Two-Spirit people - a completely different view of the role of gay and lesbian men and women - or - if it's genetic then how did we survive evolution?

From Wikipedia:

Two-Spirit (also two spirit or twospirit) people are Native Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native Americans and Canadian First Nations indigenous groups. Traditionally the roles included wearing the clothing and performing the work of both male and female genders. The term usually implies a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit living in the same body and was coined by contemporary gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Native Americans to describe themselves and the traditional roles they are reclaiming. There are many indigenous terms for these individuals in the various Native American languages as "what scholars generically refer to as 'Native American gender diversity' was a fundamental institution among most tribal peoples"^[1].

It is a calque of the Ojibwa phrase niizh manidoowag (two spirits). It was chosen to distance Native/First Nations people from non-natives as well as from the words "berdache" and "gay."

As of 1991, male and female bodied Two-Spirit people have been "documented in over 130 North American tribes, in every region of the continent, among every type of native culture"^[2].

Some examples of two-spirited people in history include accounts by Spanish c onquistadors who spotted a two-spirited individual(s) in almost every village they entered in Central America. There are descriptions of two-spirited individuals having strong mystical powers. In one account, raiding soldiers of a rival tribe began to attack a group of foraging women. When they perceived that one of the women, the one that did not run away, was a two-spirit, they halted their attack and retreated after the two-spirit countered them with a stick, determining that the two-spirit would have great power which they would not be able to overcome.

he term "Two-Spirit" is most comfortably applied to contemporary individuals and groups who identify as such, and Two-Spirit men may distinguish between spiritual and cultural practitioners, or "Two-Spirits", and "gay Indians". Modern Two-Spirit activities include:

Knowledge in ritual, ceremonial, religious, and culture
Knowledge and skill in crafts, especially women's
Teaching
Child-care for family and community

{this is matt interjecting here - i do believe there is an evolutionary role for gays and lesbians - i believe we fulfill the role of "backup" in making sure that the family/tribe survives to pass on their collective genes. those groups who produce a certain percentage of gays and lesbians will also produce a certain percentage of adults who are not tied down to spouse or children (generally - adoption and long term relationships do occur) and can therefore take on the roles of assistant to the sick and aged and children as well as innovators culturally and intuit-ers and interpreters of the spiritual - see the Roman Church for a more modern example of the non-married spiritual guide. in this way i see that the "mutation" to allow for homosexuals within the descendants of a certain woman would also provide for - in the long run - more descendants for that woman and therefore the gene would survive into the future. several studies seem to show that the mother passes on the gene for gay men - in a manner similar to the way in which the mother, not the father passes on the gene for male pattern baldness and many other genetic traits that are know to "skip" a generation. other studies also indicate that the more males a woman produces the more likely it is is that each subsequent male child will be gay - this theory posits that the mother builds up an immune response with each pregnancy to the male hormones in utero. this would also make sense evolutionarily as a woman who has produced too many sons and not enough daughters would have little use for more sons but could certainly use more "helper males" who do not engage in the typical male endeavours. Lesbian studies are few and far between - which is a whole post to itself i suppose? ok - i'm done editorializing - back to the main article}

Two-Spirit and gay Indian men often report accepting female relatives and communities willing to enforce the closet. Native cultures may be considered to have "indiscriminately" adopted European values including sexism and homophobia and it is commonly argued that being "gay" or "cross-dressing" is not "traditional" or not "Indian". The re-adoption of Two-Spirit roles may be seen then as a healing for both Two-Spirit individuals and Native cultures, and modern Two-Spirit identity is fundamentally concerned with tradition.