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American Indian Education & Opportunity \iflter 200)

er

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OPINION

Coming InNative American Two -Spfrit People

by Alexandria Wilson

oming in, my l..akota friend Wayne told me. Coming inthaCs what two-spirit people do. I knew exactly what be meant. He was pointing out that, asNative people who are not straight, we bad become comfortable with who arenot because we had come out (a process that seems like a prerequisite for happinessin modern books and movies about gay or lesbian people). We became comfortable withourselves and empowered when we came in to our identities as two-spirit people.The term two-spirit is a self-descriptor used by many Native American and Canadianlesbian, gay. bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people. We call ourselves two-spirit as

a way to take control of and responsibility for our identities and experiences. We areNative American people who are LGBT and our stor ies about how we grew into ouridentities are typically very different from conventional coming out stories. Rather thantrying to fit ourselves into the established mainstream identities for LGBT people, weare developing identities that fit who we are.

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