Many native societies had the concept of a third, fourth, or even fifth gender- someone who lived outside of the gender norm. They often adopted the dress or societal roles of the opposite sex- sometimes of both sexes- adopted opposite-sex names, and even married people of the same sex. In our society these people are often referred to as “genderqueer”, a label that applies to transsexuals (who were born with the body of one sex and the thought patterns of the other), hermaphrodites (who have the XXXY chromosome that makes them biologically duosexed), intersexed people (who feel that their gender is fluid), or androgynes (who do not identify with a gender); the Amerindians now refer to them as “two-spirited”; and the Europeans, upon “discovering” them in the Americas, referred to them as berdaches. Berdaches were often given socially important, sometimes sacred, roles in their communities; they were artists, shamans and priests, and they were encouraged to explore themselves and express their sexuality.The Mi’kmaq seem to have held no such concept. Their society was very much one that believed in and focused on the duality of the sexes- this can be seen in their prescribed gender roles- and another sex did not fit this duality. This is not to say that biological men never took the "woman's role", and vice versa; it simply wasn't the norm. However, they also seem to carry little of the homophobic baggage that the predominant European culture of the time did.
Presumably genderqueers must have existed amongst the Mi’kmaq, as well as homosexuals and hermaphrodites, for they have been a part of various human cultures since culture itself came to be. (This is especially noticable in Greek mythology, from which come words like "hermaphrodite"; Hermaphrodite was the duogendered child of the messenger god Hermes and Aphrodite, the goddess of love. The image of the Creator as a hermaphrodite is also an old concept, because it incorporates both masculinity and the femininity into the divine.) However, no information could be found as to how these individuals were treated by their society. As the Mi’kmaq were an accepting and open-minded people, one can only hope that it was well.
And besides, their own Creator was said to be genderless...
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