Overview
What mvpfaff means.
MVPFAFF is not a gender. It is an acronym, and each letter is a people's own word: māhū (Hawaiʻi and Tahiti), vakasalewalewa (Fiji), palopa (Papua New Guinea), fa'afafine (Sāmoa), akava'ine (Cook Islands), fakaleitī or leitī (Tonga), fakafifine (Niue). The plus sign came later and stands for the ones the letters miss.
Phylesha Brown-Acton, a Niuean fakafifine activist, introduced it at the 2011 Asia-Pacific Outgames Human Rights Conference, according to her Wikipedia entry — the first Pacific-specific acronym offered to Western LGBTQ+ organisations. Wikipedia's page on LGBTQ acronyms lists it among the alternatives, for identities in the Pacific Islander community. Her stated purpose, as quoted on the Fakafifine page, was to raise awareness of Pasifika gender diversity alongside the term LGBTQI, not to replace anyone's word.
So nobody is MVPFAFF. A fa'afafine is fa'afafine; a leitī is a leitī. The acronym is the room they stand in together when talking to governments, funders and organisations that need one word. It belongs to Pasifika people. If you are not from one of these peoples, none of the seven words is yours, and the acronym is not a way round that.
The Pasifika umbrella acronym for seven Pacific genders; a coalition, not a label.
MVPFAFF in one line
Origin
Where the word comes from
MVPFAFF was introduced by Phylesha Brown-Acton, a Niuean fakafifine activist, at the 2011 Asia-Pacific Outgames Human Rights Conference — the first Pacific-specific acronym put forward to Western LGBTQ+ organisations, according to her Wikipedia entry. It followed the pattern of acronyms like LGBTQ, but built from Pasifika peoples' own words rather than imported ones, in order to make Pacific gender diversity visible to funders and institutions that only had room for one term.
Each word inside the acronym has its own much older history within its own people, long predating 2011; MVPFAFF did not create any of the seven genders it names, it only bundled them for a specific advocacy purpose. The plus sign was added afterward to acknowledge Pasifika genders the original seven letters leave out.
- Coined by
- Phylesha Brown-Acton
- First recorded
- 2011
- Where
- 2011 Asia-Pacific Outgames Human Rights Conference
Signs people describe
Common experiences
None of these is a test. Most people recognise a few and shrug at the rest.
You are fa'afafine, or leitī, or akava'ine, and you have watched a form try to file you under LGBT and felt something go missing.
You have said the acronym in a meeting so a funder would understand that Pacific is not one thing, then gone home and not used it again for a year.
Your own word is older than the acronym, and you reach for the acronym only when standing with people from other islands.
You have heard third gender applied to you by someone who had never heard your actual word.
You know which letters stand for which island without thinking, because those are your cousins.
Pronouns
Pronouns
There is no MVPFAFF pronoun, because there is no MVPFAFF person. Each community has its own languages and habits — in Hawaiian, ia covers he, she and they; in English many use she, some he, some they, some their name. Ask the person. Do not derive it from the letter.
Consider another path
This might not be your word if…
- 1You have no Pasifika ancestry. The acronym is not a loophole into any of the words inside it.
- 2You are looking for a gender identity to hold. This is an acronym for a coalition. The identity is one of the seven, and it comes with a people and a place attached.
- 3You are Pasifika but your people's word is not in the letters. That is what the plus sign is for — and your word, not the acronym, is what you are.
Close by
Related identities
Māhū
The M. Hawaiian and Tahitian, belonging to Kānaka Maoli and Māʻohi. The site's māhū page already calls MVPFAFF+ a coalition, not a definition, and that is the right way round.
ReadFa’afafine
The first F. Samoan, in the manner of a woman, with its own obligations to family. Not interchangeable with any other letter.
ReadFakaleitī
The second F, with leitī as the short form. Tongan, with its own community and its own long argument with the church.
ReadTakatāpui
Māori, and not in the acronym. A reclaimed umbrella for Māori who are queer or gender-diverse. Same ocean, a different people, a word that stands on its own.
ReadThird gender
The outsider's category that these words are often flattened into. MVPFAFF exists partly so that a Pasifika person can decline that flattening and name the actual word.
ReadQuestions people ask
Frequently asked questions
What does MVPFAFF stand for?+
Māhū, vakasalewalewa, palopa, fa'afafine, akava'ine, fakaleitī (or leitī) and fakafifine, per Wikipedia's page on LGBTQ acronyms: Hawaiʻi and Tahiti, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Sāmoa, the Cook Islands, Tonga and Niue. MVPFAFF+ adds the plus for other Pacific genders the letters leave out.
Can I identify as MVPFAFF?+
No, and not because of gatekeeping. It is an acronym for a coalition, the way LGBTQ+ is; nobody is LGBTQ+ as a gender. A person is fa'afafine, or māhū, or leitī. Those words belong to their peoples, and the acronym was built to hold them together, not to be a new word for anyone.
Why not just say LGBTQ+?+
Because it kept failing to hold any of these. Brown-Acton's stated purpose, as quoted on Wikipedia, was to raise awareness of Pasifika gender diversity in addition to LGBTQI — the Western acronym describes orientation and transition in Western terms, and a fa'afafine or a leitī is a position in a family and a community first. The acronym makes that visible to people who would otherwise file everyone under T.
The flag
No page on lgbtqia.wiki (search returns nothing); umbrella acronym for Pacific identities, no community pride flag found.
Sources
- LGBTQ acronyms — Wikipedia Lists MVPFAFF under alternatives to LGBTQ, with the seven expansions, for identities in the Pacific Islander community.
- Phylesha Brown-Acton — Wikipedia Introduced MVPFAFF at the 2011 Asia-Pacific Outgames Human Rights Conference; described as a Niuean fakafifine activist.
- Fakafifine — Wikipedia Quotes the stated purpose of MVPFAFF+: to enhance Pasifika gender diversity awareness in addition to the term LGBTQI.
Still figuring things out?
Twenty questions, four minutes, and a few words worth trying on.