Echo Magazine Editor's note: The following letter is in response to the anti-same sex marriage initiative accepted by the Navajo Nation.

Proud to be Navajo and gay

Editor:

I am a full-blooded Navajo and I am gay. I am not ashamed of the person I am, and I am proud of my two-spiritedness. To deny me the right to marry the man I love is discriminatory and goes against the concepts of what Navajo religion and tradition teach.

I was always taught by my elders, especially my grandmother, to be true to myself and show love, not hate. Hate, discrimination and greed were never taught to me by my elders; the world outside my Navajo tradition showed me that ugliness.

The Navajo Nation always prides itself on being a sovereign nation with its own cultural values. I don't see these values ingrained into the institution anymore. As for cultural values, the Navajo Nation is unfortunately looking more and more like the Western religion conservatives we see today.

If we really want the old tradition back, we should have respected elders and thinkers in the seats of power and not elected officials with personal interests or persuasions. The council should work with the people and not without them. I believe our current government officials are influenced more by outside influences than a true Navajo culture.

Gay people are part of our culture. They are our uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. They are our family. In the past, before Western religion influenced our thinking, we allowed gay persons to live as they chose. Why change it now, and to whose benefit?

After reading the articles in the Navajo Times and Gallup Independent on the legislation, I was disgusted by how a council delegate tried using tradition as a scapegoat to excuse this discrimination into our native society. To make the situation worse, same-sex marriage was placed in an unrelated category of incest and polygamy. Being gay is not a crime and it involves two consensual adults, unlike incest and polygamy. Besides, most statistics show polygamy and incest often occur in heterosexual households.

Lee Anderson of the Navajo tribal delegates states that the most important part of the bill is that, "As the Navajo Nation promotes stable family units ... (it) preserve(s) ands strengthen(s) values. We are a step closer to addressing crimes, child abuses, drug abuses and other social, environmental and health care issues. The president failed to visualize the positive impacts of this legislation on the Navajo Nation."

How does same-sex marriage relate to any of these problems? Up until the current presidency, same-sex marriage was not an issue or even a problem for Navajos and other tribes. I am more concerned about drunks begging for handouts, kids on drugs and lack of jobs on the reservation than what two consenting adults do in their private lives. How is discriminating against a class of people supposed to help the Navajo Nation solve the major problems it has? It does not.

I never would have thought my own tribe would discriminate against its own members, but unfortunately it does. I hope that one day this legal discrimination act will be overturned. Until that day, if there is an exodus of talented, wonderful people leaving the Navajo reservation or community, just remember that the anti-same-sex marriage legislation helped create the rift.

Whatever happens, I shall remain proud of the person I am and no legislation can ever change that.