The main focus of this blog is not to describe the varying gender identities and expressions around the world, as I am no expert in this field, I do not have a background in any of these cultures, nor have I ever met someone who is of one of these identities. Instead, I am going to discuss my relation to these other ways of being as an agender, white American citizen fighting for the rights of transgender, gender non conforming, and non binary people under the Trump-Pence administration. I would just like to preface that I will be using the umbrella term “trans” in quotations, as it is an English term that is not necessarily used by these other communities. In addition, I want to highlight the importance of not romanticizing or appropriating terms or identities as I admire the validity they give to my own personal experience.

As shown in my post on our Instagram (@fpod_spring_2019), gender identities and expressions beyond the binary have existed in various cultures and traditions over the span of time. One example of this is the two spirit people of North America. Two spirit is a pan-Indigenous term that refers to people with both a feminine and masculine spirit who fulfill sacred, spiritual, and ceremonial roles. According to Dancing to Eagle Spirit Society, two spirit people were often visionaries, healers, medicine people, nannies of orphans, and caregivers. Prior to colonization, they were greatly honored and revered, but now they are met with intersecting oppressions, violence, and sometimes even death.

Fred Martinez was a nádleehí, a male-bodied person with a feminine essence, of the Diné tribe. While their two spirit identity is seen as a gift in Diné culture, it was not accepted by the surrounding neighborhood in Cortez, Colorado. At only 16 years old, Martinez was brutally killed after their skull was crushed in with a rock. Despite clear evidence of the crime stemming from their gender expression and sexuality, it was not legally considered a hate crime. It is incredibly disheartening to think that if Fred Martinez had been born prior to the colonization of America, they would not have met the same fate.

White, Anglo imperialistic forces caused the erasure of a queer ontology that would later reemerge and be branded as a Western construct to many. After meeting with two spirit people in the TV series Gaycation, Ellen Page states, “To me [being] two spirit is such a clear example of how being gay or being trans is just a natural part of human existence. It’s, to me, a clear example and negates all the people that say things like, ‘This is a Western construct, [it’s] a modern privilege to even be thinking about… your sexual [or gender] identity’… It’s like the only Western construct is actually homophobia. That’s what we brought.”

While the remaining circumstances of colonization are horrific, I do not want to end this blog post on such a negative tone. Through learning indigenous relations to gender and sexuality, I have grown in confidence in my identity. I hope that other transgender, gender non conforming, and non binary people can also find comfort in these gender variant experiences around the world.