It’s a lot of things. There are a lot of cultures thats concepts of gender boundaries and what constitutes someone outside of male and female doesn’t quite line up. We often consider the eastern hemisphere more unified on these concepts than it is, and we’re a lot more likely to recognize how wildly diverse the native cultures of that continent cluster are than we are of the American continents.

So what is two spirit? Could be what we’d consider gay, bi, trans, nonbinary, intersex, or other, but it comes in an explicit choice to frame it in the context of their culture. What you can gather from someone calling themselves two spirit is that they’re queer and First Nations and they see those as tied together.