Gay native americans
LGBTQ American Indians state high levels of depression and overuse, study finds
Lesbian, lgbtq+, bisexual and trans person American Indian and Alaskan Native (AIAN) adults have higher levels of mental health issues, physical abuse and economic instability than their non-LGBTQ peers, according to a recent report.
The study, released last month by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Rule in advance of Native American Heritage Month in November, found 42 percent of AIAN LGBTQ adults have been diagnosed with depression, compared to less than a quarter of non-LGBTQ Native people and just 6.7 percent of the general U.S. population.
AIAN LGBTQ adults, particularly women, are also more likely to engage in high-risk health behaviors, including heavy drinking, according to the findings.
Three-quarters of respondents reported not having had enough wealth to make ends meet in the prior year, compared to less than half of non-LGBTQ AIAN people. And nearly half reported a major financial crisis in the prior year, compared to just 11 percent of heterosexual, cisgender Indigenous people.
“The complex picture of health and economic vulnerabilities of AIAN LGBT people is likely a product of
Two Spirit and Queer Identities: Today and Centuries Ago
As we commemorate Native American Heritage Month, it is helpful to reflect on Two Energy and LGBTQ+ identities in Native American communities, origin during pre-colonial times, and the impact of colonialism on these identities today.
Most known scholarship about pre-colonial American sexuality and gender comes from the journals of early European colonizers. The most prominent accounts note seeing men married to men, whom they called “berdache,” and “passing women,” who were assigned female at birth but took on masculine roles.
Research shows that more than 150 different pre-colonial Native American tribes acknowledged third genders in their communities. And that may own been a unifying highlight of different pre-colonial cultures. Historians have also documented the highly regarded role of spiritual leaders in pre-colonial West Africa who were assigned male at birth but presented in a feminine manner, the existence Muxes in Zapotec culture in what is now Southern Mexico, Bakla in pre-colonial Philippines and Hijra in South Asia. All of these individuals were assigned male at birth but their gender expression and/or
Understanding Native LGBTQ+ Identities
Many Native American tribes have terms and traditions within their cultures that recognize a diverse range of sexual orientations and gender identities. The tragic history of colonialism threatened to wipe out many of these traditions, but in recent decades, Queer Native Americans have reclaimed their important cultural and spiritual roles. This reference explores Native LGBTQ+ identities, their rich history, and contemporary issues faced by LGBTQ+ Native Americans.
What are Some Native-Specific LGBTQ+ Identities?
Historically, LGBTQ+ Native Americans used terms for gender-related social roles unique to their specific tribe and tribal language. For example, ninauh-oskitsi-pahpyaki is a Blackfoot identity which translates to “manly hearted woman,” and winkte is a Lakota word meaning “wants to be like a woman.” Navajo culture has traditionally recognized a spectrum of genders, including Asdzáán (woman), Hastiin (man), Náhleeh (feminine man), Dilbaa (masculine woman), Nádleeh Asdzaa (lesbian), and Nádleeh Hastii (gay man). For many tribes, people were historically defined more by their roles in relation to their spouse
FROM THE LINCOLN JOURNAL Celestial body By Bobby Caina Calvan
February 21, 2015
Brandon Stabler remembers the taunts he heard as a boy growing up in Walthill, a village of about 200 homes in the middle of Indian Country on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River.
All those names he was called. All those slurs are now a blur of hateful and hurtful words. Stabler, a member of the Omaha tribe, recalls feeling unwelcomed by a culture that never returned his embrace.
When he was 21, he packed what clothes he could in a green duffle bag and hitched a journey with a friend to Florida. He found himself sleeping on the sand, he said, on South Beach, with just $20 in his pockets and a resolve to depart Nebraska behind.
“All my being, I was told that being gay was incorrect, especially at the reservation,” said Stabler, now 32. It wasn’t always that direct, but “I felt like nobody liked same-sex attracted people.”
But there was a different time, when gays and lesbians were not only accepted in Native communities but, in some cases, revered because they embodied the “two spirits:” male and female.
The Omaha called two-spirited tribal members “mexoga.” The Lakota
These documents about Homosexual Native Americans show years of testimony from a large variety of observers: military men, missionaries, explorers, trappers, traders, settlers, and later, medical doctors, anthropologists, and homosexual emancipationists. In a several rare instances the voices of LGBTQ American Indians are heard.
Commentors
The sources quoted tell as much, and often more, about the commentator's sentiments about Native homosexuality than they do about its actual historical forms. The commentator is briefly characterized in the introduction to each document, to suggest what particular group interest may lie behind each observation.
Chronology
Documents are presented here chronologically, according to the dine of the event referred to, or, alternatively, if such date is unknown, according to the time during which the writer traveled or lived among the people observed, or according to the document's dine of composition or publication. The intention of this arrangement is to suggest a sense of the change in types of commentators and commentary, and to begin to arrange both in historical perspective.
This arrangement separates material referring to the same trib