Navajo gay men
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In response to requests from American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth, Western States Center partnered with the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, the Center for Native American Youth, and the Native Youth Leadership Alliance to develop a resource toolkit for and with new Native leaders.
Indigenizing Affectionate is written to support Native youth, tribal communities, Two-Spirit and Native LGBTQIA+ collectives, community leaders, and partners who intend to enhanced understand a
When many Navajo LGBTQ people reflect on their daily existence on the largest Native American reservation in the US, “isolation” is the word that comes up most frequently.
“The reservation is my residence, but there’s nothing here for the LGBT community,” says Lola De La Hoya, who came out as trans after graduating high school.
The Navajo Nation covers over 27, square miles of arid and mountainous land, taking in the vast deserts of three southwestern states. At the last US census, some , people lived scattered across its remote towns and communities.
For Navajo trans people prefer De La Hoya, this geography only serves to compound their alienation from families and peers. “My parents took down all of their pictures of me when I came out, and they attempt to not be seen with me in public,” she says.
Navajo customs traditionally recognizes a roomy variety of sexual orientations and gender identities, including a third gender famous as nádleeh, though the belief has faded over time after Christianity and colonization imposed a more binary understanding of gender.
LGBTQ Navajo people,
Homosexuality in the Pre-colonial Americas
Updated: 2 days ago
Author's Note:
I will never understand or be able to discuss this topic outside of the view of the colonizer. This is an unfortunate truth barrier that is better addressed than breached. Native people are in need of support on many fronts from non-native people, and I hope to compose every word of this article to support, not rewrite, native history. If you are unfamiliar with the level of erasure that has taken place since European colonization, please understand that it greatly exceeds anything I will be able to portray.
Whenever you see the designation ‘colonized as,’ I am referring to the fact that the common names of the ground and peoples we were taught to use in public college are all European constructs. Therefore, I am trying to apply only the names used originally or retroactively by native people.
Three things are apparent in the available sources of communication about homosexuality* in the pre-colonial Americas; one is that while the modern LGBTQ+ community was largely established in the mi
When Rei Yazzie started his transition and his voice began to change, he knew it was day to prepare for a tá’cheeh – a traditional male puberty ceremony. To do so, he would need the help of a Diné medicine bloke – an ask that can take time – but more importantly, he would need to identify a traditional healer willing to accept a gender diverse man.
“The older generation haven’t acknowledged or embraced (people like me),” said Rei Yazzie. “I yearn to reach out to somebody who is going to acknowledge that.”
Rei Yazzie is not alone in his struggle to secure prayer or ceremony from traditional healers, yet he descends from a tradition that recognizes multiple gender roles.
In the Diné language, there are at least six genders: Asdzáán (woman), Hastiin (male), Náhleeh (feminine-man), Dilbaa (masculine-woman), Nádleeh Asdzaa (lesbian), ‘Nádleeh Hastii (gay man). All come from the Diné creation story, in which asdzáán and hastiin, a cisgender married couple, were not getting along and separated. When that happened, dilbaa and náhleeh emerged from hiding and were