Key words: Greek philosophy,  gay studies, androgyny, homosexuality, John Cameron Mitchell, myth of the three genres, androgynous myth, Plato, Greek mythology, classical tradition, transsexuality, Hedwig and the Angry Inch

The aim of this article is to show how an ancient myth, that of the three genres, also known as the myth of the androgynous by Aristophanes in Plato¿s Symposium, becomes for John Cameron Mitchell the suitable image in order to explain the peculiar personality of a man, Hedwig, who by means of a surgical operation becomes in his turn an imperfect androgynous but symbolises the need of a sole mankind or the unity of different worlds, just as he belonged to both Berlins divided by an already fallen wall, which permitted their inhabitants to recover their lost unity and identity.