Most things in this world is separated into two genders. Almost everything that is made is marketed towards two genders; male and female. A marketing trick that is used for most products is the “shrink it and pink it” method. In order to market a product designed for males is to girlify it by changing its size and color in order to make it more desirable to women. Everything is society is dictated by these two genders. The day you are born you are assigned not just a sex, but a specific role in society that will define everything in your life and you will be judged by how well you fit these roles. You will spend your life doing what it takes to “be a man” or questioning every decision you make trying to be seen as “a lady” rather than “trashy”. Men and women are constantly fighting to be seen as the “ideal” form of their gender.

So what if you don”t consider yourself either one of these assigned genders? This is referred to as “third gender”, where you don’t identify as either a man or a woman, but somewhere in-between. What does that mean for you? The recoil you face for not conforming will be determined by the culture you belong to and the social constructs of it. The way you are treated by others and the rights you are given is determined by this. In the United States the debate on everything LGBT and deeper is still very much alive. Although members of this community are still mistreated and the debate on their legitimacy continues everyday, they are still given basic human rights. Unlike other countries in the Middle East where you would be persecuted and killed. This is all based of the cultures in which these countries have. Some more open than than others. The opposite of these cultures is the culture present in Thailand’s “Ladyboys”. Some are full transgenders while others are still somewhere in between. The Ladyboys of this culture are not judged, prosecuted, and hidden like a closet skeleton, but put on display for the world to see and enjoy if they choose to be. They are seen and treated like everybody else. They don’t struggle with issues such as finding a partner. People travel to Thailand to see the third gender performs because they are intrigued by the openness of the culture and are able to experience it without prosecution like they would in their own countries.

Before we had an LGBT community along with the terminology that relates with it, cultures around the world had their own versions of third gender members of their societies. Long before western culture ever touched North America, the indigenous cultures that called this place home treated their third gender members very differently than the way they are treated today in modern North America. They were referred to as “Two Spirit” peoples. These people we treated as sacred in the culture. To quote an article from Indian Country Today “Two spirit people have both a male and female spirit with them and are blessed by their Creator to see life through the eyes of both genders”. This gave them significant roles and responsibilities within their communities. Indian Country Today also states that Two Spirit people were often “balance keepers” because they were “the “dusk” between male morning, and female evening”. Similar to the Two spirit people of are the Mahu of Hawaii. In Hawaiian culture they recognize three genders; male, female, and Mahu. Being Mahu means that you both accept both feminine and masculine characteristics that they believe to be embedded in every person. Also, similar to the Two Spirits, they have promenade roles in their societies. They were healers, caretakers, and keepers and teachers of traditions.

Each of these members of their culture were seen and treated not only as equals, but seen as something unique that contributed something important to their societies. The world today can look back at cultural members like the Two Spirit and the Mahu and at current cultures like the Taiwan’s Ladyboys in order to see what we can become as a world as a whole. To see people who are different and embrace them and what they can contribute to our lives rather than spending time looking for flaws and ways to judge/ prosecute them.