In modern Hindu practice, the goddess Bahuchara Mata is patron of the hijra community. According to legend, she cursed two men who tried to assault her, causing them to lose their male organs and become eunuchs. She is often depicted riding a rooster, with a sword, granting power to those who renounce male virility. Hijras perform rituals at her temples, especially in Gujarat, and consider her the source of their sacred power — to bless newborns, newlyweds, and to curse those who disrespect them. While Bahuchara Mata is not herself a “shemale god,” her devotees embody divine liminality, and she is invoked as the protector of gender variance.
Trans individuals have enriched LGBTQ+ culture and mainstream society through:
One of the most profound examples is Ardhanarishvara, a composite form of the Hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati (or Shakti). The name means “Lord Who Is Half Woman.” Iconographically, Ardhanarishvara is depicted with the right half as male (Shiva’s attributes: matted hair, tiger skin, trident) and the left half as female (Parvati’s: breast, saree-like drape, mirror or lotus). This form symbolizes the inseparability of masculine and feminine principles — purusha (consciousness) and prakriti (matter) — and that ultimate reality transcends gender.
Devotees do not view Ardhanarishvara as a “third gender” in a modern human sense, but as a divine unity that includes and surpasses both. Hijras, a traditional third-gender community in South Asia, have sometimes claimed Ardhanarishvara as a patron deity, seeing their own liminality as sacred rather than shameful.
Organizations, institutions, and allies can support the transgender community within LGBTQ+ culture by:
The concept of gods or deities that transcend or combine traditional gender categories is not new and can be found in various cultures and religious traditions around the world. These figures often symbolize the fluidity of gender and the complexity of human sexuality, offering a divine or spiritual dimension to discussions of gender identity and expression.
In Japanese Buddhism, Kannon (Avalokiteśvara) is often depicted as androgynous or able to manifest as male or female. Early Chinese translations described Kannon as male, but Japanese art (especially after the 10th century) frequently shows Kannon with distinctly feminine features, breasts under robes, and flowing hair. Some esoteric traditions held that Kannon could change sex freely to help beings. While not a “god” in the Western sense, Kannon’s fluidity serves as a compassionate bridge across binary expectations.
Loki, the Norse trickster god, is not intersex or hermaphroditic by nature but repeatedly transforms into female and animal forms. Most strikingly, Loki once turned into a mare, mated with a stallion (Svaðilfari), and gave birth to Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged horse. Loki also lived for years as a female milkmaid, bore children, and was accused of “unmanly” behavior (ergi) — a serious insult in Viking culture. Yet Loki’s fluidity is central to his power: he transcends fixed gender to disrupt social norms, showing that even in a heavily masculine warrior society, divine gender-bending was acknowledged as potent magic (seidr).
