This article from Nexus, the student newspaper at Camoson College, explores the term two-spirit and how it’s related but distinct from LGBTQ identities.
““Those categories are themselves a western construct,” says Dr. Sarah Hunt, a Kwakwaka’wakw writer and activist who teaches in the Indigenous Studies and Community Family and Child Services Program here at Camosun College. Hunt, who identifies as two-spirit, explains how western distinctions like gender and sexuality were preceded by a variety of traditional roles that went beyond orientations of sex and gender; these were roles that were cultivated and fully integrated into the many facets of a community.”
Want to learn more about being two-spirit? Check out the Native Youth Sexual Health Network. You can find a poster campaign (available for download) and video, as well as a two-spirit resource directory on their website.