family care. But the community is not a monolith: muxes express their gender identities in a variety of ways, all united under the umbrella term muxes. The muxe identity is embedded within the culture of the Indigenous Zapotec people, who live mainly in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Though Zapotec culture respects muxe people, muxes still endure certain restrictions: they are usually prohibited from living with their intimate partners or leaving their family homes. Each year, muxes celebrate La Vela de las Auténticas Intrépidas Buscadoras del Peligro, or the Festival of the Authentic and Intrepid Danger-Seekers, a day of energetic merriment to honor muxes.

The Sakalava people, indigenous to Madagascar, recognize the gender, sekrata. Sekrata people have male sexual characteristics, but after displaying behavior viewed as feminine during childhood, they are raised as girls by their families. Sekrata adopt a feminine appearance in styling their hair and wearing jewelry. As adults, they inhabit a unique niche: they do not occupy traditionally male roles, like soldiering; instead, they undertake other responsibilities, like performing in ceremonies. The sekrata are widely accepted within Sakalava society. They are viewed as both sacred and protected by supernatural powers.

Two-spirit is a term some Indigenous North Americans have adopted to refer to people in their communities who are believed to embody both a male spirit and a female spirit. Two-spirits are seen as being uniquely able to see life from both male and female perspectives and to bridge the differences between them. While the term two-spirit was coined in 1990, the ways of life it encompasses stretch back through the histories of many Indigenous cultures, though varying in name, expression, and status from one culture to another. Two-spirits have held specialized roles in their communities, earning respect as basket weavers and potters and as healers, matchmakers, and ceremonial leaders. European and European American colonization involved the suppression of Indigenous cultures, including attempts to erase two-spirit “ways of walking.” However, two-spirits are regaining acceptance in some Indigenous communities.

In the Philippines the term bakla refers to people who possess male sexual characteristics but identify with femininity and often express their gender through feminine dress and behavior. Bakla, while primarily a gender presentation, can overlap with sexual orientation, and many bakla people are part of the LGBTQIA+ community as well. Historically, bakla were considered to encompass aspects of both masculinity and femininity, and they often served as leaders of their communities. After Western colonization, acceptance of bakla plummeted, but a bakla community still exists in the Philippines and elsewhere.