A term used to refer to north american indian homosexual men of the great plains and elsewhere in the west. In the past, two-spirited men led their lives as transvestites and were given respected social statuses within their societies. Formerly, they were known by the somewhat derogatory french term "berdache", which in turn came from an arabic word meaning a slave. Today, some homosexual native american women also refer to themselves as being two-spirited.