Chapter 19
“No, never. It was wonderful.”
“You are not really of two spirits, are you?” Soaring Hawk asked.
“No, I am as you are, a man who desires other men. I am not a woman on the inside, and a man on the outside.”
“Then why do you let the people think you are?” The admission confused Soaring Hawk.
“What else is there to do? The people believe a man who desires other men must be a squaw inside a man’s body.”
“But you could tell them that you’re fully a man,” Soaring Hawk said, his feelings of contentment fading.
“They wouldn’t understand that,” Lean Bear said, a note of sadness in his voice. “Once they know you’re willing to be with a man, they only see you in one way: two spirits, a man to be used by other men in need.”
Soaring Hawk remembered his insight into Rides the Wind. If even the wise shaman could not see that a man could be fully a man and desire other men, then surely the ordinary men and women of the tribe would not see it either.