Navajo Nation enacts annual Pride Week
When Alray Nelson thinks back to his childhood on the Navajo Nation, he recalls hauling water and filling out college applications under a dimly lit kerosene lamp.
The Ganado native also remembers being bullied and teased often because he was gay. He said the negative stigma on the Navajo Nation toward members of the LGBTQ+ community made him fearful to be himself and hesitant to come out to his loved ones.
It would be an understatement to say Nelson, now 34, was ecstatic about the 24th Navajo Nation Council’s recent decision to formally recognize
Diné Pride Week. LGBTQ+ advocates within the tribe say it’s the first of several steps toward equality, which include repealing the Navajo Nation’s same-sex marriage ban enacted 15 years ago.
Diné Pride Week may be a first for Indigenous communities in U.S.
Navajo Nation Speaker Seth Damon signed a resolution last week designating the third week in June on the Navajo Nation as Diné Pride Week. For more than 50 years, LGBTQ+ Pride Month has been recognized across the U.S. in June.
The organization Diné Pride has hosted LGBTQ+ celebrations in the past on the Navajo Nation, but this marks the first time an annual pride week was recognized by the tribe’s government. Brennen Yonnie, co-founder of the organization and Nelson’s partner, said the group’s first event about four years ago saw a few hundred people. It has since grown to a few thousand, he said.
Both Nelson and Yonnie — who are also the founders of Diné Equality — referred to the designation as historic. The move is possibly the first of its kind for Indigenous communities across the country, though, some tribes recognize same-sex marriages outright.
“It’s a message to the world that the largest sovereign nation in the U.S. stands behind our LGBTQ relatives and it really sends an inclusive message to our young people,” he said. “We’re on the right path to change.”
The designation stands in stark contrast to the Navajo Nation’s Diné Marriage Act of 2005. The bill prohibits and voids marriages on the Navajo Nation between same-sex couples. It also prohibits plural marriages and marriages between members of the same family.
“The purpose of marriage on the Navajo Nation are to promote strong families and to preserve and strengthen family values,” the bill states.
Former Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. vetoed the bill. However, the 20th Navajo Nation Council at the time voted to override his veto, making the same-sex marriage ban law.
“As humans, it’s not for us to judge relationships and this was about relationships, partnerships ... it’s an individual decision, so that’s why I vetoed the thing,” Shirley told The Arizona Republic.
He said before the Diné Marriage Act was introduced there was little to no public discourse about same-sex marriages on the Navajo Nation. He said he believed “outside forces” influenced the Council’s decision to create the bill.
About a year before the tribe’s bill was introduced, former U.S. President George W. Bush announced his support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, according to the New York Times. His comments sparked national debate about the topic.
“The Navajo Nation Council at the time was reacting to pressure for people to define marriage between one man and one woman,” said Nelson. “It was important to them even though at that time it was not a huge issue for the Navajo people.”
In 2015, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling extended marriage rights to same-sex couples nationwide. However, because they are sovereign, tribal nations were not bound by the decision, according to the Associated Press.
Plans to repeal marriage ban, protect LGBTQ+ people
Nelson and others tout a rich
LGBTQ+ history within the Navajo people. Before colonization and the introduction of major religions to the Navajo people, Nelson said traditional teachings say members of the LGBTQ+ community were embraced and respected within Navajo culture.
To get back to that place, he said, the tribe’s same-sex marriage ban must be repealed and laws need to be established to protect the tribe’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and twospirit members.
Navajo Nation Council Delegate Carl Roessel Slater said he’s currently drafting legislation to repeal the Diné Marriage Act. While the COVID-19 pandemic has stalled the legislation, Slater said he hopes to introduce the bill in the coming months.
“The pandemic has crystalized and reenergized my enthusiasm for pursuing this legislation because, and I hate to say it, but the Navajo Nation government doesn’t recognize gay marriage and COVID-19 does not discriminate — whether you’re hetero or you’re a lesbian, it can kill you either way,” he said. “We shouldn’t be setting up stumbling blocks and roadblocks to our people just trying to live their lives during this time.” Another council delegate, Nathaniel
Brown, also has plans to craft legislation to ensure the tribe’s LGBTQ+ members are not discriminated against. His bill would cover topics like healthcare coverage and adoptions for same-sex couples, he said.
Brown, who sponsored the Diné Pride Week legislation, is among the Navajo Nation’s first openly gay leaders.
“People that don’t really know anything about LGBTQ think that we have chosen to be gay, that we make that choice to be gay, but that’s not the case,” said Brown. “We are born like this, the Holy People designed us like this, so we are here are by design by the Great Creator.”
Legislation proposing changes to the Diné Marriage Act and protections for LGBTQ+ people would likely require a signature from Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez. His office did not respond to a request for comment.
“He’s the youngest president elected in Navajo history. A lot of young people, especially those from the LGBTQ community, worked for him during his campaign and were there to really help develop his policies so there’s really no guessing from me to think that President Nez wouldn’t be an ally or potential champion for our people,” Nelson said.
Awaiting a Navajo Nation seal
Nelson and Yonnie met online nearly 10 years ago. While they’re not legally married, they still refer to each other as husbands.
The couple currently lives in Gallup, New Mexico, a border town to the Navajo Nation, where they can legally get married whenever they choose.
“As far as me being an employee of the Navajo tribe, even if we were to get married in New Mexico, it wouldn’t be legal as far as putting Alray as my beneficiary or adding him to my insurance,” said Yonnie. “That’s something that I’m kind of bummed about, like, what if something happens to me? It breaks my heart.”
The couple has agreed to put their wedding plans on hold until they can get a marriage license that bears a Nation Nation seal.
“Our journey to defeat this Diné Marriage Act will continue to move forward and he and I are not going to end our fight until that law is changed or amended or repealed,” Nelson said.