What with being unemployed and all, I’ve had plenty of time to catch up on my reading list. I’ve recently discovered a great series of books by author Mark Thompson, a wonderful writer on GLBT issues. A few years ago, I picked up a copy of Leather Folk by Thompson, and I couldn’t put it down. In that book, Thompson dispels many of the stereotypes regarding the leather community, and he explains leather culture in a way that is both forthright and endearing. Now I’m studying his trio of books that really digs into what makes GLBT people tick—Gay Soul, Gay Spirit, and Gay Body.

In Gay Soul: Finding the Heart of Gay Spirit and Nature, Mark Thompson interviews sixteen "writers, healers, teachers, and visionaries," including such big names as Paul Monette, Harry Hay, and Ram Dass. Gay Soul explores the history of the GLBT experience and how it has shaped our place in society and our collective queer consciousness. In his foreword, Thompson defines soul as "the repository of all that I feel: my appetites and ambitions, sadness and joy." Thompson argues that the gay soul does have a collective memory, and perhaps most importantly, he points out that we did not always live the persecuted existence we have faced in recent centuries. In fact, once upon a time, queer people were cherished and revered, placed high upon a spiritual pedestal.

I first learned of Native American berdache in a college Native American history class. Although my professor was very knowledgeable and open-minded, he didn’t spend much class time explaining the important role the berdache played in tribal life, so I did some independent research. Mark Thompson and his interviewees speak extensively about the berdache in Gay Soul. The term berdache was invented by European settlers of the Americas for a select and especially persecuted group of Native Americans. In an effort to reclaim the wonderful history of the berdache, many GLBT and Native American historians prefer the term "two-spirited."

In tribal culture, the berdache, or "Two Spirits," were individuals who often cross-dressed and performed the traditional tribal functions of the opposite sex. Two-spirited men often cooked and created beadwork and other crafts, while two-spirited women often hunted and even led battles. There is little academic debate that many of these Two Spirits were gay or lesbian. Two Spirits were revered as spiritual leaders of their tribes. Many shaman, who in most cultures were held in regard equal to that of tribal leaders, also cross-dressed and did not participate in heterosexual relations. Shaman performed magical rites, advised tribe members, maintained tribal history, and presided over the all-important holidays and tribal ceremonies.

In modern culture, gender benders and queer folk are anything but revered, often relegated to the most distant social margins. But many tribal cultures recognized the great gifts of the berdache and the shaman. Standing outside the male/female binary, these special people could look inside the culture and critique it honestly. Perhaps most significantly, berdache and shaman, according to tribal beliefs, were honored because their bodies possessed the spiritual qualities of both genders, and so they were a direct link to the spirit world. In tribal cultures, everyone had a part to play in the survival of the tribe, so power hierarchies did not work well. The person who planted corn was, in the long run, just as important to the tribe’s survival as the leader, so each person brought his or her own gifts to the table and there was no room for judgment or prejudice.

As Mark Thompson and his subjects point out in Gay Soul, today’s western society is predicated upon a binary system—men and women, rich and poor, winners and losers. Tribal cultures not only could not afford to indulge in an "us vs. them" mentality, but their spirituality did not allow for it. The spiritual system of Native Americans was largely earth-based, with emphasis on the cycle of life, not the accomplishments of the individual if they did not contribute to the betterment of the tribe. Possessing many of the qualities of what we would today call "queer," the strong presence of berdache and shaman has been documented in well over one hundred tribal cultures throughout the world, from the Americas to Mesopotamia to Africa.

Gay Soul focuses on other subjects besides historical tribal culture. The men interviewed by Thompson (he chooses to focus primarily on men so as not to seem presumptuous about queer women’s spiritual history) hold some fascinating views. One man asserts that queer people have a peculiar energy that we can tap into if we just listen for it, and it will guide us in our gifts and contributions to the universe. This assertion is very much in line with modern theories of collective social consciousness and recent scientific findings that memories are carried not only in our brains, but also in the very cells of our bodies. One man asserts that the beast of capitalism, and the binary system upon which is it is founded, is dying. Frankly, with my recent lay-off and my bad feelings about our power-hungry and shallow society, this particular assertion is especially intriguing for me.

Gay Soul is worth much more than a quick read. It’s worth a thoughtful, searching study. Now is a time when our own queer identities are in transition, with assimilationist marriage rights knocking at our door and the raging debate of whether or not transgender persons fit in our movement. Now is a time when the political and religious right is so focused against us, and our nation is polarized on political issues including gay rights. European settlers targeted the berdache most of all in their quest to wipe out Native American tribal customs, often gathering them in groups and turning dogs upon them. They recognized that when you eliminate the spiritual and cultural leaders of a group, you have paralyzed its very heart. I think we could all use a little spiritual awakening right now, some heart and some soul.