Don't Follow America: Lift Bans on Gay Indian Marriage
Gabriel Duncan, 19
Wednesday August 24, 2005

I've long known that about half of the United States doesn't like Gay people. It's been made pretty clear, most recently with President Bush Jr. cutting national funding for GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Trans, and Queer) programs, the rejection of numerous marriage equality bills, and the approval of anti-gay marriage legislation in 37 states. But now, to my dismay, Indian Country is following the white man's lead.

The Navajo Nation Council passed a ban on same-sex marriages in June, overriding the veto of Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. The legislation banned marriages between members of the same sex on the nation's largest Indian reservation — at the same time that it banned incestuous marriage between members of the same family. Before that controversial law passed, a Cherokee couple was wed, received their tribe-issued marriage certificate, and was set to live happily ever after. That is, until an attorney contested the wedding. That's when everything got complicated.

Now, justices in a Cherokee Nation courthouse are hearing arguments from both sides, and may make their decision in about 10 days. Tribal members Dawn McKinley, 33, and Kathy Reynolds, 28, have asked the court to throw out the lawsuit that stopped their effort to file their marriage certificate, arguing that the tribal member and attorney, Todd Hembree, had no standing to complain because he wasn't harmed by their marriage. Hembree argued that tribal laws use the words “husband” and “wife,” not “wife” and “wife.”

But in Cherokee, the word “wife” means “cooker”, and the word “husband” means “companion.” Both are gender neutral. In Mohawk “my husband” means “the person I live with.” And in the non-native world, people use the terms, “partner,” “spouse” and “significant other” with ease. But we're not talking about the Non-Native World — which has never viewed marriage or equality in the same way that Native people have.

Marriage in the United States has historically been a secular union in a land where the ideal of a separation of church and state was never achieved. They've got GOD on their money, GOD in their Capitol buildings and GOD coming out of presidents' mouths every time they sign off. They've still got GOD in their constitution. Marriage, traditionally, was a polygamist's venture. Historically, it was about property.

According to the first settlers who came onto our land, any man who didn't own property (i.e. land, wife or child) could be sold into slavery. And since us “Injuns” were sub-human — even if we had 10 wives, 30 kids and covered the entire continent — that meant us. Today, marriage is still about property. It's about social security, health insurance and children. FACT: With a “California Registered Domestic Partnership,” you only get 15 “rights.” In Vermont, around 250. But with a “Civil Marriage License,” more than 1,138 rights.

That may not seem like a lot. That is, if immigration, social security, Medicare, housing and food stamps, federal tax laws, veteran's benefits, employee benefits, federal loans, hospital visitation, child custody and wills don't affect you or make your life easier. But it's hard to see how vital some of this stuff can be when you've taken your rights for granted all your life. FACT: Convicted felons can receive conjugal visits from their spouses. But we still can't get married. Richard Ramirez, California's “Night Stalker,” a serial killer who has 16 confirmed kills, was married on death row. But we can't even get a bouquet and a veil to save our lives! That's why the average American should give a damn about gay marriage.

And then what about us Native people? How can people who don't even have words for “husband” and “wife” even begin to decide whether two men or two women cannot get married? Historically, many Native peoples had a fluid view of sexuality. Bisexual, Straight, Gay, Transgender — hey, it didn't matter. That was how you were made and people weren't going to stone you to death just because you were different. In fact, your differences made you special. “Two-Spirits” like myself, which is the modern term for a Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Trans person who is Native or First Nations, were hailed as medicine men.

As Two-Spirits, we were depended on to heal, keep the history of our people, and care for the children. Two-Spirited people were often “cookers,” though they could also be warriors, it didn't really matter. Looking back into the travel journals of the Spanish conquistadors, you can find a story about fierce, bare-chested female warriors who obliterated an entire war party. And back then, if a man chose the basket instead of the bow — or, these days, the feather boa — his tribe would socialize him with the women. No big deal.

I'm not trying to make this sound like the pre-contact world was one big free-love party, but gay marriage was certainly a “non-issue,” as Navajo President Shirley said during the debate over the same-sex marriage ban. Sex and sexuality were natural. Love was unconditional. And diversity was definitely celebrated.

What this boils down to is that what we do in our bedrooms, is ours — no matter what the white people say. No matter what they tell us their GOD says. And that's what this really is about: Assimilation, guilt and indoctrination. Diversity and tolerance are integral to all of our cultures. Don't let them die too.

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Editor's note: This story ran recently in The San Francisco Chronicle! Copy and paste this link in your web browser to check it out! http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/21/INGQEEA5RF1.DTL