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Two Spirits, One Heart, Five Genders  by Duane Brayboy Sep 7, 2017 For European settlers the Original Peoples way of life was perplexing, including the the Two Spirits tradition. “The New World.” This romanticized term inspired legions of Europeans to race to the places we live in search of freedoms from oppressive regimes or treasures that would be claimed in the name of some European nation. Those who arrived in the Native American Garden of Eden had never seen a land so uncorrupted. The Europeans saw new geography, new plants, new animals, but the most perplexing curiosity to these people were the Original Peoples and our ways of life. Of all of the foreign life ways Indians held, one of the first the Europeans targeted for elimination was the Two Spirit tradition among Native American cultures. At the point of contact, all Native American societies acknowledged three to five gender roles: Female, male, Two Spirit female, Two Spirit male and transgendered. L...

A gentle article from the Counsellors Cafe Magazine by Lucas Vodere Click here to read article from the Counsellors Cafe

Innocence BY  LINDA HOGAN There is nothing more innocent than the still-unformed creature I find beneath soil, neither of us knowing what it will become in the abundance of the planet. It makes a living only by remaining still in its niche. One day it may struggle out of its tender pearl of blind skin with a wing or with vision leaving behind the transparent. I cover it again, keep laboring, hands in earth, myself a singular body. Watching things grow, wondering how a cut blade of grass knows how to turn sharp again at the end. This same growing must be myself, not aware yet of what I will become in my own fullness inside this simple flesh.  

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Can we choose our own identity? Society books Caitlyn Jenner is a trans woman, ‘asexual for now’; Rachel Dolezal identifies as black. Who owns your identity, and how can old ways of thinking be replaced? Kwame Anthony Appiah Fri 31 Aug 2018  12.00 BST Shares 566   What could be more personal than the question of who you are? Illustration: Lee Martin/Guardian Design Team I n April 2015, after a long and very public career, first as a male decathlete, then as a reality TV star,  Caitlyn Jenner  announced to the world she was a  trans  woman. Asked about her sexuality, Jenner explained that she had always been heterosexual, and indeed she had fathered six children in three marriages. She understood, though, that many people were confused about the distinction between sexual orientation and gender identity, and so she said: “Let’s go with ‘asexual’ for now.” Isn’t it up to her? What could be more per...