Nice stuff Randolph- More Trans History:
1) Mesopatamia - Priestesses of the Goddess Ishtar/Ashera/Innana were often born male and served as harlots (temple priestesses who had sex with male worshipers).
2) The Goddess Cybele form Asia Minor and later worshiped in Rome has a class of priests who functioned as women in dress and manner who would sometimes ritually castrate themselves.
3) Native American "Two-Spirit" people were believed to posess the "qualities" of both men and women (called "Berdache" by the French). They often held sacred places within the community and because of their ability to transcend gender roles were thought to be better able to communicate with the "spirit world".
4) Nearly all South East Asian cultures have a cultural place for what we would understand to be a transsesual woman. Usually this is understood to be a "third sex". European colonialism made most of these criminal under "crimes against nature". The irony is, while Europe is leading the way for recognition of Trans*folks legally, the places where this was accepted as a cultural norm centuries ago are struggling to regain this understanding.
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