Catholic university to host 'Two-Spirit storyteller' to deliver talk on 'Queering Spirituality'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Friday, March 27, 2026

A private Roman Catholic research university in California is slated to host a self-identified "Two-Spirit storyteller" to offer a "powerful conversation" on "Queering Spirituality" shortly after Easter next month.

The University of San Diego (USD) is welcoming Juan Angel Reynoso, who claims to be an "Indigenous-2Spirit Storyteller, Advocate, Teacher, and Culturally-Trauma-Responsive practitioner," to explore "what it means to navigate faith, identity and belonging at the intersections of queerness and spirituality," according to a release from the school announcing the April 9 event.

"Join us for a powerful conversation with Juan Reynoso as we explore what it means to navigate faith, identity and belonging at the intersections of queerness and spirituality," the announcement said.

Reynoso is co-founder and co-executive director of The Queer Sol Collective, which describes itself as "a Queer and Indigenous-led NGO and registered non-profit" whose initiative is "centered in activating emergence in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community through the art and practice of Queer embodiment."

Claiming Reynoso "works to cultivate belonging, healing and connection within 2SLGBTQIA+ communities," USD advertised his talk as an invitation "to reflect on how we find, create and redefine 'home' within ourselves, our communities, and our faith traditions."

USD noted that the event is being co-sponsored by its Department of Theology and Religious Studies, LGBTQ+ & Allies Commons, Associated Student Government and University Ministries.

First coined in 1990 at the Third Annual Inter-tribal Native American/First Nations Gay/Lesbian American Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the term "two-spirit" has come to describe gender identities among Native American communities that supposedly fall outside the male-female binary.

"Traditionally, Native American Two-Spirit people were male, female, and sometimes intersexed individuals who combined activities of both men and women with traits unique to their status as Two-Spirit people," according to the Indian Health Service. "In most tribes, they were considered neither men nor women; they occupied a distinct, alternative gender status."

Before tracing USD's establishment to 1937, when then-Bishop of San Diego Charles Francis Buddy first sought to found a school "for the glory of God and the salvation of souls," the school's history page opens with a land acknowledgment.

"At USD we acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the traditional and unceded territory of the Kumeyaay Nation. We pay respect to the citizens of the Kumeyaay Nation, both past and present, and their continuing relationship to their ancestral lands," the page says at the top.