Hoku

The Political Climate of Our Time

The past and the current political climate has greatly and very negatively affected the LGBTQ+ community. From stripping our rights away, to making hateful laws, to causing so much physical hurt, and to actually killing us.

If I'm being honest I believe that it will continue to be that way in the foreseeable future. I do believe there are a lot of positive things that can and will happen for us, but realistically I do not believe it will happen immediately.

With the current circus...I mean administration, that has already caused so much destruction, it is going to take a lot for us to rebuild and for people to find their humanity again.

It is sickening and scary. I hate that we have to be so resilient all the time and that we are always living in fear and uncertainty, however that is not new for us..

So I know that no matter what happens we will persevere.

I 1000% believe that remaining unapologetic in our identities, especially during these trying times is so crucial to our survival! That is how those before use survived and pioneered a way for us now.

We can not let those who want to erase us win in any way. They have tried for decades, centuries even, but we always survived. We have always been here, we belong, and we deserve to live our lives fully, with love, and happiness, and without fear.

For all Indigenous-diverse people, I feel that we face more scrutiny because not only are we being targeted but so is our culture. I feel we have more to protect because we have more to lose. As a Hawaiian, we have already lost so much.

Reclaiming Cultural Identity

For me personally, I was very blessed to be born and raised in my Kanaka 'Ohana (my mother's side) and that we did celebrate and honor our Māhu.

I not only had a lot of Māhu elders who were a crucial part of my upbringing, but I was also raised by my Aunty (my mothers sister) and her Wife. They raised me from the age of 8-17. However this is where I experienced the most significant amount of homophobia in my life.

The rest of my Māhu family taught me to be unapologetically myself and to never let anyone make me feel small.

I recognized that in their childhoods which was the 60's-80's, they had it alone harder and so getting to help raise me as a child, they in a way live vicariously through me.

Which also made me recognize why my adoptive "moms" held so much internalized homophobia. It was because their experience growing up caused them to be small and scared of who they were.

It caused a lot of trauma being raised by them and has led us to no longer communicate. For my own peace I cut them off 5 years ago.

It makes me sad, and sad for them but it made me a stronger person, and empowered me to be ME.

Reclaiming my cultural identity, it was always there...but something was missing. When I came out as Trans and went through with my transition process, it brought me a lot closer to my Hawaiian roots and culture.

Circling back to my adoptive parents, who are both Hawaiian and one of them being directly related to me. Not only were they homophobic and they were extremely white-washed. They were proud to be Hawaiian and we had a very stereotypical local-kine life in Keaukaha, on the Hawaiian homestead.

However just like their internalized homophobia, they had internalized racism. It was the weirdest thing to have to deal with and it felt so backwards growing up.

They were westernized to the extreme while wanting to be proudly Hawaiian. It was a damn contradiction.

But again, I didn't let their projections bring me down and I continued to do what was right for me. And I luckily had the rest of my 'ohana who were actively practicing our culture and nurturing it.

So every chance I had to get out of the house, I would go down the road to my grandmother's hale, down to Puhi Bay, or to a friend's house who was also on the homestead, and soak in every second that I could.

To wrap it up and how being a trans person relates to all of that. Is that it has greatly shaped my relationship with myself and "God".

Although a lot of my 'ohana practiced western religion, I never did and strongly opposed it. I have a relationship with God that does not involve religion. That has always been something that I loved the most about my Hawaiian culture.

We worship the 'āina, from mauka to makai, and all of the elements and animals in between. We held our women up as equals and our māhu were revered and protected. We thrived and we once one the greatest societies in the world.

Then once Western contact was made....well we know how that went and here we are today.

When I come across anyone, especially other Hawaiians who are transphobic, homophobic, and even disrespectful to our 'āina and everything that she creates, I remind them that to be a true and proud Hawaiian you can not cherry pick what fits your narrative. The Western religion, labels, and mindset still has a very strong grip on our people. I do not believe Hawai'i, our people, and our culture can thrive until we can get out of the Western chokehold. It will continue to suffocate us, rather you are Māhu or not, It is all connected.