Title: The 5 Genders: What Happens When You Ditch the Western Binary?
Headings: The 5 Genders: What Happens When You Ditch the Western Binary?
The 5 Genders: What Happens When You Ditch the Western Binary?
For starters, Bugis people believe in what they call the 5 genders.
Native American people, on the other hand, believe in the “two spirit” tradition.
Similarly, Indian culture acknowledges the existence of a third gender, the Hijra.

Content: Instead of focusing on the person’s biological makeup, they focus on the individual’s “spirit.” Regardless of one’s sex, two-spirit individuals can fill both male and female gender roles within the tribe. The phrase “two spirit,” however, didn’t gain traction across Native America until after 1990. During that time, 13 men, women and transgender people from various tribes met in Winnipeg, Canada to try and find a term that could unite the LGBTQ Native community. The attendees settled on “two spirit” because they wanted a term that “reflected the combination of masculinity and femininity which was attributed to males in a feminine role and females in a masculine role,” writes author Sabine Lang in “Men as Women, Women as Men: Changing Gender in Native American Cultures.” Historically, many two spirit folk were keepers of traditions, story tellers, religious leaders and healers . In other words, this difference was highly valued and respected. Similarly, Indian culture acknowledges the existence of a third gender, the Hijra. But unlike the Native American “two spirit” tradition, the “hijra” term only applies to people who were assigned a male gender at birth but don’t identify as men.