Diné Pride

In this episode we kick off Season 3 introducing our new co-host, Stacey Litson and discuss Pride Month, which is acknowledged in June to support and celebrate our LGBTQIA which stands for our lesbian, gay, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex and asexual relatives.

Hosts Amber-Rose and Stacey discuss the importance of Pride Month and Diné Pride events happening on the Navajo Nation with special guest Alray Nelson. Alray Nelson is the Executive Director & Co-Founder of Diné Pride and Diné Equality. In this episode, we want to acknowledge, support, and celebrate our Diné LGBTQIA relatives. To support Diné Pride and attend their events please visit their website at https://www.navajonationpride.com/ or their facebook page @NavajoNationPride 

Check out our social media pages!

Facebook: @Navajo Maternal and Child Health Project at Diné College

Instagram: @navajomch

Please email us if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions: navajomchproject@dinecollege.edu

This podcast was sponsored by the Arizona Department of Health Services through federal funding from the Health Resources & Services Administration, with support from the Navajo Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH) Partnership between Diné College and Northern Arizona University through federal funding from the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences, award number S06GM142121. The views expressed are the sole responsibility of the program staff and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Arizona Department of Health Services or the United States Government.

Transcript

Intro Ya’ateeh. Welcome to the Maternal and Child Health Podcast, where we discuss maternal and child health topics and provide strategies for improving the health of Navajo families. Amá dóó áłchíní ats’íís baa áháyá baa yadelti. (Translation, we will be talking about the health of mothers and children).

Amber-rose I'm your host, Amber Rose Begay. Hashk’ąąhadzohi nishli, Táchii’nii bashichiin, Tábąąhá dashichei, Naakai Dine’é dashinali. Nataani Nez denashaa. I'm originally from Shiprock, New Mexico, where I live and work at Diné college as a project coordinator of the Navajo Maternal and Child Health Project. I am a Navajo woman and mother of two. As part of our continued work with Northern Arizona University, we have 2022 graduate of the Master's in Public Health Program and new cohost Stacy Litson. 

Stacey Thank you, Amber Rose. Yá’átééh! Stacey Litson yinishye. Tódích’íí’nii nishłį Tábaahá báshischíín Áshiihíí dashicheii Kinyaa'áanii dashinalí. I'm originally from Tsaile, Arizona, but I currently live and work at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. I am thrilled to be joining this podcast. 

Amber-rose I'm glad you are joining us, Stacey. It's nice to have unique voices and perspectives and assistance in creating this podcast. Stacey and I will be discussing Pride Month. Pride Month is acknowledged in June to support and celebrate our LGBTQIA which stands for our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning intersex and asexual relatives. Today we are going to talk with special guest Alray Nelson with the Diné Pride and Diné Equality to discuss the importance of an event happening to celebrate Pride Month on the Navajo Nation. Alray, thank you for joining us. Can you please introduce yourself? 

Alray Nelson Yeah. Hello, everyone. All the listeners, Shí éí Alray Nelson yinishyé. Tóbááhí nishłį. Kinyaa’aa’nii báshishchíín. Tséjíkiní éí dashicheii adóó Táchii’nii dashinali.  I’m from a small community called Bééshbitó which is between Ganado and Jeddito. I currently serve as the executive director for Navajo Nation Pride going into my fifth year in that position. But I'm also its co-founder. And in addition to that, my husband and I are both the founders of Diné Equality, both organizations that have been working on a grassroots level across the Navajo Nation for the last eight years now. And it's just an honor to be here with you all, with your listeners. Ahé’hee’.

Stacey It's nice to have Alray here today with this. Thank you for joining us. And we are excited. So I'm going to start off with one of our first questions. What does Pride Month mean to you? 

Alray Nelson You know, that's a really good question. It really stems from my coming out story back in 2000, the early part of 2008. In the spring, I was in an internship at American University in Washington, D.C. when I was there for the spring semester. That's when I was not out yet to my family, especially to my mom and my grandparents, who both raised me. And so I went off to school at a very young age. Knowing the importance of our matriarchs and more translate into the importance of our women and how I was raised by and surrounded by women. And that has been like the foundation of everything that I've done in the work that I continue to do for the LGBTQI community across Indian country. But after 28, after I'd come out, I went to my first actual LGBTQ pride event in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2008, and I can tell you that it was such an impactful, inspiring experience to be around people that were just like me. We may not have had these most similar experiences growing up. I may not have been in this from the same area of the country, but I just felt a sense of family, and what that notion of family and feeling accepted and feeling safe was what really led to what Pride Month is and what it continues to be for, you know, for so many people across the United States that are celebrating Pride Month right now. So the Navajo Nation, most significantly, back in 2019, passed a resolution by the Navajo Nation Council that proclaims the third week in June as Diné Pride Week. So to go back to your typical core question of what pride means for the Navajo people, it means, you know, that we're going to live our lives free from hate and discrimination that since time immemorial, our Navajo elders, our ancestors since time immemorial, since the beginning, have always acknowledged, accepted and revered and honored the roles that our LGBTQIA and that stands for our gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, two-spirit community on the Navajo Nation. And so for me, pride means the celebration of us living our lives and, you know, living to be who we are. And that was the foundation of what created Navajo Nation pride for what it is today. So we're starting the process of what we've been planning the last year our large in-person event, which is going to commence here, in Window Rock, Arizona, in two weeks. And so our celebration is really going to focus on, you know, the celebration of our lives that we came out of this pandemic together. Yes, we are still in this pandemic together right now, but it's okay for us to come out and be proud and say it together as a family and gather in person again safely. And so I'm really looking forward to what this month will mean for so many people, but also, more importantly for our young gay, lesbian, and trans-Navajo boys and girls across the Navajo Nation that are going to feel inspired and accept. And I think it's important for families that parents understand how important Pride Month is for our community. 

Amber-rose Yeah. Thank you for your response, Alray. I really like that you stated that this month is about feeling safe and accepted. And thanks for sharing that. Navajo Nation passed the resolution for the third week, Pride Week, recognized as Pride Week on Navajo. I don't know if many of our listeners know that, so it's good to know that our Navajo Nation is supporting our LGBTQ people. So our next question is, what can we do to better support our LGBTQ Plus community, especially our youth? 

Alray Nelson That's a really great question. That always comes back to, to me, being an advocate for so many years, doing this grassroots level work through the work of Navjao Nation pride or Diné equality. You know, the most important thing that especially as I'm speaking to that young parent, I'd rather it's the father or the mother or even to a grandparent that would be listening to this podcast. It's less likely for our native and our Navajo youth that are questioning their gender identity their, that they would be questioning their sexual orientation or maybe still trying to grow into their self-worth and who they are and may not necessarily right now identify as LGBTQIA. But it's important for us to make sure that we're there for our young people. We're there to tell them that, you know, we have nothing but love for who you are, and it's okay for you to be who you are. And that comes back down to our organizations and how Diné pride continues to reclaim our knowledge, sacred, traditional knowledge. It's been passed down through our oral tradition that has said for generations that to be gay, lesbian, trans, queer, bisexual, two-spirit and to be indigenous or to be Navajo, you were seen as a revered, holy, sacred being. It's important for our parents to share that knowledge with our young people for the notion that you know, you see us at ceremonies, you see us represented, you know, in government. You come to Window Rock, you go to our chapter house, and in many cases, you will see someone that's part of the LGBTQ community there. You'll see us there making building the fires, chopping the wood, taking care of grandma and grandpa. You see what's out there. And we have multiple roles too, as well. It's there's a lot of like gender fluidity among our Diné LGBTQ relatives. You know, you see us as medicine people, you see our LGBTQ relatives, you know, making decisions with our women. You see us as head of the home or taking care of our little cousins, brothers and sisters and raising children. You see us there taking care of our families and elders. So that is not that's nothing new for our Navajo and our indigenous LGBTQ relatives. Those are the roles that we're blessed with since time immemorial, since time creation was provided to us and given to us by the holy people. So for us to reclaim that knowledge, to share that knowledge with future generations, and to hug our young people and no matter if they identify as gay, straight, trans, queer, lesbian, what have you, this is just to say, you know, it's okay to be who you are. And so when I come back to what can we do to really support LGBTQ community, that's the first step. The second step is that our data, and it tells us that if you have one adult figure in a young person's life that may be questioning their identity or they may be question if they're LGBTQ, they're less likely to commit suicide. And we're seen all across the United States, especially across native communities, an increase in the suicide rate among our young people. You're seeing, especially with our shared experience of what this pandemic has done to our people, you're seeing this new sense of historical trauma affecting all of us, all our families. And so that includes our LGBTQ relatives. We must not forget that. And in so many instances, since we're a minority in society where a minority in many cases in native communities, your listeners need to understand that you do have someone in your family that is LGBTQIA. We are your relatives were in your family or your brothers or your sisters or your aunts or your uncles or your elders or your community leaders. And so the first step to really supporting our community is sharing that message, the sacredness of our roles, the sacredness of our language and our culture that reaffirms, you know, our lives as LGBTQIA. And when you look at our young people, it's important as well to provide opportunities for them to express themselves and to grow. I remember growing up where I never saw the difference between a boy playing with trucks and also playing with my sister's Barbies. And, you know, I had uncles that would confront me and say that that was wrong. And even as of today, when that happens. Within my own family, both on my husband's side and my side of the family with the younger with my younger brother, my younger nephews, and nieces growing up right now. I confront my relatives, and I tell them point blank, look, there's nothing wrong with, you know, our kids, my nieces and nephews playing with different toys. This is just toys. And why are we putting this notion in their minds that there's a division between male and female traditional knowledge. And Navajo scholars like Dr. Jennifer Jennette Dill from the University of New Mexico. She's a historian. And so many other historians have shared the knowledge that Navajo people have acknowledged and accepted multiple genders. So you have you know, you have Asdzáán, and you have a Hastiin that doesn't end there. We also have Dilbaah, which is a feminine, masculine female. And you also have Naghlii, which is a feminine male figure. Then there's also the forgotten knowledge of the identities that, you know, the trauma of boarding schools and Christianity has impacted families since time immemorial. And if you really look back at the indoctrination of Christianity within the Navajo people, that's where you see the beginning of this idea of a sickness notion or a notion that being LGBTQ is wrong because it goes against certain religious beliefs, and it's imperative for families and parents to take on that role, to stand up for their kids and to not be afraid of their son playing with the Barbie doll or not be afraid that, you know, their daughter is a tomboy and like doing things outdoors. We should celebrate that. And that's what I continue to remind my sisters of. And I'm just really proud that, you know, I've grown to a point in my life where I've gained the strength of just listening to stories from people, and through those stories has really provided me insight on what it means to be a leader that identifies as an openly gay man and to be an LGBTQ leader that's part of a movement on the Navajo Nation that's demanding action from the Navajo government. And a case in point, sitting here as well for the listeners is that one way that they can also show up and support politically is to ask questions of our leaders, to ask our Navajo Nation presidential candidates since we’re in an election year right now, ask their delegates that are running for Navajo Nation Council. Where is your position in regards to protecting the rights of our trans youth? How are you going to work to ensure that we take care of every child so that they don't commit suicide? How do we protect our trans daughters from violence and whatever may happen to them as schools? Are we holding school leaders accountable? A lot of the bullying that our young people are facing is happening within the leadership and under the wing of our local school districts. So parents need to be held accountable for that. And they also have to hold those leaders accountable about how our young people are growing up in the schools, but also to elect leaders that are LGBTQ inclusive and that believe in that notion of, you know, everyone's a sacred human being and our LGBTQ relatives are part of the Greater Navajo Nation family. 

Amber-rose Thank you, Alray. That was very in-depth and gave me a lot of insight. Thank you for talking about the parents’ roles and the gender roles and just sharing all your knowledge with us today. So there has been some debate on the use of the term two-spirit. Can you define two-spirit and how we, as Diné, should be acknowledging their role? 

Alray Nelson Yeah. So I think that the way that for our relatives that may identify as gay, lesbian, or even trans, but we also have a lot of Diné relatives, the younger generation, that are accepting the terminology of two-spirit. For me, growing up with the language and the culture in our ceremony, it's not necessarily a term I would go around and utilize publicly. I don't identify as a Diné two-spirit person, but I do have friends, and a lot of them are younger, meaning that they're, you know, like in their early twenties going into their early and their teenage years, they identify as a Diné person that's two-spirit because that terminology was accepted internationally by LGBTQ indigenous leaders, both from Mexico, the United States, and Canada. There was a gathering several years back where they officially accept that term, and that's why now, today, in the greater gay rights movement across the United States, you have people acknowledging the two-spirit identity. But that is also like how diverse the United States and our tribal nations are is an important factor to this question. We have over 570 plus tribal nations across the United States. We all speak different languages. We have our own customs, our own tradition teachings, and our own prayers. We are as different as what it means to be German, to speaking French, to being English, to being from South America. That's how the diversity of our tribal nations are. So the two-spirit terminology has been accepted by many tribes. A lot of them have been from the northern area of the United States because that is something that they were taught with growing up since time immemorial for their people. For Navajo people two-spirit, for me, in a traditional sense, would be misunderstood from elders. If I were to go and be part of a ceremony or speak to a medicine person for healing, and I would to say that, you know, one of my identifiers is being two-spirit, you know, Grandma and Grandpa, the elders, if you translate, that, could mean that you were possessed because you have two spirits within you and novel people don't believe in that notion. And so, there's two ways you can look at it. One is the notion I just mentioned now the elders could misinterpret it. There's also the misinterpretation of what that means for many people that utilize the two-spirit term to be two-spirit means you have both male and female characteristics within you, and you take on multiple roles where you balance both sexes within yourself is how I would interpret it. So that in many cases, an English way, makes sense, right? And that's that's why I think that a lot of Diné young people right now today, the younger generation, are accepting that term as part of who they are. But older people like me in my late thirties, but older or older people like myself in the gay community are Navajo. It's not necessarily something that that we would identify with, but it's definitely accepted internationally, around the world. And so I think that's an important thing for parents and for young people to understand. And it's really up to our kids and ourselves as human beings to decide how we're going to identify them. But that's a personal choice for me because it goes back to my upbringing and what my grandma, my grandparents, my grandma, my grandpa would interpret it as. 

Amber-Rose Thank you for that perspective, Alray. I feel like now I kind of understand just the usage of the term more nowadays and the kind of maybe understanding behind that. And then you know what it might mean for our Navajo people, because it did seem like for a while there that was sort of like an umbrella term for any like LGBTQ identifying person. 

Alray Nelson Yeah, that's important too as well, Amber. And it's really worth making it really clear to the if your listeners are non-native or non-indigenous, do not use the two-spirit term. We have so many people that are non-native or non-indigenous across the United States that accept that two-spirit terminology because they take it out as like the hippie indino type of like groovy. It's cool to be two-spirit, and you're not. It's an indigenous term that's only used for Indigenous people, and it's our acronym; it’s our term. So it's very important. And I always share this when I'm speaking at conferences, and I'm speaking to groups of people, especially if I'm in a room full of people that are non-native and those that may be Bilagh’naa or white people, it's important for us to put that bounty there and to let them know like, this is our term and you cannot utilize it. And it's important for them not to do that because there is also, I remember back in about a year ago, right before COVID in 2019, I met this younger Bilagh’naa young man, is a white boy, and he was so infatuated with the term of Nádleehí. And he asks the question, Is that something I can identify with? And I was like, No, because you're not Navajo. You're not Diné. And, you know, it's completely different. And you have your own acronyms that was made to identify yourself in English. So that's not something that I had to explain how he had to decolonize his mind about how they utilize our language to identify and to get ahead. So I hope that makes sense. 

Amber-rose Yes, it does. Thank you. What initiatives are policies are being promoted on the Navajo Nation to support LGBTQ people?

Alray Nelson Great question. Several things are happening on a political level, on a legislative level, and on a movement level. Let's start with the first one on the movement level. Diné pride and Diné equality are two separate organizations. Diné equality, I would say functions kind of like your 501C4, which is the political wing of our movement, and then Diné pride is like our 501C3, which operates as a nonprofit, cannot be political component of our movement. When I say our movement talking about the greater Diné LGBTQ community that's located in the Four Corners region. So our organization continues to build upon a movement that shares the knowledge. I talked about reclaiming the traditional roles and the knowledge and the songs and the prayers that our LGBTQ relatives were blessed with since time immemorial, and to politically organize and to hold tribal leaders, hold Navajo leaders accountable for the potential hate and potential transphobia and homophobia they may share. Because back in 2005, at that time, the 88-member Navajo Nation Council pushed for legislation called the Marriage Act. It's a discriminatory law that continues to be tribal law today. And we're working to change that. So this goes into the political and legislative component of what I'm sharing about what's happening on Navajo. So as the movement moves forward to push this notion of acceptance that our people have always been acknowledged and honored and we're blessed by an LGBTQ family member, that's the movement component, that's messaging, and we work with the Equality organizations across the United States, including Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. So that's that component. The second one is the political arm of what's happening in Navajo. So there's right now we have tribal leaders, Navajo leaders that are completely against the repeal or amending that Diné Marriage Act that was passed in 2005, as I mentioned, the Diné Marriage Act is discriminatory because it's the first Navajo law ever implemented in our history that bans marriage between members of the same sex. In addition to that, it puts our community, because of that ban of same-sex marriage in the same derogatory level as polygamy and incest. So our Navajo government actually sees same-sex couples, if you look at it in that political perspective, as as disgusting as incest and polygamy. Now, which is absurd, but it's part of Navajo law. So now there are Navajo leaders. A lot of them are religious leaders, churches, right-wing religious right. And we do have a lot of novel Republicans that are living within the nation have organized and are against any legislative action to repeal that law because they want to continue to maintain this bilagh’naa European notion of what marriage is, which is between one man and one woman, and to utilize Christianity to really argue their position which is just completely wrong. And mind you, it's not even only our Christian communities that are doing this. It's also Navajo traditionalists, too, as well, because they're utilizing our own language and our cultural beliefs against our own people. And so that's one component that's happening right then there. And so, in 2005, the council passes overwhelmingly. It goes to, at that time, President Joe Shirley Jr, who was the first Navajo Nation president, to have our backs as a community. He said marriage should not even be defined. This is something that's a private thing among families and friends. The Navajo government has no right and no role of what's happening within relationships. And so that was the first time a tribal leader of that stature across Indian country spoke up for us as a community. He vetoed it and then automatically went back to the Navajo Nation Council, and they overrode that veto. And that's what became law. And we're so grateful to former President Joe Shirley Jr for, you know, being a champion for our gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender Diné relatives. On that same note, you know, we reflect upon what has occurred and in many cases, the trends in homophobia. We've heard it many times on the Navajo Nation Council chamber floor. And so that's where Diné equality stepped in. My husband and I came back from college. We came back home as our elders tell our young people to do; we move home. We are trying to get a homesite lease. He's working for the Navajo Nation government. I'm still in school, mind you, I could qualify because of the years of he and I being in a legal relationship for his health benefits. And we were completely denied on everything. We can't even get a homesite lease. And so because of that, she and I said, who's politically organizing unavailable to advocate for this discrimination? Who's advocating for couples like us, but was also advocating for our trans women that continue to show up missing or murdered on the streets in the border towns. There was nothing really happening, like there was no movement. And so we spoke to our friends in the gay community and we came together and we said, we're going to politically organize and enough is enough. We're tired of hearing our president and our council delegates spewing hate against us and putting out misinformation that's not even true about our LGBTQ relatives. And that's how the Diné quality was formed. And now today, Diné equality is in a position where we politically organize votes. We have a voting power as a community. We actually come out and endorse candidates running for statewide offices and for offices for other tribes. Our community now has political power, and President Nez and our council delegates today cannot say anything homophobic or transphobic anymore because not only are we going to put it out there through social media, not only are we going to email our donors and email our movement leaders across the country, we're going to blast the mountain and let them know how hateful the rhetoric and their positions are. And that's what we've done in the past. We've ended campaigns for candidates running for Navajo Nation president because they said something that was homophobic, that was anti-gay, anti-equality. So that says where we've come since then really leads into the part of what legislative action is happening. And I'm going to end this really quickly. Right now we have a disabled, probably the oldest council delegate that's sitting on the 24th Navajo Nation Council today. He's from the community of Chinle. His name, Honorable council delegate Eugene Tso. He is a disabled veteran. He is sponsoring legislation that's going to be presented this coming summer that's going to amend the language within the Diné Marriage Act. It's going to reaffirm the protection of the Navajo traditional wedding basket ceremony. And that's the key thing here, too, as well for the listeners to understand is that our community, the LGBTQ movement on Navajo, is not even trying to reclaim a role within the wedding basket ceremony, which is between a man and a woman. That's what traditional knowledge tells us. Our community, I've not heard one member that's Diné that’s gay or lesbian or trans wanting to have that ceremony. That's between a man and a woman. We understand that. What we're fighting for is the basic rights that should be provided to us as human beings, protection and visitation rights for our partners if something should happen to them to end up in a local hospital on Navajo. Access for us to build a home so we can have a homesite lease on that land near where our families raised us. Protections as tribal employees from discrimination. You know, the benefits that's provided to us as couples, everything that's where everything's focused on. And we're really happy that delegate Eugene Tso is pushing for that legislation. And our goal is to have the Navajo Nation Council vote on this before they before the end of their term this coming January 2023. So we're optimistic. We feel like we're in a really good legislative, political, and movement position to push us forward. And we're going to need the help of your listeners, our allies, our families, our parents to not only call their local delegates to pass this legislation sponsored by Delegate Eugene Tso but also to stand up for us that community meetings, at chapter meetings, to have our backs during concern family conversations. In addition to that, to also to vote for candidates that are going to stand for equality and are going to stand up for us. And that's going to be on August 2nd, which is the primary election for Navajo. Then, of course, the main general election will happen in November. So, you know, our movement is welcome to everyone, and we will continue to have those conversations, the hard conversations with people that may not also disagree with us, too, as well. And it's a movement about love. It's a movement about reclaiming knowledge. It's a movement about sustaining our traditional way of life and the importance of our language and our cultural teachings, and what really makes us one Navajo family. 

Stacey Thank you for that, Alray. I feel like our listeners got a brief understanding of what you guys have been doing legislatively, and politically within your organization. I would like to share with our listeners, if you're listening, to reach out, support, find out what is happening within your community and chapter about what they are doing to support the LGBTQ+ communities and our Navajo people. One of my questions is can you talk about the events happening in the week of Diné pride? 

Alray Nelson Yeah, so Speaker Seth Damian and members of the Navajo Nation Council are gathering on, June 20th, Monday around 11:00 pm here in Window Rock in front of the council chambers and they're going to resign the proclamation proclaiming a third week in June, as did that prior. And they're going to kick off Diné Pride, which is good. That's which is pretty awesome, you know, to have our leaders there standing up for us publicly and having our backs. Because you would not have seen that five years ago. And then from there, we're starting off an opening ceremony, and most of the week is virtual. So I do want to invite everyone listening to go to our Navajo Nation Pride Facebook page or our YouTube page, and you can actually watch it live. There are virtual events, and all this information can be found on our website at NavajoNationPride.com. You can find the schedule of events for in-person and virtual. So we're going to start off with an opening ceremony. You'll get to meet our awesome and fabulous Diné Pride champions. In addition to our champions, they'll get to meet our Naa’tanii honorees. These group of six people all together, they're champions, Naa’tanii honorees. We highlight the stories of our leaders, both those that are straight, those that are our allies, and those that are part of the LGBTQ community that have done a lot of work to really push forward our movement on the Navajo Nation. So we're going to be honoring them. You get to meet them, and then from there, you'll also get to meet the two scholars. Diné pride created a scholarship program four years ago, and every year we raise thousands of dollars through drag shows, through fundraisers, through Navajo taco sales, you name it. And we raise enough money to where we send two Diné LGBTQ young people to college, and you're going to get to meet both of those young people during this week. And then from there, we're going to have several virtual roundtable conversations. One is going to be focused on a larger conversation with indigenous tribal LGBTQ leaders across the United States, and they're going to share their stories of what their tribal nations are doing for their own movements for our LGBTQ relatives. And then, from there, you're also going to have a deeper conversation with Navajo leaders and Diné community leaders about marriage and what does marriage and family mean for our Diné people. After those virtual events are completed by Thursday. We would like to invite everyone to come out to Window Rock on Friday, June 24th. Our event starts at 6 p.m.. We're going to have food trucks, vendors. We're going have plenty of seating. It's going to be really nice in the evening, and we're going to have our 
Sovereign Sacredness drag show, and we're going to provide over 15 indigenous girls- Drag queens. They're going to be there with us, entertainers, and they're going to perform on the steps of the Navajo Nation Council. And at dusk, around 9:30 p.m. Friday evening, we're actually going to light Window Rock in rainbow colors. The following day, join us on Saturday morning- park along the parade route, and we're going to host the second year, the first ever in the largest Indigenous Pride Parade in the country. And it happens in Window Rock. It's going to begin at the Navajo Nation Museum. If you like to participate, there's no registration form- you just show up at the time and we're meeting at the Navajo Nation Museum at 10:00. The parade will start from there, and we're going to be escorted by the Navajo Nation Police Department and the Navajo Fire Department all the way up to Window Rock, up to the Veterans Memorial Park, where the festival will begin around 12:00 noon. So we're really looking forward to this pride parade. I know that there's going to be a lot of groups represented, but following the parade, the festival begins. You'll get to meet our scholars, our pride champions, our Naa’tanii honorees. You're also going to see an afternoon full of more entertainment from Diné artisans, artists that are going to be singing several different songs. You're going to see entertainers, a huge drag performance, and we're going to showcase what indigenous LGBTQ talent looks like. And then from there, we conclude the festival in the later part of the afternoon that we're requesting everyone to join us for a fundraiser in Gallup, New Mexico at Balmoral Theater in downtown Gallup, where we're actually going to host a huge drag show, $10 admission. All the money goes back to our operations and the work we do for community outreach for 2023, and I'll conclude the Diné Pride 2022. 

Amber-rose Awesome! It sounds like a fun week. I do plan on coming out for Diné Pride. I did come out, I believe, like in 2017 and 2018. We have an HIV prevention program within the college, so we did that during Diné pride. We gave out sexual health resources, information, education, and it was a lot of fun. And I'm so excited. 

Alray Nelson And the awesome thing about Diné pride. I want to make a note as well, Amber, for your listeners, is that our organization completely indigenize the way that nonprofits work and how pride organizations work. Because if you were to go to a pride event in the cities or in a local town, you'll see nothing but marketing for liquor, cigarettes, and things that necessarily are not good for our community. So Diné Pride has always made it an effort to where we do as many family-friendly events, even events that are for younger people, where families can go to, and they can bring their kids. One particular event we did was right before COVID. We hosted the first-ever drag show during a Navajo Nation fair. So we rented a huge tent. We had it on the fairgrounds. I believe we charged $5 admission, and that one little circus tent fit like 250 people. And our hosts usually ask people that are there for pride, “By raising your hands, is this your first time seeing a drag queen?” And most of the room’s hands go up in real life because most of them will probably see on TV, like on RuPaul's Drag Race or what have you. And then we asked them, “Is it your first time at a gay LGBTQ event?” A majority of the room’s hands go up. And so if that says something about our programming and the organization that we are, I'm really glad that our pride really reflects our values and lived through those values. And we want to make sure that everyone's included. Everyone feels welcome. They feel safe to be who they are, and especially for families to participate. 

Amber-rose I love that. Thank you for sharing that. So I noticed that you were using a different, I think, it's acronym, LGBTQIA. So now we're shifting to that now before we're saying plus. But the next question is can you provide some information and resources on Navajo that might be helpful for our Diné LGBTQIA community? 

Alray Nelson Yeah, first, I think that we're a resource on Diné pride and Diné equality. So definitely reach out to us, especially if one of the key things that comes up from a lot of parents and families is how to provide support for their kid. That may be questioning their identity or may have already come out. And what do they do as a family to protect them from bullying or to make sure that that kid feels loved. Often, in many cases, a lot of our young people may not feel supported. It's really an atrocity to really think that the Navajo Nation is so large and landmass and so large with in population across Indian country that we would need more support services available. And there's none, to be honest with you, that are located on Navajo, unless you have a school that may have a Gay-Straight Alliance or a P flag. I know that Shiprock High School, and I think Tuba City, the schools are located in a larger novel communities had some sort of LGBTQ support for kids and for families, but we're not necessarily seeing that. So that's continues to be a growing problem. And that was something that we were planning to tackle in 2019, right before COVID. And so I do see that being revamped up. But if you're fortunate enough to live in a border town like Farmington, Gallup or Flagstaff or Page, those communities there have many cases support groups or families and are there to provide whatever resources are necessary to our LGBTQ young people. But in addition to that, when it comes back down to like, you know, basic question of how you can get involved, you know, having just following our social media, going to our website will provide you a swath of resources of what families can receive on how to not only support LGBT kids, but how to support our LGBTQ elders. What does it mean to be even for our teenagers and our younger people too, as well that are in college, what does it mean, you know, to be sexually protected from HIV or STIs. What does it mean to be someone that takes care of their health and make sure that, you know, they don't get diabetes and they eat right, that type of thing. We have all those resources available and we have awesome partners like Taatsoh Medical Center and Gallup Indian Medical Center, and the Indian Health Service. We have health partners that will work with our trans community for them to get the necessary healthcare needs met. We also have partnerships with several different clinics on Navajo that can provide families some resources in regards to not only mental health care—but also making sure that they're provided outpatient care for their kids that may identify as LGBTQIA. And then the last component to this as well is that I feel like there's more work that needs to get done on Navajo in regards to access to resources for people. And we felt that our website navajonationpride.com and dinéequality.org would be, you know, centralized places for people to come to learn anything and everything and resources that impacts the Navajo people. And we're going to continue to do that. And one last point I would like to make is that when COVID started spreading across Navajo, we were really concerned about those that were immune compromised within their immune system and how this virus, I mean, it took some of the lives of our people, especially those that were elders, but also those that may have been dealing with HIV or an STI, and that did not get that treated or did not even know. And they passed on because their immune system was not prepared to handle what COVID brought in their bodies. And so we saw this trend happening, and there was no one really talking about this because everyone was so scared. So Diné Equality and Diné Pride teamed up together and created a website specifically answering the questions for our LGBTQ and indigenous relatives. So mind you, not only are Navajo families and LGBTQ Diné people coming to visit our website for access to resources and information, but you also see other tribes doing the same thing. And I'm really proud that our organizations continue to be examples for other tribal nations to replicate. And, you know, since Diné Pride being the first tribal Pride celebration in our country back in 2017. Since then, we've seen other tribes replicate and successfully maintain their pride organizations for their own tribal communities. And if that says anything about us supporting the next generation of LGBTQ leaders, I'm okay with that. 

Stacey Thank you for joining us today, El Rey. We appreciate your time and all the valuable information you provided. 

Alray Nelson Thank you so much, Amber, for the opportunity. And to the listeners, please take care of yourself. Continue to, you know, stay safe and stay healthy. You know, when you go home or if you're there with your child right now listening to this podcast, you know, hug them and tell them you love them. You know, our country, the United States, is going through a really radical political movement shift. And it's scary. And you also see, you know, the weather changing, and you see, you know, the impact of what's happening outside tribal communities. And rather, it's, you know, the most recent school shooting that happened in Uvalde, Texas, to, you know, we're continuing to see this increase in suicides among our LGBTQ native youth, but also COVID affecting our elders and continuing to take our elders across Indian country. Hold your loved ones, and just tell them at that moment that you love them. Everything's going to be all right, and it's going to be through our faith, no matter what prayers you say; it's going to be through those words to our holy people and to the creator that will continue to make us the strongest and most resilient sovereign nation in the U.S. and in the world. And it's important for us to always remind ourselves that, yes, we may have political differences; yes, we may have different beliefs, especially religious beliefs- we're still one family. We're still one Diné, one people. And we should move forward with that notion and continue to reclaim and retell and re-share the stories that have protected us since time immemorial. And we owe a lot to our ancestors, our elders, our indigenous women, and our Navajo women for maintaining our families to this day. So thank you for the opportunity to be here, everybody. Ahe’hee.

Amber-rose Ahe’hee. Thanks for listening to the Healthy Navajo K’é Podcast. For more information or to provide feedback, visit us on Facebook at Navajo MCH Project at Diné College.