There have been different words and definitions to discuss queerness throughout the history of the North America. From the evolution of definitions to the evolution of the words themselves, there have been drastic changes to languages even within the past decade. While it is hotly debated whether the new additions to the collective vocabularies are beneficial or not, the fact is that the additions exist. Within the queer community, these changes are particularly evident, with new names for old identities being revealed by the day. The words two-spirit, and transgender are interesting and valuable examples of this evolution.

Within pre-colonial America, many different Indigenous communities recognized genders and experiences beyond a static binary of opposite-sex attraction, and each community had their own words to describe these experiences. Many also had roles that came along with the identity. The contemporary understanding of these identities is found in the pan-Aboriginal word two-spirit, a term brought forward to replace the colonists' slurs that were used to describe Indigenous identities, and a way to recognize that these identities stood apart from other culture’s understandings of gender variance.

Two-spirit was brought into popularity in the 1990’s, and gained widespread recognition at the third annual intertribal Native American/First Nations gay and lesbian conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada.

Two-spirit, however, is not meant to replace the already existing words that differ from community to community, but instead to serve as an umbrella term. The individual words deserve recognition within the queer community as well, but unfortunately, since they cannot all fit into a four letter acronym, they often get swept under the rug. It is also important to note that every Indigenous community has a different relationship with the term two-spirit, and a large reason for some people’s dislike of the term stems from how frequently it is used to replace the terms that they already have.

There are over five hundred surviving indigenous cultures within North America. Every single one of them had and continues to have a unique relationship and understanding of queerness, and most of them have their own words for it.

Because of all of this, the word two-spirit means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but one thing it is not is a synonym for transgender, gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, or LGBT. Two-spirit is its own separate term, and while it has similarities to many other terms, is completely unique. It should not be used to describe people who are not Indigenous.

There are many reasons for this fact, and they are best described by Indigenous people, who have a much better understanding of the issue than any non-Indigenous person could. One person who has been vocal about why not to use this term to self-identify if you are not Indigenous is Michelle Cameron, who wrote:

“The term two-spirited was chosen to emphasize our difference in our experiences of multiple, interlocking oppressions as queer Aboriginal people. When non-Aboriginal people decide to "take up" the term two-spirit, it detracts from its original meaning and diffuses its power as a label of resistance for Aboriginal people. Already there is so much of First Nations culture that has been exploited and appropriated in this country; must our terms of resistance also be targeted for mainstream appropriation and consumption?”

Another particularly relevant quote comes from the same paper, saying:

“Aboriginal two-spirits have identities that operate outside of the western dichotomy of sex orientation and gender. Many of the words for two-spirited were lost from various First Nation groups due to the imposition of Christianity, and dominant society. Eduardo Duran and Bonnie Duran state: "The process of self-determination starts with the ever-evolving processes of self-identification and self-construction". When Aboriginal queers decided to begin using the term two-spirited again, it was a sign of reclamation of the historical legacy that is unique to our First Nations. Two-spirited identity can thus be viewed as a counterhegemonic identity, and as a term of resistance to colonization.”

The rest of this paper is incredible and can offer a more nuanced view of the history of the term two-spirit.

This word is specific to Indigenous people and their identities. While it is important to encourage fluidity and change, it is also important to recognize boundaries when they are set. Not all words are meant to be used by all people in all circumstances, because if they were, they would lose their meaning.

North America has used another word to describe the experience of being assigned a gender that was not correct; transgender. It must be acknowledged that there is a difference between dictionary definitions and community ones. While analyzing how official sources from that mainstream society defined certain words is without a doubt invaluable, it is important to recognize the definition the people who actually used the words gave them.

Within the queer community, it is vitally important to recognize the validity of self-definition. It is especially important considering that the definitions most dictionaries have offered the queer community are clinical at best and offensive at worst. While recording the most popular definitions of words seems like an unbiased pursuit, that is not always been the case. Just because something is popularly believed does not make it correct. In the queer community, there are obvious examples of this, like the fact that homosexuality was used as a diagnostic term until 1986, suggesting it was a disease meant to be cured.

In the history of the term transgender, there is the history of a word that came before it; transvestite.

Though the term transvestite did not originate wholly from Magnus Hirschfeld, he had a large part in pushing forwards its popular use by the definition it came to be known by.

For a reminder, Magnus Hirschfeld was the co-founder of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft and a scientist who played a large role in the queer community in Berlin pre-World War Two. His reach and influence upon the community is still seen today. Something that is important to note about Hirschfeld is that he was, above all, a man of science. His motto was “justice through science”, something that was inscribed in Latin on his tombstone.

Because of this, he viewed and often explained queerness from a very medical point of view. It is important to note that while now portraying queerness as a medical concept is not received well, because of the collective trauma the queer community has gone through, this was not always the case. Even today, viewing queerness as something that is in the DNA and is not within a persons control is still a relatively progressive viewpoint in the current social climate. It was Magnus Hirschfeld who played a large part in popularizing this idea. With the word transvestite, it was just another way to do this.

Though the word was made to help, it did not stay that way. The word fell out of popularity, soon to be replaced by transsexual and then transgender.

While there isn’t complete records of how individuals used the word transgender in their day-to-day lives, there are some definitions from the queer works that were released at the time:

“Who are the transgendered? They include: cross-dressers (also known as transvestites, ninety percent of whom are heterosexual), transsexuals (who generally elect to have surgery to make their bodies conform to the gender with which they identify), gay and lesbian drag queens, transgenderists (who elect to live in a social role of the other sex from which they are born, but do not have surgery), and many others.

They also include men attempting to get in touch with their “feminine” side; women attempting to get in touch with their assertive side; single parents who are “father-mother” (or vice versa) to their children; everyone who considers themselves “androgynous”; gender benders of all kinds, and anyone who has fantasized, even for a moment, about what it would be like to be a member of the “opposite” gender.

In fact, anyone and everyone is transgendered who transgresses gender lines, even slightly in their behavior or attitudes. As one definition current on the Internet puts it, you are transgendered if you “manifest characteristics, behaviors or self-expression,” which in your own mind or someone else’s perception, “is typical of or commonly associated with persons of another gender.”

Looked at from this point of view, everyone is a bit TG, since our bodies manufacture the hormones associated with both sexes. We all possess some of the qualities we associate with being female and being male.”

-Transgender: Periodicals and Magazines, 1995-1997 and undated

Obviously, this definition is a far cry from what most think of as transgender now. This, of course, was not the only definition of transgender that existed, and there were still very medical definitions within the queer community.

“When we say that man’s gender identity is psychosexual in essence, we refer not merely to his physical characteristics, but to an intricate, variable complex of mental traits and tendencies, subtle and emphatic. For most of us, there qualities and characteristics resolve themselves into a harmony that declares itself as predominantly masculine or feminine. This psychosexual identity which we present to the world satisfies our cultural definitions, and may comfortably be taken for granted by us and by those around us.

Not so for the transsexual. For him, the apparent sexual balance, as expressed in the primary sex characteristics, is deceptive. It does not reflect, indeed it contradicts, the inner balance he strongly feels, and which to him represents his true psychosexual identity. In some instances of transsexualism, where the secondary sex characteristics shade into those of the opposite sex, the body itself has already begun to bear out this inner conviction. But physical ambiguities are by no means general in every instance in which an individual’s powerful, intimate sense of self-contradicts his sex as recorded at birth.

There are other gender identity disturbances which are sometimes confused with transsexualism but are distinct from it. The homosexual and the transvestite experience some conflict between sex and gender. But neither of these has any desire to change his anatomy. The transsexual, on the other hand, feels that he has been trapped in the body of the wrong sex and he seeks help to be freed from this predicament.”
-Transgender: Erikson Educational Foundation; Early '70s Social-Medical Services/Literature

Words have changed, languages have grown from the moment they have been recorded, and it would be monumentally arrogant to assume that would stop with the present. While not all the words that have become a part of the queer vernacular now will stand the test of time, that is not a bad thing. It is just another way to grow through the never ending process of trial and error.  

Not everything that is created now will last, but that does not make the creations any less worthwhile. Even if they are forgotten in the coming years, they have an impact, here and now, and that matters. When words inevitably get left behind, it should not be looked at as a phase, but instead realized that words are what they have always been: a tool. Sometimes, tools fall out of use, but that does not make the growth they assisted in worthless, it just means it is time to move forward.

[Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material.]

https://hr.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/trans%20terms.pdf

https://apps.iss.wisc.edu/attach/Useful%20Lesbian,%20Gay,%20Bisexual,%20Transgender%20Definitions.pdf

http://theconversation.com/whats-in-a-word-the-challenges-of-transgender-38633

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/culturalanthropology/chapter/two-spirit/

http://www.willsworld.org/twospiritq-a.html

http://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/viewFile/6129/5317