Candace Owens calls Native Americans drug addicts & cannibals while denying Two-Spirit people exist

At a speaking engagement, right-wing pundit Candace Owens went on a racist and anti-trans rant against Native Americans in response to an audience member’s question about Two-Spirit people.

The audience member asked Owens how she could believe trans identities are somehow a new trend fueled by the media when Two-Spirit Native Americans have existed for thousands of years.

Related: Candace Owens suspended from YouTube over hateful anti-LGBTQ+ content

She claimed that trauma and social contagion cause homosexuality. Now her colleagues are surprised she got booted from YouTube.

Two-Spirit is an umbrella term used in Native American communities to describe those who do not conform to their sex assigned at birth and who are said to possess both a male and female spirit. Two-Spirit people were once considered healers and shamans, but colonization led to their marginalization. Many communities, however, are working to revive their sacred roles.

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Owens had never heard of Two-Spirit people, and she responded to the question with a series of derogatory comments about Native Americans.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about with Two-Spirit people,” she said. “Is this like a Native American tribe, like high smoking and talking about your spirit? I’m asking you seriously, because when I think of Native American tribes talking about their spirits, I know that they used to smoke a lot, they used to do drugs, they also were cannibals who used to eat people, so I don’t know if we should be taking our cues from cannibals.”

The audience member then explained the history of Two-Spirit people to Owens, explaining that there have long been dozens of terms across Native American tribes to describe people who would now be considered trans.

Owens then denied the audience member’s claim that it is basic historical knowledge that there were trans native Americans.

“I don’t think that there were trans native Americans,” she said, before the audience member told her to educate herself.

Candace Owens responded to a young woman challenging Owen's anti-trans rant by pointing out Native American Two Spirit people existed. Owens goes off on her, calling
Native Americans cannibals and drug users. Shocking, racist and vile. pic.twitter.com/HXFRyCR5Eo

— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) October 28, 2023

Owens has a long history of attacking LGBTQ+ people.

In 2021, she criticized former NBA player Dwyane Wade for being supporting his transgender daughter Zaya. And after the Club Q shooting, she said that anti-transgender rhetoric from conservatives like her had nothing to do with the tragedy and falsely claimed that gender-affirming care amounts to “experimenting on children’s genitals with puberty blockers.”

She also recently said she would beat her hypothetical transgender grandchild with a cane if they came out to her. She has also accused JoJo Siwa of pretending to be gay for clicks, and falsely associated trans people with mass shootings in Memphis and Texas.

This summer, Owens was hot on the idea that sexual abuse is at the root of homosexuality, declaring “groomers” responsible for the vast majority of same-sex attraction. She has been suspended from YouTube more than once for violating the site’s hate speech policy.