Hey y'all! :smilewave I was reading something about "Two-Spirits" on facebook, so I went onto wikipedia and wanted to show you guys this! Two-Spirit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It's basically an umbrella term for the LGBTQ community coined by Indigenous North Americans. They were celebrated in certain cultures, allowed to marry, and parents would teach their children about them in the hopes their kids would be a "third gender" or "Two-Spirit." They would even let their children choose at puberty which clothing they would want to wear, or if they wanted a role that wasn't gender specific such as men being nurses and healers. They could be with either gender, women two spirits usually marrying and having relations with other women. They were considered two-spirits because they were sometimes believed to have two spirits within them (one feminine and one masculine). How do you guys feel about this?
I learned about this when "berdache" was still an acceptable term. I've never heard of them compared to LGBTQ culture. It is my understanding that these men did not choose to be berdaches, or "two-spirits." They become berdaches if they were commanded to do so during their vision quest, or else they would be killed by spirits. Contemporary knowledge about the Native American peoples is warped because of our interpretations and judgments about their cultures. It'd be easy to say that these men "chose" to be two-spirits because they were gay or transgender, but that assumption is made within our own social construction of gender. Anyway, I think it's really cool. My knowledge on the subject is limited, but I think Native American children chose their gender role later on in life. It's interesting to see how different cultures interpret and integrate gender differences into their societies.
Two spirit children and adults were at Portland Pride, pix is on my photos here on EC. Please take a look.
