Tonga

Of the 169 islands that the Kingdom of Tonga comprises, in which the total population is listed as roughly 103,000 by the World Bank, only 36 are inhabited. Despite the small population, this Polynesian sovereign state has an established, culturally unique community of sexual and gender minorities (SGM). A subgroup of those who would be identified as LGBTQ by Western standards are called fakaleiti, but scholars caution those from labeling these Tongas as transgender. Although no study has captured the entirety of the SGM population in Tonga, the Tonga Leiti Association administered a survey called The Social Experiences of Trans and Gender-Diverse People in 2011. All 108 fakaleiti respondents identified themselves outside the Global North male-to-female/female-to-male binary, and instead selected ‘indigenous/local identity” and specified ‘Leiti’, when asked about their self-identified gender (Mataele et. al., 2014). In 2016, a group of health and advocacy organizations involved in the Pacific Multi-Country Mapping and Behavioural Study estimated there to be 1,000 transgender and men who have sex with men in the Tonga.

Studies:

Amin, S. N., Watson, D., & Girard, C. (2020). Mapping Security in the Pacific: A Focus on Context, Gender and Organisational Culture. Routledge.

Besnier, N. (2002). Transgenderism, Locality, and the Miss Galaxy beauty pageant in Tonga. American Ethnologist, 29(3), 534–566. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2002.29.3.534

Besnier, N. (2004). The social production of abjection. Desire and silencing among transgender Tongans*. Social Anthropology, 12(3), 301–323. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2004.tb00110.x

FARRAN, S. (2004). TRANSSEXUALS, FA’AFAFINE, FAKALEITI AND MARRIAGE LAW IN THE PACIFIC: CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE FUTURE. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 113(2), 119–142. JSTOR.

Farran, S. (2010). Pacific Perspectives: Fa’afafine and Fakaleiti in Samoa and Tonga: People Between Worlds. The Liverpool Law Review; Liverpool, 31(1), 13–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10991-010-9070-0 

Holmes, J., & Meyerhoff, M. (Eds.). (2003). The handbook of language and gender. Blackwell.

Pacific, U. in A. and the. (2019, September 10). Miss Galaxy Pageant blazes a trail for acceptance of trans women in Tonga. Medium. https://medium.com/undp-in-asia-and-the-pacific/miss-galaxy-pageant-blazes-a-trail-for-acceptance-of-trans-women-in-tonga-d88a6ccf8652

Tongan church conference avoids homosexual issues. (2019, July 2). RNZ. https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/393460/tongan-church-conference-avoids-homosexual-issues

Reports:

Mataele, D.J., Bazler, C., & Lagata, C. (2015). Transrespect versus Transphobia:The Social Experiences of Leitis in the Kingdom of Tonga. TvT Publications Services, 10. https://transrespect.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/TvT-PS-Vol10-2015.pdf

Pacific Multicountry Mapping and Behavioural StudyASHM. (n.d.). Retrieved June 29, 2020, from https://www.ashm.org.au/international/our-programs/pacific-multicountry-mapping-and-behavioural-study/

Articles:

Cyclone seriously damages Tonga LGBTI center, shelter. (2018, February 21). Washington Blade: Gay News, Politics, LGBT Rights. https://www.washingtonblade.com/2018/02/21/cyclone-seriously-damages-tonga-lgbti-center-shelter/

“I do not want to say I’m transgender, I’d rather just say I’m a woman” | Amnesty International. (n.d.). Retrieved June 27, 2020, from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/04/leiti-and-lgbti-activism-in-tonga/