"[T]he one class I hated was hula. It was mostly because the instructor was a flamboyant gay man and it scared me. That was my own internalized homophobia."

Said Patrick Makuakān, describing the "cultural exploration camp" he attended when he was 10.

He's quoted in "'Hula is my church': how Patrick Makuakāne is reinvigorating Hawaii’s traditional dance/Winner of the MacArthur ‘genius’ grant in 2023 has forged his own style in San Francisco while often subverting stereotypes of hula itself" (The Guardian).

Makuakāne’s hula mua (“hula that evolves”) has included performances such as Salva Mea, a collective dance set against progressive house music that depicts the devastation Christian missionaries caused in 19th-century Hawaii and long-form narrative pieces like Māhū, a collaboration with Hawaiian transgender guest artists that spotlights the respect given to third-gender people in ancient Hawaii society. He’s also created hula to Roberta Flack’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Tony Bennett’s I Left My Heart in San Francisco....

Makuakāne believes we need to reframe the conversation around tradition as being something immobile because “traditions morph and change depending on the environmental influence”. He sees himself as preserving the traditions of Hawaii’s culture as well as its innovations, something he believes is only possible in a place like San Francisco, which he calls “a good place to experiment.”

Here's the Wikipedia article "Māhū." Excerpt:

In 1891, when painter Paul Gauguin first came to Tahiti, he was thought to be a māhū by the indigenous people, due to his flamboyant manner of dress during that time. His 1893 painting Papa Moe (Mysterious Water) depicts a māhū drinking from a small waterfall.