Ova Da Rainbow: HAWAII'S STORY (3)

A Little Fire Never Hurt Anyone

Hawaiʻi, even as a state, was never one to participate in the unofficial state meetings, at first because she wasn't used to it, but as time went on, she just found it boring to entertain things that didn't really matter to her, being a group of islands so far away. As the decades went on, she joined them more and more, but for now there wasn't

Besides, who needed to hear the constant bickering when you could wait until it was over and talk to Someone who enjoyed bickering? Not to mention it was one of the few times Hawaiʻi and California hung out casually, and it was nice sometimes.

California took a large sip of her drink. "So, AIDS is pretty big right now. Homosexual men are getting the brunt of it, you know."

"So I've heard," Hawaiʻi said, sighing. "Well, we've got it in my state too. Probably shouldn't have missed this meeting if we were talking about that."

"Oh, we talked about lots. ABBA. AIDS. Micheal Jackson bleaching himself. South Carolina being a girl now," California laughed. "You missed a bit."

"I said I was sorry, I should have been- Wait, what?" Hawaiʻi asked, alarmed. "What do you mean 'South Carolina's a girl now'? Did he die?"

"In sorts of ways," California said, shrugging. "I knew a while back, she spoke to me a little bit after some of her closer siblings."

"Aue," Hawaiʻi said from the couch, blinking slowly. "So... he's a māhu. Like... like a drag queen māhu or like a māhu māhu?"

"What?" California said, furrowing her brows. "He's asking... she's asking we call her a girl. You know. She."

"And that's... cool, I guess. Fine by me." Hawaiʻi said, shrugging. "What I meant by māhu is... Oh, never mind. Just don't worry about it too much."

"You mean someone who's just dressing like a woman because it's what they like to do, vs. someone who dresses like a woman because they feel they are one."

"Yeah," Hawaiʻi said. "But there's the other one, the one I was talking about was the Old Māhu."

"Old?"

"It means in the middle," Hawaiʻi said, trying to explain. "The people when I was small were... strange, in the way they had sex roles. Kane, Wahine, Māhu. Three. And all sorts of weird in-betweens."

"In between?"

"If there were five boys born to a chief, one was to be raised māhu, like a boy with girl attributes. Same with someone born as a girl to a chief sometimes. Some people also just... felt like gods chose them to be such. It was an odd time."

"Sounds a lot more free than what we have today." California hummed to herself. "Neither male nor female. That sounds nice."

"What, are you going to tell me you're a māhu next?" Hawaiʻi said, joking a little, but California's grin said everything. "You a māhu too?"

"In a sense," California said. "You can still say 'she' and things like that, but I have become above the mortal ideas of sex."

"I am so damn confused," Hawaiʻi said but threw her hands up in the air. "Damn it, the United States of Māhu here, huh? First, the people telling me they're gay in the sixties despite me keeping myself mostly a secret, now māhu everywhere. Aue."

"Worst secret known to man, Miss Bicycle Jacket and Flannel. All you need is the pixie cut and you've got the most stereotypical butch there is."

Hawaiʻi put a hand on her heart dramatically. "I can't believe my sis-sibling would call me a butch. What horrible world has this come to? And by the sibling who has a pixie cut herself!"