Two-spirit people

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Ever heard of the two spirit people of the native American culture? For hundreds of years people who've identified as two-spirit are pepole who identify with both man and woman characteristics. Two-spirits have been recorded in over 130 native American tribes throughout history. In some cultures like the Zuni people, children we not assigned a gender at birth, instead they were left to grow into their own gender. It was only from the age of five that they were referred to as boy or girl, before that they were just called "child", or "cha'le". In some communities, two-spirits at the age of puberty were given the "basket and bow" choice, which meant that if a male-bodied two-spirit picked up the bow they would live their life as a "man" but if they picked up the basket they would continue living as two-spirit.

The Native Americans placed more importance on a person's spirit and character, their bodies and their sexuality were irrelevant. As a result, two-spirits were greatly respected as it was said that two-spirits were more human and more spiritually gifted than other people as they were both woman and man; they had the capacity in relating to both men and woman. Not only that, but as their gender was both man and woman they could do the work of both men and women.

Families who had a two-gendered relative were considered as privileged and economically advantaged. Male bodied two-spirits occupied important roles in their tribes such as healers, nurses, etc... Despite being greatly respected but also feared, two-spirits weren't given any special treatment. In the Mohave community for instance, two spirits were mostly healers and if their cures resulted in the death of the patient, they were often killed. In some cases they were even accused of witchcraft.

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Usually, masculine women who liked to do men's work (hunting and war) were expected to marry a feminine female, and feminine men who liked women's work (farming plants, bead work) were expected to marry masculine men in order to keep an economic balance in the family. These couples did not see themselves as homosexual couples back then, as one of the partners was two-spirit, or as they were called back then berdache. The cis-gendered spouse didn't feel like they were with someone of the same sex as their gender identity didn't match their sex. These couples saw themselves as nothing more and nothing less than normal; they often adopted children who were homeless.

Unfortunately when the Europeans arrived in America, they did not have the same views on gender as the native Americans. Their opinions were against such behaviours which were considered as immoral and unnatural back in Europe. They tried to influence their Cartesian idea of what gender was on the tribes. In other words, they tried to make the native Americans believe that there was not an infinity of genders, only two which were man and woman; and the only role of these two genders was procreation. Anyone outside this binary was a freak.

The Europeans introduced the term "berdache" which takes its origins from Persian and means "catamite", the term has clearly got a homosexual connotation to it, and was used in a derogatory way.

As Western Society's homophobia and transphobia gained influence in the Native American tribes, the respect for the two gendered and same-sex love declined. Two-spirits were forced to conform to their birth sex gender roles; they were forced by Christians, the government and even their own community to do so. Those who found themselves unable to live a lie either disappeared or committed suicide. After the European marriage laws were imposed in America, same-sex marriages between two-spirits and their spouses were no longer recognised. Along with all this came the idea that somehow, feminine males were lesser than other males, and so male bodied two-spirits who could go to war and participate in both men and women's activities were now frowned upon.

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However since the Native Americans started proclaiming their cultural pride back in the 1960s and the rise of the LGBT movements that appeared around the same time, respect for two-gendered people started to grow once more amongst the communities. In fact, since the 1990s Native Americans have rejected the offensive term "berdache", to replace it with the term "two-spirit".