Photos from TransValid's post ●FILIPINO HISTORY
Babaylan In pre-colonial Philippines, one of the pillars of society was the Babaylan. As a priestess, she held comparable societal rank to the Datu and the Bagani. Only a woman (cis or trans) could become a Babaylan. It is argued that, in pre-colonial Philippines, and still in some indigenous communities today, gender was determined not by the genitalia but by one’s social contribution. When the Spaniards came, they refused to accept such a concept of gender. Instead, they insisted upon their violent colonialist worldview. They controlled how we think, vilified our myths and lore, made Babaylans into frightening witches, and massacred them. They tried to suppress transgender people and removed us from our rightful place in history. We have been made to believe that transgender people and genderqueers are spawns of the devil, an abomination of nature. But we have always been part of this country’s history. Always.
The American anthropologist Stuart Schlegel was initially perplexed when he met a mentefuwaley libun (transgender woman) from the Teduray community; she was a celebrated zither player. When he insisted that she was a man, members of the community corrected him and firmly asserted that she was no less of a woman than the cisgender women within their community.
By Renz Y. Botero, Natu Xantino, Ram Botero
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