So, this is an incomplete list of all genders that are out there…

And this is what many people think of the above image…

I too was one of those people who till about a couple of years ago, would roll my eyes at people who would not conform to a gender binary and assume that they were afflicted with too much ‘woke-ness’. Today, I would say that that was ignorant thinking on my part, perhaps caused by decades of ‘conformist’ education.

Anyway, a rather short facebook interaction with a cousin who is my age & who I am confident is sane and has studied this stuff, led me to start reading more about it too. And the more I read some of the new science as well as some really old stuff led me down the path that has resulted in this article.

So, what is gender?

Now, most of us have grown up with the idea that there are two genders – male and female.

We typically associate male with:
– having XY chromosomes
– a specific kind of genitalia + reproductive system
– having testosterone as a primary hormone.

We tend to think of female as:
– having XX chromosomes
– a specific kind of genitalia + reproductive system
– having estrogen as a primary hormone.

Now these biological markers usually end up grouped together, which also creates the 2 ‘groups’ which people identify as genders. The key word here is USUALLY.

What about people who fall outside of these groupings? People may have different combinations of chromosomes, hormones, genitalia that don’t come from the same ‘group’. They’re still natural. They’re still human. They’re NOT an aberration, nor are they abnormal. Given this reality, can there really be only 2 groups (or 2 genders)? Or are there multiple, caused by different combinations of these 3 biological markers?

Now before we talk more about gender, we cannot escape talking about sexuality or sex since one is kinda linked with the other, though not as much as we think. A combination of biology + upbringing + self-awareness ends up with people identifying themselves as being attracted to one sex or another or to both or as being fluid across these options. So while gender & sexuality are closely intertwined, considering there are both physical & mental constructs, they do not always line up, thereby creating situations where people are biologically of one gender (in the traditional binary gender sense) but may be sexually attracted to the same or another gender. And often-times, though not always, they end up being attracted to people of another gender professing the same or different sexuality. Yes, it is a little complex to understand (took me a while too) but you need to. It is important & critical to understand the concepts of gender, sex & sexuality and to understand those human beings who generally fall under the LGBTQ umbrella.

Now, this article is as much about about the complexities of interpersonal attractions across gender, sex, etc as it is about the prevalence & general widespread acceptability of gender & sexual fluidity in india, which I argue should be fait-accompli, since it is not something alien to our culture. The concept of gender & sex fluidity has always existed in India until we were invaded by Mughals & then the British.

Here’s a tweet posted by someone after the Indian Supreme Court struck down Sec 377 – “From gay Sufi lovers to Hindu transgender women. India’s sexual fluidity was always a dirty, barbaric concept to its western invaders and it is crucial for the LGBTQ community here in the west to understand this. This isn’t India becoming ‘westernised’. It’s India decolonising.“

He is absolutely right and I urge people not to freak out and think that this is some ‘woke’, new-fangled idea. It is not. If we in India go back & look into our past, we find many LGBTQ references in our itihaas. Here are a few:

1. The Kamasutra has an entire chapter on erotic homosexuality – both for men & women.
2. Many temples in India constructed between the 6th & 14th centuries have graphic images & carvings of sexual fluidity (non-binary) on their walls.
3. God Vishnu exhibits gender & sexual fluidity. Mohini is his female avtaar.
   • Vishnu as Mohini procreates with God Shiva to give birth to Lord Ayyappa. He is also referred to as Hariharaputra (the son of Vishnu [Hari] and Shiva [Hara]).
   • Vishnu in his incarnation as Krishna in the Mahabharata, again becomes Mohini to marry Aravan/Iravan (Arjun’s son with the Naga princess Uloopi). Selected to be sacrificed for the Pandavas’ victory in the Kurukshetra war, Aravan has one last wish of not wanting to die unmarried. As no woman comes forward to marry him, Krishna takes the form of Mohini, weds him and after Aravan’s death, is seen as a hero’s widow. Their marriage is still celebrated today, with the Koovagam Festival becoming one the largest annual gatherings of trans people in India.
4. Budh & Ila and gender fluidity – Budh while representing the planet Mercury in astrology also has a gender fluid history. Brihaspati, when he discovers his wife Tara pregnant with the child of another god, curses the child Budh to be neither male nor female. Budh later on marries Ila, also cursed to switch genders every month because she trespassed into the forbidden love-grove of Parvati and Shiva. As a man, Ila is known as Sadhyumna. Their children later established the Chandravanshi line of kings – the dynasty which forms the Kuru dynasty – which is the principle dynasty in the Mahabharata.
5. Shikhandi – One of the greatest warrior mentioned in our myths is Bhishma – the only mortal to have the ability of choosing the time of his death (ichha-mrityu). And when he ended up fighting on the side of adharma and needed to be taken down, it was a combination of Arjun & Shikhandi who took him down. Shikhandi was born a girl (named Shikhandini) to King Drupada but later transformed into a man named Shikhandi. Now if that isn’t gender fluidity, I don’t know what is.

and so many more….

Bharat has always had a distinct worldview accommodating gender and sexual variance. Albeit in a minority, but still very much a natural occurrence. It is woven into our lives, our genetics and the narratives of our epics and our itihaas, and is very much present in both our society and in our arts.

Now we can look at LGBT acceptance as a ‘new age’ thing or we can look at it as going back to our roots. It doesn’t matter. It is here to stay.

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