For Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer Pri Month, Dennis Zotigh, a cultural specialist at the Natnal Mm of the Amerin Indian, ved Native iends to tell how their tradnal culture saw s LGBTQ members. A Chirihua Apache iend replied, “Now, Dennis, this is a human qutn, not [jt] Native.” We agree. But we also appreciate hearg what Native Amerins have learned, renstcted, or been unable to renstct about this part of our shared history and experience.
Contents:
- NATIVE AMERIN YEARNS FOR OLD VIEWS OF GAYS, LBIANS
- MORE THAN JT THE “GAY INDIANS”
- TWO-SPIR PEOPLE: GAYS ACCEPTED BY NATIVE AMERINS
NATIVE AMERIN YEARNS FOR OLD VIEWS OF GAYS, LBIANS
“All my life, I was told that beg gay was wrong, pecially at the rervatn, ” said Stabler, now 32. It wasn’t always that direct, but “I felt like nobody liked gay people.
But there was a different time, when gays and lbians were not only accepted Native muni but, some s, revered bee they embodied the “two spirs:” male and female. As a rult, she said, gay youth, Native or otherwise, “have sometim been ostracized and intified as different. Cly Tyndall, the Indian Center’s executive director, said a creed of acceptance is ed the way of his people and that more mt be done to help gay and Lbian youth.
MORE THAN JT THE “GAY INDIANS”
Stabler, who is now openly gay and is a mted relatnship wh a non-Native man, nces he do not know a lot about the old ncept of “two spirs. ” But he yearns for the old ways of thkg about gays and lbians. “There is nothg stoppg them om allowg gays and lbians to marry, ” he said, assertg that trib have their own thory to grant same-sex marriage licens.
TWO-SPIR PEOPLE: GAYS ACCEPTED BY NATIVE AMERINS
“I am gay, and I am a Native Amerin man. "Two-Spir" beme the morn term for this tribe member at the third annual tertribal Native Amerin/First Natns gay and lbian nference Wnipeg, Canada, McLeod was one of the people at this nference.
"Even wh our own muni, or our own trib, sometim we've had to al wh the homophobia and the transphobia, " says Mattee Jim of Albuquerque, New Mexi.
"Jt bee someone is digeno and gay do not mean they tomatilly intify as you're non-digeno and feel that your mascule and feme tras make you Two-Spir, thk aga. "That they're able to get their tn, whether that's middle school or high school to graduate wh a diploma, to go to universy if they wish, to have a reer, to have a fay of their own – to really crease the homophobia and transphobia that would prevent that.