Anal porn was specifically prohibited by a statute passed in 1563 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and was copied by the North Carolina assembly in 1713. There were few openly gay men in the European colonies of North America at this time, due to legal consequences as well as social ostracism. However, in most tribes a relationship between a two-spirit and non-two-spirit was seen for the most part as neither heterosexual nor homosexual (in modern-day terms) but more hetero-normative partners of two-spirits have not historically viewed themselves as homosexual, and moreover drew a sharp conceptual line between themselves and two-spirits. According to Lang, female assigned at birth two-spirits usually have sexual relations or marriages with only females.

Two-spirits might have relationships with people of either sex. According to Will Roscoe, male and female two-spirits have been 'documented in over 130 North America tribes, in every region of the continent'. The presence of male two-spirits existed before European contact, and 'was a fundamental institution among most tribal peoples'. Two-spirit is a modern umbrella term used by some indigenous North Americans for Gender variant individuals in their communities.

4.17 1990s: Victories and political power.