Complicated gender roles in a small Mexican town

On the muxes—a regional term roughly analogous to genderqueer—of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico:

When asked why a third gender is accepted in Juchitán, the townspeople invariably point to “the matriarchy” of Oaxacan households – women handle the finances of the family, since they’re the ones who work as vendors in the marketplace, giving them more of an equal standing with men than elsewhere in the countryside. Many mothers would sooner force an unaccepting husband to leave the house than kick out a muxe son. “Like they say in the Isthmus, it’s a blessing to have a gay son,” says Alex Vasquez Santiago, 38, a muxe originally from Juchitan who now lives in the resort city of Huatulco. He comes back for the velas every year.