Two-spirit

Two-spirit (also known as two spirit or occasionally twospirited) is a modern, pan-Indian umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional third-gender (or other gender-variant) ceremonial and social role in their cultures.

Coined in 1990 as a primarily ceremonial term promoting community recognition, in recent years more individuals have taken to self-identifying as two-spirit. Two-spirit, as a term and concept, is neither used nor accepted universally in Native American cultures. Indigenous cultures that have traditional roles for gender-nonconforming people have names in their own Indigenous languages for these people and the roles they fill in their communities.

The initial intent in coining the term was to differentiate Indigenous concepts of gender and sexuality from those of non-Native lesbians and gays and to replace the pejorative anthropological terms that were still in wide use. While two-spirit has been controversial since its adoption, the term has experienced more academic and social acceptance than the term berdache, which it was coined to replace.

Early adopters stated that two-spirit identity "does not make sense" unless it is contextualized within a Native American or First Nations framework and traditional cultural understanding. It is also frequently co-opted by non-Natives.

The gender nonconforming or third-gender, ceremonial roles traditionally embodied by some Native American and Indigenous peoples in Canada that may be encompassed by modern two-spirit people vary widely, even among the Native individuals or cultures that use the term. Not all of these cultures have historically had roles for gender-variant people, and among those that do, no one Indigenous culture's gender or sexuality categories apply to all Native people.