Two-Spirit

Cross-cultural comparative studies have shown that genders, sexes, and sexualities are not always fixed into binary categories such as femininity and masculinity, female and male, or homosexuality and heterosexuality. In Native [Page 1481]American cultures, both historically and presently, more than two gender, sex, and sexuality categories are marked and institutionalized.

Two-spirit is a contemporary designation for Native Americans who are transgender, intersex, lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and has served to replace the term berdache, which was primarily used by anthropologists to describe gender variant and nonheterosexual people and practices within Native American cultures.

The term two-spirit was coined in 1990 at the third annual spiritual gathering of Native American lesbian and gay peoples, which took place near Winnipeg, the capital and largest city of ...