Native American talks on sexuality and ethnicity

Beverly Little Thunder, a Native American lesbian author and activist, shared her insight on balancing gender, ethnicity and sexuality last night in Houston Hall. Drawing a crowd of listeners, the author and activist shared her personal story expressing the initial difficulty of being recognized as both a Native American and a lesbian. "I was worried that if I came out I would have all of the rights of going to [Native American] ceremony taken away from me, and this was scary because my spirituality is very important to me," Little Thunder said. The activist called the process of coming out "lonely and hard." But she explained to the crowd that her feelings of homosexuality were presented to her for a reason. Although Little Thunder has known she was gay since she was 10-years-old, she married a man and had five children and didn't come out officially until she was 34. Little Thunder explained that when she came out, Native American men would not let her participate in traditional ceremonies and suggested to her that she have a ceremony for her "own kind." "That was one of the most painful times of my life," Little Thunder said. "It was the words 'own kind' that bothered me," she added. Little Thunder decided to form her own sun-dance ceremonies for women, since she observed other women being treated disrespectfully by men on the reservation, but was frightened by the thought that if she defended other gay women, "the finger would be pointed [at her]." "Our ceremonies help people to reclaim who they are," she said. "We're not looking for respect from our tribal members anymore -- we get respect by respecting ourselves." Little Thunder is a member of the Two-Spirit People, a group which transcends barriers imposed by gender, culture and sexuality. Each year the group convenes in a different part of the country, and "each city usually sees at least 80 new faces," she said. This year the group will meet in Minnesota for the Tenth Annual International Two-Spirit Gathering, where standard activities will include talking circles, sweat lodge, the giveaway and the powwow. Little Thunder noted that the Two-Spirit Gathering welcomes all Two-Spirit, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered indigenous people, their partners and families to the event. Since 1993, Little Thunder has been helping to write a book about being a Native American homosexual. The book is due for release in August. "We're hoping it's the first of many writings to be published by Native American gay and lesbian people," she said. Despite Little Thunder's efforts to lessen the hardship of being both gay and Native American, "there is still a wider acceptance of gay men than of lesbians because [women's] role is of course to stay home and have babies," the author said. Last night's event was part of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered Awareness days and was co-sponsored by Connaissance.

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