Two Spirit Individuals

Indigenous individuals who embody both a masculine and a feminine spirit and see life through the eyes of both, reflecting the historic and respected role of "third gender" or gender-variant individuals in many Native American cultures. As an umbrella term, two-spirit may encompass same-sex attraction and a wide variety of gender variance, including people who might be described in Western culture as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, gender queer or intersex. It differs from most mainstream definitions of sexuality and gender identity in that it is about a person manifesting male and female within one being, contextualized within traditional cultural understanding.