Mexico’s muxe, or ‘third gender’, are part of worldwide LGBTQ movement

Mexico’s muxe are Zapotec people who identify as male at birth and embody female characteristics, viewing themselves as a ‘third gender’

Today, though prejudices persist, in general muxe are accepted – even admired – on their home turf

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Regada de las Muxes, a parade on the streets of Mexico. The muxe (pronounced Moo-shay) are Zapotec people who view themselves as neither man nor woman, but instead a distinct “third gender”. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 9:50pm, 17 Jan 2024Updated: 9:53pm, 17 Jan 2024

Stylists apply eyeliner, powder and other touches to the face of the soon-to-be-enthroned Queen Elvis as she holds forth about the singular nature of her community – the muxe – in this remote slice of southern Mexico.

The muxe (pronounced Moo-shay) are Zapotec people who view themselves as neither man nor woman, but instead a distinct “third gender”. Identified as male at birth, they embody female characteristics – in presentation, behaviour and professions – which once earned them contempt and scorn. Today, though prejudices persist, in general they are accepted – even admired – on their home turf.

Elvis Guerra, 30, the queen in waiting, explains that the muxe stand in solidarity with burgeoning gender rights movements worldwide, pronouncing themselves trailblazers of cultural preservation and inclusion in a rural bastion of Catholicism.

“We share the same fight as the LGBTQ community,” said Guerra, who is also a published poet, lawyer and head of a company producing fabrics with Indigenous motifs.

A Catholic ceremony for the Muxes festival. Mexico’s legacy of machismo and Roman Catholicism has fostered hostility to homosexuality and alternatives to conventional gender norms. That has begun to change, slowly, in recent decades. Photo: Shutterstock

She sat patiently as ardent beauticians prepared her for her formal investiture, a highlight of the three-day festival – or vela – that celebrates muxe culture here every November.

Mexico’s muxe, or ‘third gender’, are part of worldwide LGBTQ movement

Mexico’s muxe are Zapotec people who identify as male at birth and embody female characteristics, viewing themselves as a ‘third gender’ Today, though prejudices persist, in general muxe are accepted – even admired – on their home turf

Mexico’s muxe are Zapotec people who identify as male at birth and embody female characteristics, viewing themselves as a ‘third gender’

Today, though prejudices persist, in general muxe are accepted – even admired – on their home turf