...is a French term applied by French trappers and traders to "two spirit" people, all of whom had one or more descriptive names in the actual languages they spoke.

Many American Indians, or Native Americans if one prefers, or First Nations if one hails from the Great White North, are offended by the term, and it's exactly as dangerous to use as is "squaw" or "nigger" if one is not intimately familiar with the social context in which they might (just barely) be appropriate.

The word come from a long line of contemptuous or pejorative names starting in antiquity, which tells us a lot about several ancient European cultures. The French bardache came from the Spanish bardaxa or bardaje/bardaja via Italian bardasso or berdasia via Arabic bardaj meaning "kept boy; male prostitute, or catamite" although generously extended to female prostitutes, from Persian bardaj < Middle Persian vartak < Old Iranian *varta-, cognate to Avestan varəta- "seized, prisoner." One gathers that these people had never heard of the Geneva Conventions.

The key concept in all these names, of course, is that someone powerful and of the proper race, social class, or gender, has complete control over the bodies of these less fortunate individuals, and can force them them do whatever they desire.

Among most pre-contact native peoples of the Americas, balance (duyuktv in Cherokee) was highly regarded, and the various flavours of human gender and sexuality were a part of that balance. Two-spirit encompasses all those "balances," transgendered, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and whatever, part of a spiritual path not commonly taken, but well-worth respecting.

Post-contact, European homophobia and intolerance has infected many tribes who now seek to ape their white "conquerors" by copying their religions, prejudices, and hatreds, so hatred and prejudice against two-spirit people has grown, with corresponding reaction against "Western" terminology, even if the perpetrators actually lie to the east.

Two-spirit is much safer.

Cheers,

Puddin'