The Third Gender in South Mex Mixes Celebration and Activism
JUCHITAN, Mexico, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Members of southern Mexico’s third-gender ‘muxe’ community celebrated sexual and gender diversity over the weekend, while committing to fighting for LGBTQ people in the face of recent losses. Thousands attended the weekend festival, known locally as a “vela,” in the city of Juchitan, in the state of Oaxaca, where the streets were filled with dancing and music, and where a pageant featured muxes in traditional dress. In Indigenous Zapotec cultures in this region, muxes are people born biologically male and mix gay and feminine identity. “In the Zapotec language, there is no gender,” said Felina Santiago, considered by many the matriarch of Juchitan’s muxe community. “We have always existed and we have always resisted.”
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