What's 2S (Two-Spirit)?

2S means Two Spirit

  •  It is used by First Nations peoples to describe their gender, sexual and spiritual identity. To be Two Spirit means having both the spirit of a man and a woman in one body. Traditionally, Two-Spirit people were regarded as having received a special gift.
     
  • The practice of adding Two Spirit (or 2S) to the LGBTQ+ acronym can be problematic because it equates being Two-Spirit with Western identities. Separating the 2S from the LGBTQ+ acronym can be used to signify that being Two Spirit is different from other LGBTQ+ identities. 

(Source: Pruden & Salway, 2020)