Societies often bestow power upon that which does not neatly fit into the usual.
Since no cultural system can explain everything, a common way that many cultures deal with these inconsistencies is to imbue them with a negative power, as taboo, pollution, witchcraft or sin.
That which is not understood is seen as a threat.
An alternative method of dealing with such things, or people, is to take them out of the realm of threat and to sanctify them.
--Walter L. Williams The Berdache Tradition