While this new term has not been universally accepted-it has been criticized as a term of erasure by traditional communities who already have their own terms for the people being grouped under this new term, and by those who reject what they call the 'western' binary implications, such as implying that Natives believe these individuals are 'both male and female' -it has generally received more acceptance and use than the anthropological term it replaced.
The primary purpose of coining a new term was to encourage the replacement of the outdated and considered offensive, anthropological term, berdache. The term Two Spirit (original form chosen) was created in 1990 at the Indigenous lesbian and gay international gathering in Winnipeg, and 'specifically chosen to distinguish and distance Native American/First Nations people from non-Native peoples'. Two-spirit (also two spirit, 2S or, occasionally, twospirited) is a modern, pan-Indian, umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional third-gender (or other gender-variant) ceremonial and social role in their cultures.
