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
- JEFEY GIBSON: AMERIN. NATIVE AMERIN. GAY. AN ARTIST’S LIFE OUTSI LABELS
- MORE THAN JT THE “GAY INDIANS”
- JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN IS FIRST AMERIN MALE PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
NATIVE AMERIN YEARNS FOR OLD VIEWS OF GAYS, LBIANS
Who are you? And do you belong? Whether livg abroad or the U.S., Jefey Gibson has faced those qutns as a gay Choctaw Cherokee artist mentg on his Amerin inty. * native american gay life *
Such adult men ed the pretext of a srcy of women to tablish enforced homosexual relatnships remote mps and ranch parable to the relatnships for which today's prisons are notor. The high cince of perasty and homosexual rape is the great dirty secret of the Old Wt ontier--and yet this is not om any lack of ntemporary acunts which document or ht at , cludg the famed woodcuts of men dancg wh boys, scriptns of the practic of multiple men sleepg sgle beds (as if there wasn't room enough out Wt for everyone to throw down his own bedroll), jok about turns the barrel, and the lyrics of certa Old Wt songs which young men seem to be given women's nam.
Ancient Greece, where homosexualy was nsired absolutely normalThe ancient Greeks did not perceive sexual orientatn as a social ditor. “All my life, I was told that beg gay was wrong, pecially at the rervatn, ” said Stabler, now 32.
JEFEY GIBSON: AMERIN. NATIVE AMERIN. GAY. AN ARTIST’S LIFE OUTSI LABELS
* native american gay life *
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.
MORE THAN JT THE “GAY INDIANS”
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. 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. “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.
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN IS FIRST AMERIN MALE PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
“Beg a gay man but not havg experienced the generatn of AIDS ma me feel somethg like survivor’s guilt, ” he said.
In Evans plays the betiful storyteller Thomas Builds-the-Fire, who provis the heart of the film (the greatt acplishment is that Adams keeps dienc' attentns rapt, even scen wh stars Adam Beach and Irene Bedard), now 46, reteamed wh Signals filmmaker Sherman Alexie 2002 to star the gay Native Amerin film The Bs of Fancydancg. “Some misnceptns are all two-spir people are transgenr femal or drag queens, but they are jt feme gay native men, ” Co-Cke’ said. “My trib are; Mgee Creek, who know we exist but are not embracg our culture; Blackfeet, who are aware of the tradn and mostly except ; Osage, who are mostly supportive of gay marriage, but haven’t embraced the two-spirt culture and Peoria, who do not except the culture, ” Co-Cke’ said.