Sui generis
Sui generis (; ) is a Latin phrase that means "of its (his, her, their) own kind; in a class by itself; unique."
Transgender inequality
Transgender, while a new term, is not a new phenomenon. In North America, many Native American cultures had identifications for transgender people, being people whose gender identity does not match up with their biological sex. Sabine Lang, in her research, defines non-binary people as women-men and men-women (the first referring to the expression and the second referring to the biological sex), and discusses how different Native American tribes had designations for this and had transgender people integrated and integral to society. From the Navajo to the Shoshoni to the Pueblo de Zuni, there were different definitions and characterizations of what we now know to be transgender people. The Navajo described both men and women who did not identify as their birth sex as being “nádleehé, ‘someone who is in a constant process of change,” while the Shoshoni entitled it “tianna wa’ippi,” which is a combination of the word for man and the word for women, which was used interchangeably for both the biologically male and female. For those who were men-women or women-men, it was considered to be a spiritual journey if one was to renounce their born gender and assume the other. According to Lang, unlike in current United States culture, these third-gender designations were not seen as deviant, or strange. Lang further highlights how many tribes considered relationships heterosexual as long as the gender identity lined up as so: in this case, the gender identity was what indicated heterosexual relationships, rather than biological sex. However, in tribes such as the Navajo and Shoshoni, Lang discusses how it would be seen as “unthinkable” and borderline “incestuous,” respectively, for two transgender people to be in a sexual relationship. While transgender people in Native American cultures were largely accepted, Lang discusses that when Europeans came over and colonized, they brought with them oppressive ideas on gender non-conformists, and began to influence Native cultures to do the same