Fakaleitī
A Tongan gender: assigned male at birth, living in the manner of a lady, inside Tongan family and church life. It belongs to Tongans.
- One of twenty-two Cultural identities
- No settled flag
- 4 min read
A word that belongs to a people. This identity is held within a specific culture. The page is here to understand it, not to adopt it.
A shorter entry: the essentials, written to the same standard. The fuller guides are on the main identities.
What it is
Fakaleitī is a Tongan word for a Tongan person. Faka- means in the manner of. Leitī is the English word lady, taken into Tongan. Assigned male at birth, living in a feminine place in Tongan life. Many prefer the shorter leitī, or ladies, and hear fakaleitī as a word other people use about them.
It does not translate neatly. Wikipedia puts it plainly: the classification does not line up with Western categories such as male, female, gay, transgender or non-binary. Some leitī also call themselves trans women. Some do not. The role is grounded in social life rather than in anatomy, and surgery is not a requirement or an expectation. It is an organised community, not a museum entry: the Tonga Leitis’ Association runs the Miss Galaxy pageant and campaigns on the colonial-era laws still on the books in the Pacific, and the 2018 documentary Leitis in Waiting follows its activist Joey Joleen Mataele. Wikipedia also records marginalisation and discrimination, especially when young. Both are true. One story gets repeated on the wikis, that a family short of daughters raises a son as one; treat it as a story told about leitī rather than a rule. The same story is told about fa’afafine in Samoa, and this page does not repeat either version as fact.
Now the closed part. If you are not Tongan, this is not your word. Not by admiration, not by a good documentary, not by fit. Fakaleitī is tied to Tongan family, language and church, and cannot be adopted from outside. Tongan people in Auckland, Sydney and Salt Lake City carry it with them; that is what diaspora means, and it is not a loophole.
Pronouns
The word means in the manner of a lady, so she/her is the obvious English default, and many leitī use it. Some use he with older relatives and do not experience it as a wound. Many are simply called by name. Ask, use the name, and follow the family’s lead rather than correcting anyone in front of their mother.
Does this sound like you?
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Twenty questions, about four minutes, nothing leaves your phone. It suggests. You decide.
Nearby identities
The distinction is the useful part.
The Samoan neighbour, and the word most often confused with this one. Different country, different language, different church and legal politics. Samoan people use it. Swapping the two is sloppy, not respectful.
Compare Fakaleitī and Fa’afafine →Hawaiian and Tahitian, older and wider: people in between or both. Belongs to Kanaka Maoli and Mā’ohi people, closed in exactly the way leitī is.
Compare Fakaleitī and Māhū →Samoan, the opposite direction: assigned female, living in a masculine role. Named here because people assume every Pacific word is the same word, and it is not.
Compare Fakaleitī and Fa'afatama →It might not be you if…
- You are not Tongan. That is the whole answer, and it is not a soft one. Your own people may have a word; the open vocabulary has plenty of room besides.
- You are a Tongan man attracted to men, living as a man, with no feminine social role. That is its own thing and not a lesser version of this.
- You are a Tongan trans woman who wants the medical and legal route and not the leitī social position. Some keep the word, some put it down. Nobody is obliged to carry it.
- You are drawn to the idea of a third gender more than to the content: the church, the chores, the family money, the pageant, the laws. Leitī comes with all of it.
Questions people ask
Is fakaleitī the same as being transgender?
Not the same and not unrelated. Wikipedia records that the classification does not map onto Western categories, and that the identity is grounded in social role rather than anatomy. Some leitī also say trans woman and mean it. Others do not, and mean that. Neither is a muddle.
Can a non-Tongan be fakaleitī?
No. It is a Tongan word for Tongan people, tied to family, language and church. Being feminine, being trans, or loving Tonga does not open it. If you are Pacific, your own people very likely have a word. If not, the rest of the vocabulary has room in it.
Should I say fakaleitī or leitī?
Follow the person. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki notes that fakaleitī themselves prefer leitī or ladies, and the community’s own association uses Leitis in its name. Fakaleitī is the word you will find in books and on forms.
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