Hawaii's Polysexual Past
By Matthew Link,
OutTraveler.com | Article Date: 12/01/2008 12:00 AM
http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?id=21037§ion=67Cross-dressers, queer concubines, and the Sin of Onan -- the Hawaii of pre-European contact had it all.
Another notable queer aspect of old Hawaiian culture that is still strong today is the concept of the mahu. Transvestitism is common in parts of Polynesia, where men choose to don women's apparel, grow up as a girl, and even become a wife of another man, sometimes even cutting his/her thighs to "menstruate." Some traditions dictate that a male, usually a younger brother, is compelled to take on the feminine role of family caretaker when a suitable daughter is lacking. Whether or not that connotes homosexuality is not important. Mahu hold a necessary role in the communal family and are usually not outcasts in Polynesian society.
Now that modern media and politics have flooded Hawaiian culture, the word mahu is often used in a derogatory way to describe an effeminate man, or a gay man in general. But the mahu tradition refuses to go away: An annual ->-bleeped-<- beauty pageant, The Universal Show Queen, packs in crowds in mainstream Waikiki hotels. And Kim Coco Iwamoto, who is transgender, holds a seat on the state's board of education -- the highest office ever for an elected transgender person in United States. So there is hope that history will repeat itself, and the 50th state can draw on its ancient traditions to become a trailblazer of tolerance in the 21st century.
