sexual activity morally or legally to reproduction. Portrayals of beautiful young
men such as Ganymede whom even gods admired are plentiful on vase
paintings, as are erotic stories involving men in Greek literature. And the female
poet Sappho of Lesbos gave name to female same-sex orientation (lesbianism).
The Kathoey of Buddhist Thailand, composed of intersex people, is a group that
defies binary gender distinction. Many, including many of their own, categorize
them as a third sex. Similar attitudes obtained in Theravada Buddhist countries
such as Myanmar and Sri Lanka, which had no legal provisions against
homosexuality before colonial times. Only the British introduced legal statutes
against it. Hinduism also held rather accepting views about same-sex relations,
Sanskrit text mentioning men and women who behave like the opposite sex, as
determined at the time of their birth. Accordingly, India’s complex system of
castes, tribes, religious communities, and social groups includes recognized
third-gender groups, the Hijra and Aravani (bisexuals, transgender people, and
eunuchs) being the most prominent.
Taoism (also Daoism), an ancient religious and philosophic tradition of China
that emphasizes harmony with ‘the way’ (dao), entertains what must be among
the most tolerant attitudes towards variations of sexual relationships. Its Yin
Yang symbol of two intertwined swirls—each encompassing, and merging into,
the other—is suggestive of the idea that female and male, night and day,
passivity and activity imply each other, that there are shades between them, that
everything is both constant and cyclical, and that opposites constitute a unity.
These examples are sketchy, ignoring the diversity of views within each faith,
but they tell us that sexual morals are variable, and with them gender roles and
gender identities. Change in these matters tends to be gradual and often goes
unnoticed; however, the past generation has witnessed conspicuous changes,
with regard to our knowledge about the biology of human sex determination,
about the social formation of gender identities, and about the Western fascination
with ‘coming out’.
Shift of gender identities
Perhaps the most consequential change in the Western world was the conceptual
separation of sex and gender. This distinction, with which today most people are
familiar, is actually quite new. It did not gain wider currency before the late