Amid the chaos of the current political process in the United States, a new call for marriage equality rises.
Alray Nelson, 32, and his boyfriend Brennen Yonnie, 33, want to get married. The problem: the two live on an Indian Reservation governed by the Navajo Nation. Despite the Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that legalized marriage equality, territories governed by the Navajo Nation still have a 2005 same-sex marriage ban on the books. Though the US government exerts a good deal of influence over reservation territories, tribes living on the land still follow law set by their own governments.
About 350,000 people live in the Navajo Nation, and rates of suicide among LGBTQ people are on the rise, especially among younger people. Alray Nelson, one of the most prominent Native American queer rights activists, believes legalizing marriage equality within the Navajo Nation could help to reduce that risk.
Related: Native American Gay Couple Are The First To Marry In Their Tribe
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“Navajo youth who identify as LGBTQ are eight times more likely to take their own lives than a white youth,” Nelson told the Australian news outlet SBS News. “There’s a real threat right now for our young people to be part of this lost generation.”
Navajo elections coincide with the United States midterms, and fortunately, leading politicians have come out in support of marriage equality. Both Navajo presidential front-runner Joe Shirley, Jr. and his opponent Jonathan Nez have said they favor repeal of the law. Both have also said they will make repeal a top priority if elected.
“We have been fighting this for quite some time and to finally receive it would be closure on my end,” said Yonnie, who remains optimistic about the election outcome. The Navajo Nation currently occupies land in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
MacAdvisor
The problem is the legal fiction that tribes are sovereign governments. They clearly are not because they exist now solely at the pleasure of Congress. Congress cannot erase California and its government, but the Navajo Nation could disappear tomorrow with the passage of a bill and a signatures. Moreover, I disagree Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___ (2015) doesn’t apply there. Congress cannot create a space where the Constitution does not apply. Tribal territories are completely a creation of Congress, so they cannot be exempt. The Navajo Nation could not permit slavery in violation of the 13th Amendment, so it cannot forbid same-sex marriage in violation of the 14th.
Bob LaBlah
That donnybrook that broke out last summer regarding drilling in North and South Dakota was a clear indication of how much power is in these Indian “nations”. The drilling continues and the protesters were jailed and given fines for protesting on their own tribal “nation” lands.
StupidBoy
If I had to come up with total laws, from federal down to local, on my own, I’m sure I’d miss out on a bunch of stuff that is “on the books.” So, why not vote to just adopt the regional, local, and federal laws around us. Murder is bad, right? Drunk driving is bad, right? Ok, so I unilaterally adopt the local, county, state, and federal laws around me to make it easier on myself.
Except when there are laws on the books that conflict with my point of view.
Well, I have unilaterally adopted the laws, so now I have to go through the process of disputing or overturning each of those laws when they come up.
I’m not a law expert, but I think this is how this came up.
The Tribe has to go about abolishing a law they adopted in unison with all the other laws, like drunk driving and littering and murdering and rape, and they have to vote on it and pass it and take it off the books.
It can be done, and I hope them well.
A lot of dumb laws are changed from the bottom up, not from the top down.
That’s what the Federal Government is finding out about gay marriage laws and marijuana laws and preexisting condition laws. The lobbyists that paid for the laws at the federal level can’t always keep a local government from enacting a stricter or more lenient law in its place.
I keep telling people to vote from the bottom up.
Vote for your LOCAL representatives that echo your values, in addition to state, county, and federal ones.
If enough people make small changes locally and in their country and district, it trickles up to the state level, then to the federal level.
That’s how gay marriage and marijuana laws are happening.
Vote federally–your vote may or may not count.
But on a local level, YOU could be the deciding vote between a pro- or anti-law for something you believe in. ONE vote does matter.
Small changes make bigger small changes which make medium changes which make ripples and then become movements.
Don’t allow the white supremacists and racists and bigots and gay-haters and trans-haters to win. Vote, give (if you can–I have in micro-donations), and be vocal locally and change the opinion of your friends, family members, and coworkers.
The right-wing, racist, bigot diatribe only works when it is repeated over and over, and people who have no other input believe it. Be a voice for change and action toward getting everyone equal voting rights, healthcare, workers’ rights, pay, and representation.
In a red state, I have coworkers who make shocking claims about immigrants, gays, healthcare, and pay. If I can change one person’s mind, that is one more person in our army to change the status quo from the bottom up, not letting our unelected and unrepresentative leaders dictate to us from the top down.
Lacuevaman
may i suggest a low carb high fat diet….?