More Than Just 'Gay Indians': Instersecting Articulations of Two-Spirit Gender, Sexuality, and Indigenousness (original) (raw)

2014, Queer Excursions: Retheorizing Binaries in Language, Gender, and Sexuality

Two-Spirit individuals, or indigenous North Americans (Native Americans) who identify as spiritually both female and male, usually also identify as GLBTIQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer) Natives. This chapter argues that Two-Spirit individuals express binaries of gender and sexuality not as mutually exclusive opposing poles, but rather as potentially overlapping states. Indeed, this is part of a more general trend among Two-Spirits of embracing the complex, multilayered, and at times contradictory nature of their identities. This chapter focuses on how local concepts of tribal affiliation, tribe-specific Two-Spirit roles, and a multitribal Two-Spirit identity are positioned as different and yet as parts of the larger, more generalized concepts of “Indian,” “Two-Spirit,” and “gay” or “GLBTIQ.” These binaries are invoked to articulate the struggle of simultaneously emphasizing individual and local identity while aligning with more familiar mainstream understandings of indigenousness, gender, and sexuality.