The 2S in the LGBTQ....+

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Now to be completely upfront, I am white, Australian and queer. I want to be educated on why the 2 spirit is part of the ever growing acronym for the queer community.

Now, I understand that the British stole and dehumanised the queer individuals of native America and Canada and 2-Spirit is a way for them to reclaim and normalise their hurt culture.
My issue (I suppose) is that the acronym is a world wide queer symbol used by people everywhere to help identify themselves. 2-Spirit only offers clarity to 2 countries, unless I am wrong and Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders, Maori and other native but harmed queer cultures can use this term as it fits to their history.

So yeah why is it in there if it is not useful to the world and only America (and Canada).

P.S. I didn't think about Latin cultures and if it applies to them as well.

I don't see why people who are two-spirit shouldn't be considered LGBT+, if they choose to be considered as such. Even if it's an identity that's specific to certain cultures, I don't see why those people can't be included in and identify themselves by, what you called, a "world wide queer symbol". Those specific cultures are still part of the general "world", and the people in those cultures still can face the widespread issues that cause people to identify with that symbol.

In regards to the actual acronym "LGBT", I don't see anything beyond "LGBT", "LGBT+", or "LGBTQ" being very commonly used. Two-spirit can be covered by the "T", "+", or the "Q". I personally don't think anything beyond "LGBT+" or "LGBTQ" needs to used. People can choose to use whatever they want, though.

Never heard of "two spirit". But have heard of the "berdache" (pronounced 'beer-dock') status among the American plains Indians - who were men who took on the role and dress of woman because they just couldnt fit in in the male role in their culture.

There was even a berdache character in the tribe that adopted Dustin Hoffman in the movie "Little Big Man".

But we already have two many letters in the LBGTQ, and whatever it is now, anyway.

Here's a good article about what it means to be 2 spirited:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-two ... 69ca93c14e

Also contains complaints about the term being culturally appropriated by non-Indigenous peoples.. this is the part I take slight issue with. Wtf? How can a culture call dibs on a gender identity/expression? My trans fwb recently said he likes the label '2 spirited' as it most accurately describes him as an androgynous person that rides the line between female/male vs. a more masculine identity as a trans man. Although he's chill being called trans, and says he's fine with either male or female pronouns/doesn't take offence to anything about any of this stuff at all. Afaik he doesn't have any Indigenous heritage as a fairly bright white dirty blonde haired person (but I've known white blonde people that are status metis) & simply really Likes the definition of 2 spirit as it applies to his lived human experience.

Apparently my family is some small part Native, so, maybe I'm allowed to have my say haha and if I am my vote is that it's an umbrella term for a gender identity, not a language or something. Credit should be given to the peoples and cultures where it comes from for coining the catch-all term, but IMO it should be a free-for-all for anyone on Earth to identify as if the shoe fits.



As for it only applying to 2 countries.. as the OP said, there's also Central and South America. But even with only Canada and the USA that's 13.04% of the entire world's land mass. South America is another 3.5%, + a bit in between = around 17% of the entire world. Not like even IF it's only to apply to American Indigenous peoples that it's like choosing Vatican City, Monaco, and Nauru - the 3 smallest 'countries' in the world. (I've never even heard of Nauru lol, result from google.)