Transcript text: The term "berdache" was coined by Native people in 1990 to talk about sexual and gender identities across tribal contexts. It was developed in part as a response to the widespread use of the term "Two-Spirit" an adapted French word that was popularized by settler anthropologists and carries a dehumanizing stigma to imply a male prostitute (derived from the Arabic, "Bardaj," meaning "captive" or "slave").
Berdache is not a translation of any specific tribal term, but rather a way to communicate within'an English-speaking context about the common commitment to decolonization and liberation for all Indigenous people.