[9] The term challenges binary categories of sex and gender and enables some Indigenous people to reclaim traditional roles within their societies.

[9] According to the 2012 Risk and Resilience study of Bisexual Mental Health, "the most common identities reported by transgender Aboriginal participants were two-spirit, genderqueer, and bigender.

In the Philippines, they use the umbrella term baklâ to refer to "those born male who currently exist with a feminine gender expression.

[8] The Spanish began to use the word baklâ as a slur in order to pressure Filipino people into adopting European ideals of gender expression.

[10][11][12] As a result, opinions vary on how to accurately categorize historical accounts of gender-variant people and identities, including genderfluid individuals.

The 1928 Virginia Woolf novel Orlando: A Biography features a main character who changes gender several times, and considers gender fluidity: In every human being, a vacillation from one sex to the other takes place, and often it is only the clothes that keep the male or female likeness, while underneath the sex is the very opposite of what it is above.