Expansive experiences of gender and sexuality have always been a part of Native communities. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, many tribal nations practiced gender and sexual roles more fluidly than those prescribed within European Christian society. While traditions and experiences remain dependent on their tribal contexts, these practices were vast and could include forms of same-sex sexuality, non-heteropatriarchal family structures, and varied gender expression. Some tribes even honored those with an expansive gender identity as sacred keepers of knowledge and spiritual rites—a role often referred to today by the intertribal term, Two-Spirit. This heritage includes nations with ancestral ties to Chicagoland such as the Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi), Ojibweg (Chippewa), and Hoocąk (Ho-Chunk or Winnebago) , whose languages all possess words for Two-Spirit, or third-gender, individuals. With the rise of both the Red Power and the Gay Liberation movements in the early 1960s and 1970s, 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals saw a surge in activism to reassert the importance of their Indigenous and queer identities within and beyond their tribal nations.

During the rise of the Gay Liberation movement in the twenty-first century, non-Native activists looked towards the diverse legacy of Indigenous gender and sexuality as a historical validation of queerness. This could often be appropriative as non-Native, LGBTQ activists disconnected Two-Spirit and 2SQ (Two-Spirit, queer) experiences from their cultural contexts to claim non-Native, queer rights— disconnecting the visibility and importance of Indigeneity in these identities. In Chicago’s North Halsted neighborhood, a plaque showcasing “Two-Spirit People” demonstrates this complex relationship. Dedicated in 2012, the plague is part of Chicago’s “Legacy Walk,” a half mile stretch along the North Halsted Street corridor that forms the world’s first and only “outdoor LGBT history museum.” The Legacy Walk includes over 40 bronze, biographical plaques attached to 25 foot rainbow pylons, aiming to highlight lesser known LGBTQ history. The Two-Spirit dedication means to honor Native and First Nations communities alongside Two-Spirit leaders as the “originators” of queer gender identities and sexualities.