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1 Samoa will change suggested rule that banned gay and lesbian competitors from having sex 7/07

2 Retract Gay Sex Ban; Also, Samoa's Trans Tradition... 7/07

3 Fa'afafine - Samoan boys brought up as girls' 2005

4 Redefining Fa'afafine: Western Discourses and the Construction of Transgenderism in Samoa 8/01 (academic research)

5 Bad-Assed Honeys with a Difference: South Auckland Fa'afafine Talk about Identity 8/01

ABC Interview with Brian Fuata, a Samoan-born actor who has written and portrays all the characters in a theatre performance titled FA'AFAFIN: http://www.abc.net.au/arts/performance/stories/s445425.htm (The play is about my experiences as a gay man in Australia and also a gay Samoan man in Australia.)

18th July 2007 12:07
PinkNews.co.uk writer

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Samoa will change suggested rule that banned gay and lesbian competitors from having sex.

The organisers of a major sporting event in Samoa have said they will change guidance that banned gay and lesbian competitors from having sex.

The rules, published by Samoa team managers yesterday, apply only to Samoan athletes competing in the Pacific Games, a multi-sport event held later this year.

The organising committee moved quickly to reject the rules and order changes.

The Samoa National Olympic Committee president and organising committee chairman, Tapasu Leung Wai, told Radio Australia that the gay sex ban was not endorsed by the committee. " I regret that it appeared that gay people were being singled out in the draft instructions," he said. " Team managers agreed yesterday that the reference be deleted." The original rules were published in a Samoan newspaper, and were designed to stop athletes "embarassing" the country.

Samoa will play host to 5,000 people from more than twenty countries in August and September.
The Pacific Games are held every four years. The two week 2007 Games in Apia in Samoa are the 13th to be held.
Countries from around the region compete in a range of sports from archery to wrestling.

From: Queerty
http://www.queerty.com/sex/samoan-sports-officials-enact-retract-gay-sex-ban-20070718/

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Retract Gay Sex Ban; Also, Samoa's Trans Tradition...

Samoan officials are pumped for the forthcoming South Pacific Games. They aren’t pumped, however, about the prospect of gay gamers getting it on - at least they weren’t until the gamers called them out for being homo-haters.

The pacific nation’s sports officials published a set of rules yesterday, including a prohibition on same sex love.
"Athletes are advised that they should not embarrass themselves, their families and the country."
A memo says homosexual activities are against the law of God.

Most people scoffed at the directive, leading Samoa National Olympic Committee president Tapasu Leung Wai to do a revoke the repulsive rules: "I regret that it appeared that gay people were being singled out in the draft instruction. Team managers agreed yesterday that the reference be deleted. Now everyone can play for the same team!"

Radio Australia explains that the decision comes as Samoans open their hearts to “fa’afafine”: men who dress as women when their family lacks the feminine touch in families of all male children, or where the daughters are too young to assist with so-called women’s work, parents choose one or more of their sons to help the mother. Because the boys perform the ‘work of women’ they are raised as if they are female.

Although their gender is widely known, they will usually dress as girls. As they age, their duties do not change and they continue with women’s work even if they marry - usually to a woman.

In light of Samoa’s social history, Leung Way reiterated that the rules weren’t meant to be discriminatory, “[The way] we are brought up, there is no hard feelings against anybody, we treat everybody as equal.” Except for that whole “women’s work” thing, of course. Seriously - they’ve created an entire social mechanism to ensure “manly” men don’t have to get on their knees and scrub. Sure, it’s cool that they’re cool with fa’afafine, but does it strike anyone else as a bit disingenuous? Maybe we’re just cynical…

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/pacific/people/hazy.htm

2005

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Fa'afafine - Samoan boys brought up as girls'

"When I was young, my parents looked at me and the way I am…and they think, Oh Hazy, she must be not a boy, but something else. And then, they never accuse me…they really accept me. They understand what I am, in my body."

Living alone in a tiny house just outside the Savai'i village of Alaolemativa, Hazy Pau Talauati is a Samoan man who dresses and lives as a woman. She is a fa'afafine. Like most fa'afafine in Samoa - and there are a few in most villages - Hazy is an accepted member of the community, valued for the work she does.

Samoa's social acceptance of fa'afafine has evolved from the tradition of raising some boys as girls. These boys, were not necessarily homosexual, or noticeably effeminate, and they may never have felt like dressing as women. They became transvestites because they were born into families that had plenty of boys and not enough girls.

In families of all male children (or where the only daughter was too young to assist with the 'women's' work), parents would often choose one or more of their sons to help the mother. Because these boys would perform tasks that were strictly the work of women they were raised as if they were female. Although their true gender was widely known, they would usually be dressed as girls.
As they grew older, their duties would not change. They would continue performing 'women's' work, even if they eventually married (which would be to a woman).

Modern fa'afafine differ in two fundamental ways from their traditional counterparts. First, they are more likely to have chosen to live as women, and, secondly, they are more likely to be homosexual. These days, young Samoan boys who appear effeminate, or enjoy dressing as girls, may be recognised as fa'afafine by their parents. If they are, they will usually be neither encouraged nor discouraged to dress and behave as women. They will simply be allowed to follow the path they choose.

If it becomes apparent that a boy wants to become a fa'afafine, he will be taught the duties and crafts of women. Coupling those skills with the strengths of Samoan men can make a fa'afafine an extremely valuable member of society.

Hazy: "I think there's a little bit difference between fa'afafine here in Samoa and overseas, because here the fa'afafine can help the mother [by] doing the same job… and they can do the men's job as well. I think that's why the fa'afafine here are so popular, because they are hard working people."

Along with their hard work, modern fa'afafine are known for their good works. Samoan fa'afafine, for example, run an annual transvestite beauty pageant, the proceeds of which are donated to charities which support the elderly and the disabled. For these sorts of contributions to the community, some fa'afafine have been awarded customary titles.

Hazy: "When they see me…everybody, from the west to the east, even the children… they yell out, "Hazy! Hazy!" They call my name. So I ask my friends, "If I go on the ballot for an MP, I'm sure that I'm going to win…"[LAUGHS]'

(Fa'afafine are known by different names in different parts of Polynesia. In Tonga they are called fakaleiti and in French Polynesia, they are rae rae or mahu.)

Other references:

-Besnier, Niko. 1994. Polynesian Gender Liminality Through Time and Space. In Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. Gilbert Herdt, ed. Pp. 285-328. New York: Zone.
-Mageo, Jeannette M. 1992. Male transvestism and cultural change in Samoa. American Ethnologist 19: 443-459.
-Mageo, Jeannette M. 1996. Samoa, on the Wilde Side: Male Transvestism, Oscar Wilde, and Liminality in Making Gender. Ethos 24(4):588-627.

-Johanna Schmidt: Paradise Lost? Social Change and Fa'afafine in Samoa; http://csi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/51/3-4/417

-ABC Interview with Brian Fuata, a Samoan-born actor who has written and portrays all the characters in a theatre performance titled FA'AFAFIN: http://www.abc.net.au/arts/performance/stories/s445425.htm

Intersections, Issue 6, August 2001
http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue6/schmidt.html

August 2001

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Redefining Fa'afafine: Western Discourses and the Construction of Transgenderism in Samoa (academic research)

by J. Schmidt

The Samoan word fa'afafine literally translates as 'in the manner of a woman'. Fa'afafine are biological males who express feminine gender identities in a range of ways. In this research article, I argue that fa'afafine are both viewed through the lens of and influenced by Western understandings of sexuality. This argument is based on the analysis of various representations of fa'afafine and discusses the impact of Western discourses of gender and sexuality have had on fa'afafine identities.

I spent a total of three months in Samoa, mostly in the capital, Apia, during which time I conducted semi-structured interviews with half a dozen fa'afafine, attended various performances, engaged in discussions about fa'afafine with a range of people, and familiarised myself with Samoan culture and society in general. While this was an education and enjoyable time, conducting fieldwork also to fa'afafine in Samoa was trying and at times daunting. As well as the fear of 'straight' Samoans regarding Samoa's supposed image as a 'gay paradise', I was regularly faced with concern from fa'afafine about how they had been and would be represented.

While this has caused some dilemmas for me in terms of whose interests I would reflect, these conflicting perspectives have also allowed me to better understand Samoa's position within the global flow of texts and discourses. In this paper, I consider the processes by which fa'afafine have been represented in terms of Western comprehensions of gender and, especially, sexuality, and consider how these and other discourses have in turn contributed to the way in which Samoans in general and fa'afafine in particular come to understand, enact, and replicate what it means to be fa'afafine.

See the complete research article at: http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue6/schmidt.html

Intersections, Issue 6, August 2001
http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue6/worth.html

August 2001

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Bad-Assed Honeys with a Difference: South Auckland Fa'afafine Talk about Identity
By Heather Worth

The fa'afafine who I will refer to in this paper: Fenella, Helen, Jasmine, Lionel, Louella, Pandora, Penny and Rhonda, all think of themselves in ways which are inimical (contrary) to a Western view that we must be one sex or the other, or that we must choose a stable identity for ourselves.

Their curious ability to eschew (avoid) gender and sexual identity as stable hegemonic categories; their refusal to disallow multiple genders and sexual identities at the same time and in the same body is theoretically very important, because they are a powerful, empirical critique of the very categories which scholars have held as central to the feminist enterprise for many years now. But at the same time, their belief in identities (sexual and gender) as central to their sense of self reflects fa'afafine's inculcation into Western discourses of individuality, as well as in a globalised 'queer' culture.

See the complete research article at: http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue6/worth.html