A historic gathering brought together Samoa’s fa’afatama men to discuss their needs as a community.

Fa’afatama is one of the four genders in Samoa, are female at birth and embody masculine gender traits.

The fa’afatama community is not as well known as their fa’afafine sisters, but both are indigenous LGBTI citizens of Samoa.

The Samoa Fa’afafine Association organized the historic gathering in Samoa last month.

‘This gathering is the first of its kind and a historical milestone in the advocacy work of SFA to be inclusive of all gender minorities’ SFA’s president, So’oalo Tootooalii Stanley told the Samoa Observer.

‘More importantly is the fact that this is a long overdue process to gauge the perspective and participation of the fa’afatama, a key population under the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) Global Fund Multi-country project.’

Challenges to overcome

Unlike the fa’afafine, the fa’afatama are not as visible, making it hard to know what programs and support they need. Many of the fa’afatama who participated in the gathering had not met each other before.

‘It is the norm that they (fa’afatama) generally ignore each other and avoid any interactions,’ So’oalo said.

‘They tend to stick to their cliques and the fa’afatama they know with very limited efforts to expand.

‘Despite this isolation culture and norm, the talanoa session demonstrated their issues and concerns are more similar than diverse.

‘There is no safe space for fa’afatama to share their problems or get support.’

Family and religion

Religion and family are critical features of Samoan culture. In February the government made moves to change Samoa’s constitution to recognize the country as a Christian state.

‘The challenges of growing up fa’afatama are generally suppressed putting first family culture and religion,’ So’oalo said.

‘They are faced with discrimination on a daily basis through verbal and physical abuse generally from close family members and the public.’

‘Although there is no recorded account of abuse, the participants shared stories of surviving abuse and if it weren’t for their ‘tough’ nature and presence, for most suicide was a feasible option.’

Internalized trauma

Professional and mental health outcomes were worse for the fa’afatama who rely a lot on family support.

‘It is common knowledge that most of the fa’afatama community are unemployed, living with family and heavily dependent on family members for support,’So’oalo said.

‘However, family problems, co-existence in the family context, pressure of culture and religion are a daily battle.’