Mexico’s Third Gender
In a small town in indigenous Mexico, a third gender exists. This gender is known as muxe, spelled sometimes as muxhe, among the Zapotec people. This gender is seen as neither female, nor male.
It’s understood to be a gender that’s in between both. Biologically they are male, but they act and dress in female ways. The term is believed to have came from the Spanish term for woman, mujer.
People of this gender are mostly found in areas neighbouring the Isthmus, where tolerance of this gender is the highest in Mexico. In other regions of Mexico, they are highly discriminated against.
This gender is known as an ancient concept, although many of today’s features date back to only about 60 years ago. Some muxes have families, some are with male partners and others with females. In the case that a muxe is with a male, they are not necessarily considered homosexual.
Although most muxe remain in indigenous communities, there are in fact some that are living in U.S communities. However, there they are often lumped together into Western ideas of sexual preferences and gender spectrums.