Homophobia isn't genetic

Two-Spirit WeddingWho are Two Spirit? Two Spirit is a contemporary name given to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender American Indians and refers to the holistic relationship of both genders in one individual. Worldwide, indigenous tribes have celebrated Two Spirit people; they often held important decision-making positions and were sought out for spiritual advice.

"Two Spirit for me is the man and woman [in one body] together," said Antonio Ramirez, an Aztec living in Wichita and a Two-Spirit man who came to support his friends in the wedding.

Two Spirits' nondefined gender roles conflicted with the Christian ideology of the first European settlers and, because of assimilation, Two Spirit people became repressed and virtually forgotten. For the past 20 years, there has been a resurgence. Two Spirit societies have been formed in Denver, Tulsa, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Northeast and Northwest, and throughout Canada.

"[F]or us as Two Spirited people, we need to learn our roles, instill ourselves with power and medicine to take the message of our roles to our Native people," said John Hawk Co-Cke, an Osage and an activist from the Tulsa Two Spirits Society. "We are going back and telling our people that this is our role, this is our place."Homosexuality and the BibleIt is encouraging, therefore, to learn about the place of lesbians and gay men in traditional North American Indian society and to re-discover that homophobia is not some sort of genetic trait indigenous to all cultures. Indeed, many North American Indian tribes so valued 'gayness' that people who displayed these characteristics were picked for special office.

Gay traditions were prevalent in most American Indian tribes.1 There are reports of both women and men living in same-sex marriages, of women who dressed and acted as men and men who acted and dressed as women.

The European chroniclers who first came across such behavior and customs described them in terms that belonged to their own world. So American Indian homosexual men were called 'berdaches'--French for 'slave-boys', used to refer to passive male homosexuals. The name stuck--although its servile connotations were quite inappropriate in the Native American context where berdaches were accorded considerable social prestige.

Indeed, gay transvestites were often the shamans or healers of the tribe. Sometimes they had specific religious duties. Among the Crow Indians, for example, the tree that was used in the Sun Dance ceremony would be cut down by homosexual men. Berdaches were regarded as having special intellectual, artistic and spiritual qualities. They were also reputed to be hard workers. Their ability to combine female and male qualities often put them into the role of mediators between the sexes. When asked 'when you die ... what will you be in the spirit land? A man or a woman?', one Sioux 'winkle' naturally replied 'both'."Comment:  For more on the subject, see Homosexuality Isn't a Choice.