hawaiian beliefs and the Tribes of the Maoy

DEDICATION

To ALL Gays, may these words and this web site

be a signpost that you may find your way home to a

Tribe that Loves You. May these teachings,

 hopes and dreams come true, kindle within your heart

 a great joy in the gift of life, the Gay life you have

 been blessed with, a new Family where

You can work, learn, and live together. And to renew in this time,

God's sacred hoop of life.



This is a Web site under God, and follows Gay Freedom and Religious Freedom,

as found in the constitution of the United States, and

Our Civil Laws.

All pictures are believed to be in public domain, any picture that are not,

will be removed by request. Art and text are owned by

the FREE and INDEPENDENT TRIBES and CHURCH  of the MAOY

And shall not be removed or copied except for personal use or use promoting the Tribe.

Any questions you have about use, please contact the Tribe.

THE MISSION STATEMENT of the TRIBES of the MAOY

The FREE and INDEPENDENT TRIBES of the MAOY, a Nonprofit Tribe..

 To bring together ALL Gays of all ages, to live, play, work,

 and love  together, without any Government,

 city, state, or federal telling us who we will live with,

 how we will live, or where we will live;

We MUST have a say in our lives! 

The Goal of the Tribe is to find a place, outsid

e the US, where we can live and form our own laws

, and villages, and country, without any outside

 interference in our lives. To be able to stand up and say,

 "I'm a Maoy Tribesman and I'm Gay and Proud of it! I am FREE!
To this end, we dedicate our lives.

Many teachings of the Hawaiian people reflect those of

American Indians in the US and South America,

Here are some of those teachings.

Transgendered and transsexual individuals

 greatly disturb most God-fearing Christians,

 who believe that everything other than 'conventional' marital sex is a mortal sin.

The ancient Hawaiians were not as tightly strung, in their graceful understanding

that all human beings possess a complete

Tao of male and female qualities within themselves. 'Mahu'

is a Hawaiian term that describes a man who has chosen to live as a woman and in

the ancient (pre-missionary) culture, such individuals

were respected and regarded as important members of the community.

Although today, dismissive common usage in Hawaii often reduces the word’s

 meaning to simply ‘gay’ or ‘a deviant homosexual person’, the much degraded

 modern definition of ‘mahu’ is remarkably far from its original Hawaiian definition,

 which may be understood to loosely mean a ‘transgendered’

 person. Furthermore, not only is the meaning

 different today, most malihini (mainlanders)

are surprised to learn that in ancient Hawaii,

 the ‘mahu’ was not disparaged with a sense of moral disgust the way ‘gay’ is by religiously

straight mainland individuals. 'Mahu', or transgendered individuals and transvestites,

were in fact viewed by the ancient Hawaiians as a normal element in the old social culture

that preceded missionary days. 'Mahu' were thus not only tolerated, they were regarded as a

 legitimate and contributing part of the ancient kauhale or community.

One must recall, in digesting this fact, that the ancient Hawaiians were a remarkably

varied people in their enthusiastic expression of all human sexual impulses.

 It was only after the missionaries

 (who descended on the islands in 1820, immediately following

the overthrow of the old indigenous ‘kapu' religious system) introduced monotheism

and forcefully imposed the extremely conservative moral austerities of the

Christian evangelical Pentecostals upon the indigenous Hawaiians that they learned

 that all sex was morally insupportable unless it was engaged in strictly to

 procreate within a sanctified marriage. This was, of course, nothing short of astounding

to the ancients, who had always enthusiastically enjoyed a wide ranging

appreciation for sexual acts of any and all sorts. Moreover, it was one of the most

 profoundly impactful changes induced by the missionaries, as they set about

‘educating’ the heathen Hawaiians based upon their own strict Pentecostal evangelical

 conventions. (Join the club! The white man did this to the American Indians as well!)

For although male cross-dressing and behaving like the opposite sex was a long-established

custom in the islands (within a remarkably far-reaching tradition), such ‘abnormality’

was especially sinful in the eyes of the Christian missionaries.
It should be understood that in the ancient Hawaiian culture it was not at all extraordinary

 for a boy to be brought up as a girl, or for a young man to lead an active life in

the open as a female, dressing like and appearing as a woman, performing female

 tasks and duties, and adopting a woman’s daily role in everyday Hawaiian life.

The Hawaiians were themselves quite remarkable in

that they understood the dual nature of human beings

 to be comprised of both masculine and feminine traits, almost the same view reflected

by modern Western psychologists in affirmation of the role male and female

 hormones play in dictating integrated psychosocial behavior. Individuals who

 were ‘mahu’ were therefore considered to possess equal halves of both gender traits,

regarding life and living it as if there were both actual genders within them.

The difference was only that in the ‘mahu’, the biological male

 actively chose to adopt the role of his ‘female half’. There were,

naturally enough, very specific social circumstances and

cultural considerations applicable to the ‘mahu’ role, but suffice

 it to say that a cross-dressing male was deemed nothing out of the ordinary by

the ancient Hawaiians, nor was male effeminacy that characterized the status.
At the time of Captain Cook’s original visit to the islands, records kept by members of

 his crew noted the presence of ‘aikane’ among the common Hawaiian people

 who provided Ali’i nobles with such things as oral sex, anal intercourse, and other

 expressions of sexual favors for favored status among their peers. With a very

fluid sense of sexuality and no concept of the proprietary sanctions that Western marriage

 implies, all forms of sexual activity were enjoyed openly and without concern.

There were several Hawaiian terms to describe the ‘aikane’, among them ‘noho ai‘

(a poetic form that translates to ‘one to lie with’), and ‘ho`okamaka’

and ‘moe aikane’. More explicitly, same-sex sexual acts among males were referred

to as ‘upi laho’, or literally ‘scrotum squirting’. It shouldn’t be surprising to note that even

Hawaii’s great unifying chieftain Kamehameha I had

several ‘aikane’ that he enjoyed sexual relationships with.
When the missionaries imposed their Christian god on the Hawaiians, with its concurrent

 standards of severely conservative ‘Christian’ moral censure, while the ‘mahu’ subculture

was forced to remain hidden from public sight and go culturally underground, the ‘aikane’

 tradition was stringently condemned as an intolerable (and grossly deviant) mortal sin.

 The consequence of this was a great internalized

and highly disruptive homophobia

that sprang into being on the islands, directly imported as it was from the American

mainland by the evangelical Pentacostal missionaries. Today, the 'aikane' tradition

has all but vanished entirely (or been absorbed into 'regular' sexual irregularity, or

Western style gay culture). The 'mahu' tradition almost vanished, but has come back as a

renewed aspect of organized support for

'sex workers' in the major Hawaiian urban areas
In modern Hawaii, the most profoundly strong moral influence from a religious and

cultural aspect remains Christianity. Up until recently, a continuing consequence

of this shift in beliefs has been the displacement of traditional Hawaiian attitudes

of fluidly loose morality and sexuality by their Christian counterparts.

Under that set of narrowly contrived ethical standards that characterise

Western religious convention, moral conduct of individuals have come to be regarded

 exclusively in strict terms of moral black and white.

The biblical standard of sexual ‘normalcy’

(i.e. ‘conventional’ sex between a married man and woman)

 remains a fixed and unyielding given throughout the modern

 Hawaiian culture, and by virtue of that fact the importation

of extreme bias against ‘gays’ and other ‘sexual deviants’

(as characterized by Christian dogma)

has taken equally strong hold in much of haole colonised Hawaii.

Fortunately, with the recent fostering of acceptance of gay people brought about by

the gay rights movement (and the growing unity of ‘diversity’ proponents), these

formerly unassailably rigid attitudes of moral censure have

 somewhat yielded to a far more moderate sense of forbearance.

AIKANE

Traditional Hawaiian Same-Sex Relationships

Polena pa'a 'ia iho ke aloha i kuleana like ai kaua.

(In love tightly bound, you and I share equal rights.)

Same-sex relationships are an important part of our most traditional Hawaiian culture. 

 The 'ohana or extended family often included same-sex relationships.

The special word for the people in these relationships was

 AIKANE,

 but the Hawaiians used other words such as ho'okamaka and lawakua.

Captain Cook and his crews first noticed this when they met some of the aikane of the

chiefs on Kaua'i, Maui, and the Big Island. 

 In fact, some of the Hawaiians asked the sailors to become their aikane!

Most of the ruling chiefs, including Kamehameha the Great,

had several aikane in their households.

  Sometimes children were raised specifically

to enter the royal household and become the aikane of the chief.

Legend tells us that this was the custom back to the

 beginning, including the household of the first parents, Wakea and Papa.

In the story of the great chief Lonoikamakahiki, a

commoner from Kaua'i, Kapa'ihiahilina,

became his aikane, after telling him "Aloha au ia 'oe, ukali mai nei."

  I love you, so I followed you here.

  Some of the best women's stories are found in the legend of Pele and her sister, Hi'iaka.

The saying was, He aikane, he punana na ke onaona.  An aikane is haven made of loveliness.

From these traditions and legends come many of the chants and dances that are

 part of hula, and as Kalakaua said, the hula is the lifeblood of the Hawaiian culture.

Even after the revolution and the overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani, our law and our state constitution

 have always required that lawmakers take into account Hawaiian language, customs, and usages.

Many of the nationalities that have come to Hawai'i also have ancient traditions

 recognizing same-sex relationships; for example, the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Filipinos.

This means that same-sex relationships are, and ought to be,

 part of our society and part of our definition of "family".

Many local families include someone who is gay or lesbian:

  a brother, sister, cousin, aunty, uncle. 

 Sometimes it's hard for that person to "come out" to his or her family, and sometimes

 it's hard for the family to talk about that person's sexuality.

But NO SHAME, no hilahila. 

 All this was part of the strength and love of the Hawaiian tradition.

Dignity
Hanohano

Pride
Ha'aheo

Love/Devotion
Aloha

 

Polnesia’s ancient same sex acceptance

Few people appreciate just how gay-friendly Polynesia was before European contact.

 Even our own Captain Cook, who passed through Hawai'i, noted in his

journals same-same (Aikane) relationships as well as transgenders (Mahu).
The ancient Hawai'ians weren't uptight about relationships and possessed an understanding

 of human beings' dual nature comprised of both masculine and feminine qualities. 

The concept of opposite sexes is foreign to Hawai'ian thought and their language

contains no female or male pronouns like 'he or she'. This reflects the Polynesian

emphasis on integration and balance of the male and female gods. The Mahu embody

 this ancient Polynesian principle of spiritual duality and are viewed as an honoured intermediate sex.
The Polynesians of yore seemed way ahead of modern western culture in their acceptance.

They possessed a fluid sense of sexuality and sexual activity

 that was enjoyed openly and without concern.
Before the Europeans arrived in the eighteenth century, transgender roles

 were already socially accepted as well as kept male lovers (Aikane).In pre-European Hawai'i, if a man was particularly handsome and talented in dance or

poetic chanting, a High Chieftain may keep him as a lover.  Since high-ranking chiefs

were believed to be descended from the gods, Aikane were granted special political

and social status as a result of their sexual favours with the royals thereby increasing

their own rank.  Same-sex relations among men allowed chiefs to test the loyalty of their

 warriors while preventing unwanted pregnancies or preserving sacred blood lines.

Captain Cook's crew witnessed this society in 1778

and kept detailed journals. They learned

of concubines (often male) whose business,

 as the journals put it, "is to commit the Sin of Onan upon the old King"

- a reference to oral sex. "It is an office that is esteemed honourable among them,

" continued the shocked log writer, "and they have frequently asked us on seeing a

 handsome young fellow if he was not an Ikany [Aikane] to some of us."

Many scholars have said that old Hawai'i was neither purely heterosexual nor homosexual,

 but a bisexual culture. Same-sex relationships were commonplace.  No shame

was associated with same-gender sex or for men to openly lead an active life as a female (Mahu).

It wasn't extraordinary for a boy to be brought up as a girl, dressing like and appearing

as a woman, performing female duties in everyday life.  'Mahu' were considered

to possess equal halves of both gender traits, as if both actual genders resided within them.

They actively chose to adopt the role of their 'female half'; such individuals were

respected as a normal element in the social culture that preceded missionary days.

Mahu weren't only tolerated; they were accepted

 as a legitimate contributing part of the community.

They were thought to possess the virtues of both men and women.

Mahu were valued as the keepers

of cultural traditions, such as the passing down of genealogies.

This all changed once the missionaries descended on the islands in 1820 imposing

 their strict Pentecostal evangelical conventions on the 'heathen' Hawai'ians. 

They dictated that all sex was morally bad unless it was for procreation within a sanctified marriage.

The Mahu subculture was forced underground; the Aikane tradition was harshly condemned

as an intolerable grossly deviant mortal sin. Homophobia was born on the islands.

Today, the Aikane tradition has vanished or been absorbed into Western-style gay culture. 

 Mahu on the other hand still live their lives in today's Hawai'i.  If a family has five boys,

 it's standard to raise the sixth boy as a daughter to adopt the feminine role of family

caretaker since a suitable daughter was lacking.  This provides additional labour for

traditional women's tasks like cooking and raising children. 

 Whether or not that implies homosexuality isn't important.

However, the past's missionary influences have created modern negative attitudes

 towards transgendered people, although Mahu have been a part of Hawai'ian,

Tahitian, Samoan, Tongan and the rest of Polynesian life for hundreds, possibly thousands

 of years.  Mahu are finding their role in today's society confusing

and difficult, so often they become drag queens or go into prostitution.

The modern meaning of 'Mahu' has shifted from its original definition. Nowadays,

locals typically use it as a derogatory term for drag queens and effeminate gay men.

Let's practice acceptance and respect through aloha (love) and realise the humanness

 in each other instead of just settling for tolerance.  Sexual and gender diversity

is widespread throughout the Pacific Islands. 

We've come along way, but we've got a long way to go.  Aloha

In all states of the US and many parts of Europe, Gay are still hated.

 This will not change in our lifetime. The shortest way is through the Tribes of the Maoy. Only in the

 FREE and INDEPENDENT TRIBES of the MAOY are ALL Gays welcome.

Two Spirit American and South American Indians, Hawaiian Mahu,

and Aikane as well as anyone in the World.

Come to the Tribe for real Gay Freedom!

Come to the Tribe and live again!

Paradise is not something you dream about, it MUST be something you work toward!

And no one will hand it to you, not even the Tribe can do that, unless we all come together and

MAKE IS SO!

All of  us of all races, can bring so much to the Tribe, if we just DO IT!

This can be a new Future for American Indian Two Spirit, and ALL Gays.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick.

 But a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12

We, the Tribes of the Maoy, CAN change the way the world thinks about Gays!

For more information, on the Church or Life in the Tribe, please Write to:

 Radioflyer@email.com

or call the Tribe at 575-652-3785

or write: The Tribes of the Maoy P. O. Box 2394

Las Cruces NM 88004

Please! Copy this and pass it on to ALL Gays who want real Freedom in their lives!

The Tribe NEEDS Active Gay Members to Help publish the main Web Site!

The Tribe NEEDS Active Gay Ministers to teach us the Word of GOD!

And the Tribe NEEDS Active Gay Members to help build the Tribe!

The Tribe NEEDS Two Spirit American Indians to be part of the Tribe and Teach us.

The Tribe NEEDS Hawaiian Mahu and  Aikane to also join the Tribe!

If you want to change your life for the better, Contact the Tribe!

Check out the rest of our God pages and the Tribes pages! Learn what it will

Really be living in the Tribe!

This is a Web site under God, and follows Gay Freedom and Religious Freedom,

as found in the constitution of the United States, and

Our Civil Laws.

All pictures are believed to be in public domain, any picture that are not,

will be removed by request. Art and text are owned by

the FREE and INDEPENDENT TRIBES and CHURCH  of the MAOY

And shall not be removed or copied except for personal use or use promoting the Tribe.

Any questions you have about use, please contact the Tribe.

god's gay tribe by Radioflyer Tribe Leader is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

This is a Web site under God, and follows Gay Freedom and Gay Religious

 Freedom, as found in the constitution of the United States,

And the Civil Laws of this country.

All pictures are believed to be in public

domain, any picture that are not,

Will be removed by request. Art and text are owned by

the FREE and INDEPENDENT TRIBES and CHURCH  of the MAOY

And shall not be removed or copied except for personal use or use promoting the Tribe.

Any questions you have about use, please contact the Tribe.