Sekrata

 

• Sekrata

  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

  

  two-spirit people

  Kristina Padilla, a transgender, two-spirit, Apache/Cherokee person posing as part of National Trans Visibility March Day, Sacramento, California, October 2021. In the gender binary system, all people fit into one of two genders: man or woman. Critics often refute the purported universal nature of the gender binary system by pointing to the many non-Western cultures that have embraced multigender systems.

  Chris Allan/Alamy

  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.

• Bakla

  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.