https://www.cbc.ca/doczone/features/timeline-transgender-through-history
In the status quo, transgender people are fighting for basic human rights and respect while many view them as a condition of postmodern thought. People view all non binary gender identities as a new concept, however it has been existent since the beginning of time and it was more complex than just defining anyone that doesn’t fit into the category of woman or man as “transgender.” Non binary people have been fighting to be recognized since before the Stonewall Riots, for example there was the Compton Cafeteria Riot 3 years earlier in 1966, but resistance to binary identity goes back even further. On a global scale, binary gender was not natural or assumed, it was enforced through invasion and colonization by western countries in order to achieve their ideal society based off of their own utopian desires of uniformity, absolute control, and productivity that leads to maximum wealth for the elite (the people they deemed as “the best” for no reason other than that they said so). In South East Asia they have hundreds to thousands of years of culture that was not constrained to gender, for example, they had what they called Hijras in India. Hijras were a designated third gender that did not conform with a specific identity and they were highly respected, and even known to have special powers. They would be at weddings and births to bless the people until the British colonial rule made it illegal to be a Hijras. Japan also had a third gender system, called Wakashus, who were honored and respected as beautiful gender fluid individuals. Many Native tribes in Europe and America were known to have a transformative system in which the gender was fluid. In the United States the Navajo tribe would recognize four genders and outside of the four, if someone didn’t fit into any then they would also be seen as extra powerful and respected. In the Native American garden of eden they recognized 5 genders (Female, male, Two Spirit female, Two Spirit male, and transgendered) and were also supportive of LGBT folks. This non-binary gender system was the first thing white colonial European settlers struck down in many cases, to control the behavior and identities of the tribe as they took the land. One of the reasons that they did so is because it was also easier to oppress large amounts of people when there were only two options and one was depicted as superior. White leaders did the same thing with the separation between white people and colored people. When there is only two options, one group may feel superior and be more able to dominate over the other half of the population based upon the ideal that they are inherently better.
Binaries: A Utopian Desire For Control Turned Dystopian 