ABSTRACT
Unlike Western cultures, transgendered (TG) individuals, or māhū, have long played a familiar and traditional role in Polynesian culture (Besnier, 1994; Matzner, 2001). Hawaii is home to large numbers of male-to-female TG persons, 70 percent of whom are of Native Hawaiian descent (Odo and Hawelu, 2001). Possibly as a result of the 0cultural familiarity, many TG individuals in Hawaii begin their gender 0transition in adolescence, often much earlier than their counterparts0 in the continental United States (Matzner, 2001; Weiss and0 Bopp, 2001). While TG persons may be more familiar in Hawaii than 0other parts of the United States, this population clearly remains stigmatized 0and marginalized. Although many TG persons may eventually 0find legal employment, subsistence prostitution remains a viable 0form of work for many (Odo and Hawelu, 2001; Weiss and Bopp,0 2001).
