Two Spirit Is NOT Nonbinary

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Hey there, this is Ivy Leona, the transgirl next door.

[00:00:09]Today I want to talk about the two spirit identities because sometimes it's a little difficult to understand. I'm going to be honest with you. For a very long time I thought it was basically like I don't know, like a Native American version of a non-binary person.

[00:00:24]And I think that sounds I don't know, respectful. And it also feels like something we know. But that's actually not accurate. And most importantly it erased what makes two-spirit people unique in the first place. So in this video I will try not to rush because I feel like I have a tendency to rush a little. So I'm going to try to slow down and unpack this properly. And maybe even challenge some assumptions you didn't know you had. So let's start with the confusing part. Okay, so it's very common to think of two-spirit people like it's a third gender or maybe that two-spirit mean both female and male. Or like I said, like it's basically non-binary people. And I get why people would say that because I thought that as well. It's like we are trying to translate something unfamiliar into something we understand. But there's a problem with that. The translation here doesn't really work because we are taking this concept that comes from the Native American worldview. And it would be like forcing it into our western point of view, you know? Like in our western category. Like male, female, and yeah, non-binary. Non-binary it's like a category that was born into a western worldview. Not from the beginning we already see that, but it was born here in the occident. So those categories feel like universal for us. But with two-spirit people the thing is culture is like very present in what that means.

[00:01:52]So let's focus on that for a minute. In western societies we tend to think in gender like something internal, something individual, something you identify as. Even when we expand it with trans ladies and trans men and non-binary people we are like still seeing the world from that framework, you know? It's all about who I am. But in this Native American cultures it's mostly about the role you have in that community. You know what I mean? It's about your relationship with others. And there's a lot of spiritual connection with the world thing going on there.

[00:02:26]Like I don't even know how to explain it. So what I'm trying to say here it's like Native American people created gender with a complete different foundation of what gender means. And I have to be honest, knowing that that exist it makes me so happy. And I think that's very important to understand that when we are talking about two-spirit people because otherwise we are going to misunderstand everything that comes after. So again, the term two-spirit it's like an umbrella term because it's actually a modern term. It was created in 1990 at an indigenous LGBTQ+ gathering. And it wasn't created because it was meant to describe one identity.

[00:03:03]It was created to make visible specific roles for people who didn't fit into male or female across many indigenous tribes. Those identities are not all the same. Different tribes had different names, different meanings, and different exceptions. So two-spirit is kind of like a bridge, you could say. It's like a way to talk about those identities in a shared language, you know? And of course without relying on colonial terms. The spirit part in the two-spirit term is not metaphorical. In many traditions people we would call now two-spirits were seen as having a unique spiritual role such as healers, ceremonial leaders, mediators that often existed in spaces that connected different parts of society. And that wasn't seen as confusing. It was seen as meaningful and sometimes even necessary.

[00:03:54]I love that. So the point that I'm trying to make here is that when we talk about two-spirit people we are not just talking about an identity, we are talking about very important people and the structures of many societies. So what happened to these roles? Well, you already know that, colonization. And with colonization came repression.

[00:04:13]People who held these roles were targeted directly. That context matters a lot because that speaks a lot of what they did to those people. So yeah.

[00:04:25]Me as a trans woman I think a lot about gender. Like questioning it, deconstructing it. But even then, I don't want to say it's easy to assume that the framework we use apply everywhere. I want to say it's difficult because it's so internalized that it's very difficult to have present in your mind that you are seeing the world from that framework. So I think it's very important to, you know, to do the exercise to try to understand the two-spirit concept because I'm not saying it can make you change your framework, but at least if you try that's a lot. Even for us, for trans people, we are so deeply influenced by western worldview that we must remember that sometimes our own hostility towards ourselves comes from that western framework. Okay, I'm getting off track.

[00:05:14]So what I want to say here is that next time you hear about two-spirit people don't try to immediately translate it to something familiar because not everything have to fit in western categories to be valid. And that's amazing. You know, sometimes respecting something means letting it be different.

[00:05:33]Well, I hope you like this video. For some reason this type of videos get fewer views than others, which is a bit of a let down because I really like doing this kind of informative videos and I don't know, like these videos are the kind of videos that really makes you think. But well, I guess I understand it's uncomfortable to think.

[00:05:54]But anyways, I will try to do some more of this kind of videos because I really enjoyed doing them. So like I always tell you, please like, comment, and subscribe. You can follow me as well on my social media, it really helps me grow. You can support this channel joining the memberships. And if you want to give me a little extra support you can donate as much as you want through PayPal.me. I hope you are all doing great. Have a nice week and this was Ivy Leona. I'll see you next video.

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