This article describes the gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation of male spirit mediums in Myanmar. Our analysis is based on ethnographic work, field observation, and 10 semi-structured interviews. These observations were conducted from 2010 to 2015, mostly in Mandalay, with some fieldwork in Yangon and Bagan. The focus of this investigation was specifically onachout (gender variant individuals) who were spirit mediums (nat kadaw). Semi-structured interviews explored the ways that participants understood their gender identity, gender expression, and sexuality in relation to their work as spirit mediums and broader social life. Myanmar remains quite a homophobic and transphobic culture but is undergoing rapid economic and social change. Therefore, it provides an interesting context to study how safe spaces are produced for sexual/gender minorities amidst broader social change. We find that, through the animistic belief structure, there is a growing space for gender nonconforming people, gender variant, and same-sex-oriented individuals (achout) to neutralize their stigmatized status and attain a level of respect and economic advantage. Their ability to becomenat kadaw (mediums of spirits) mitigates or trumps their stigmatized status.

1. There are no available estimates of the number ofachout living in Myanmar. There are estimates of men who have sex with men: between 240,000 and 280,000 reside in Myanmar.http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs13/Myanmar_Country_Review_2011._HIV_and_AIDS_Data_Hub_for_Asia-Pacific_(2011).pdf.

2. Of note, Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is one of many examples of how the country is changing. After being under house arrest, as a prominent political prisoner, for 15 of the 21 years from 1989 to 2010, her party won a landslide victory in 2015. Although she was prohibited from becoming the President because her late husband and children are foreign citizens, she now serves as State Counsellor.

3. This festival was visited and documented by my collaborator, M. Pathy Allen, in August, 2014.

4. As de la Perriere (2007) describes: “…may be linked to female spirits, as sons to mothers or to males spirits as younger brother to elder brothers, many of them are actually married toMa Ngwe Taung, a female spirit well known for seducing men in order to transform them into transvestites. Many male spirit mediums are transvestites (meinmasha) and, although there are no statistics on this development, it seems that their number has increased during the past 20 years. However, male spirit mediums are suspected of homosexuality, which underlines the feminine character of this vocation. And that the mediums are called ‘spirit wives’ whatever their sex further underlines that their relationship is conceived of, on the general level of gender representation, as a marital one” (p. 209).

5. They can have other businesses as illustrated inFriends in High Places.

This study was funded by Tawani Foundation (no grant number). Dr. Coleman would like to thank some of his original collaborators for his research in Burma–Louis Gooren and Philp Colgan. In addition, we would like to thank our translators in Burma–Aung Kyawmyint, Ko Tin Maung Cho (Chalu), Myint Oo, and Thet Paing Mhew (Smile) (Burma). We would like thank Swagata Banik for his careful review of the manuscript and Burmese Scholars David Gilbert and Dr. Nay Myo Naing (Shanlay) for their helpful input. We are grateful to our participants and subjects of this study who shared their intimate lives with us.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Program in Human Sexuality, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota Medical School, 1300 South Second Street, Suite 180, Minneapolis, MN, 55454, USA

   Eli Coleman

2. MFA, New York, NY, USA

   Mariette Pathy Allen

3. Department of Sociology, New York University, New York, NY, USA

   Jessie V. Ford

Corresponding author

Correspondence toEli Coleman.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects of the University of Minnesota in 2006. Confidentiality of the qualitative interviews and the field notes were maintained at all stages of data collection and analysis. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Appendix

Open-ended questions used in semi-structured interviews

Demographics

• How old are you?

• What kind of work/profession do you have?

Possession

• At what age were you possessed by the nats?

• Are you married to any of the particular spirits?

Family Background

• Who raised you?

• How many siblings to you have and what are their ages, gender?

• Do you know if any of your siblings are achout or nat kadaw?

• Gender Identity and Expression.

• What were your preferred toys, games as a child?

• Did you feel more like a girl or a boy while growing up?

• At what age did you feel different from other boys?

• How did you father and/or mother react to your feminine behavior as a child?

• How do they feel now about your feminine behavior?

• When you were a young child did you ever want to grow up to be a woman?

• How did you feel about the changes in your body when you went through puberty?

• How do you dress normally–as a woman/man/both?

• Do you identify as a woman, man, or both?

• Have you ever taken female hormones to feminize your body?

• Have you ever had surgery to feminize your body?

• Have you thought that you would like to have some kind of surgery to feminize your body?

• Do you have a feminine name that you have adopted?

• When you urinate, do you sit or stand?

Sexual History

• When was your first sexual experience?

• Who was it with?

• How did you feel about it?

• Did you ever feel that you have been sexually abused?

• How many sexual partners have you had in the last year?

• What kind of sexual activity do you prefer with your sexual partner(s)?

Sexual Orientation

• Can you describe the kind of sexual partner(s) that you are attracted to?

• Are you in any committed sexual/romantic relationship at this time. How long?

• In the past, how much long term committed sexual/romantic relationships have you had?

Health

• How is your overall health?

• How have you felt you have been treated by health care providers?

• Have you been tested for HIV? Do you know the results?

• How often do you use condoms with your sexual partner(s)?

Stigma and Discrimination

• How has your status as a nat kadaw impacted how you are perceived in the community and your status as an achout?

• When you die and are reincarnated, what would you like to be a man? woman? achout?

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