Two-Spirit and Bisexual People: Different Umbrella, Same Rain

ABSTRACT

Increasingly, two-spirit identity is being included as one of the identities under the bisexual umbrella, yet there has been very little discussion about how this inclusion might affect two-spirit people, the research that pertains to us, or the services shaped by such data. This article draws upon personal experience as a two-spirit and bisexual woman as well as upon research conducted with two-spirit people in the province of Ontario, Canada. Five points of comparison between bisexual and two-spirit identity are examined: (1) the complexity of our identities, (2) the role of spirituality, (3) our elevated rates of poverty, (4) sexual violence, and (5) the influence of colonialism. Although bisexual and two-spirit identities share a number of commonalities they have key differences in cultural context and meaning.

KEYWORDS:

• two-spirit
• bisexual umbrella
• spirituality
• mental health
• colonialism

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge the participants in the Two-Spirit Roundtable, and those whose wisdom and hard work made the study possible, particularly two-spirit elder, Blu Waters, two-spirit community members Louis Esme Cruz, and Sharp Dopler. Thanks also to the Evidence Exchange Network, the Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy, and the Ontario federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres. I also wish to acknowledge the investigators, coinvestigators, and advisors of the Risk & Resilience Study, including Lori Ross, Greta Bauer, Cheryl Dobinson, Jenna MacKay, Ishwar Persad, and Loralee Gillis. The author also wishes to thank Shamara Baidoobonso and Melissa A. MacLeod for their work data cleaning and coding, the members of the Risk & Resilience Bisexual Community Advisory Committee (particularly Blu Waters and Louis Esme Cruz), and all of the staff and students of the Re:searching for LGBTQ Health team who contributed to these projects (see www.lgbtqhealth.ca).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Margaret Robinson

Margaret Robinson, PhD, is a feminist scholar from Nova Scotia and a member of the Lennox Island First Nation. Her research work examines mental health and substance use in Indigenous and Settler populations, especially among sexual and gender minority people. She is currently an assistant professor in Indigenous Studies in the Sociology & Social Anthropology department at Dalhousie University and an affiliate research scientist at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.