Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country

228 Pages·2006·0.88 MB·English

by  Brian Joseph Gilley

Becoming Two-Spirit

Becoming Two-Spirit
Gay Identity and Social Acceptance
in Indian Country
Brian Joseph Gilley
University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln and London
Part of chapter 5 appeared in earlier form in
“Making Traditional Spaces: Cultural Compro-
mise at Two-Spirit Gatherings in Oklahoma,”
American Indian Culture and Research Journal28,
no. 2 (2004): 81–96,and is reprinted by permis-
sion of the American Indian Studies Center, ucla
© Regents of the University of California. Part of
chapter 5 also appeared as “Two-Spirit Powwows
and the Search for Social Acceptance in Indian
Country,” in Powwow,edited by Clyde Ellis, Luke
Eric Lassiter, and Gary H. Dunham, 224–40
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005).
©2006 by Brian Joseph Gilley. All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Book designed and typeset in Minion and Trinité
by R.Eckersley.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gilley, Brian Joseph, 1972–
Becoming two-spirit : gay identity and social
acceptance in Indian country / Brian Joseph Gilley.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-8032-7126-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-8032-7126-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1.Indian gays—North America. 2.Homosexuality,
Male—North America. I. Title.
e98.s48g55 2006 306.76'6208997—dc22
2006006956
For Patrick

contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1. Seeking Self- and Social Acceptance 1
2.From Gay to Indian 23
3.Adapting to Homophobia among Indians 51
4.The Aesthetics of an Identity 87
5.Cultural Compromise at Work 133
6.Mending the Hoop 165
7.Difference and Social Belonging in Indian Country 181
Notes 191
Works Cited 201
Index 209

Preface
I did not set out to write a book about Two-Spirit men and social accep-
tance. Rather, the research for this project began as an interest in how
Native peoples were dealing with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The focus
changed the first evening I went to a meeting of the Green Country
Two-Spirit Society, whose official mission is to design and implement
HIV/AIDS prevention programming for urban Native men who have
sex with men. Besides the discomfort of being an outsider in such a
small community, what struck me the most about that first meeting
was that very few of the men were talking about HIV/AIDS in any di-
rect personal way, nor were they talking openly about their experiences
with the epidemic. Instead, I found a diverse group of men who all
shared several concerns that I thought at the time only peripherally re-
lated to HIV/AIDS – they were all Native, all identified as gay or bi-
sexual, and all felt as if their sexuality had at one time or another pitted
them against their families and their tribal communities. After attend-
ing only a few meetings of the group I realized that these men simply
looked at HIV/AIDS as a part of being gay in America. No doubt for
them HIV/AIDS was a tragic disease and had affected Indians in very
specific ways, but they approached it in a matter-of-fact way that re-
flected its presence in their everyday lives. But what concerned the men
the most was the fact that they felt socially and personally separated
from their families and communities because of their sexuality. They
knew full well, through direct experience or listening to fellow Natives
talk, that their sexuality was a source of shame and disdain. They also
feared homophobia so much that it often kept them from participating
in the social and spiritual practices that their families taught them were
so important to their Native identity. It was not until much later in my
research that I discovered that the alienation the men feel could be
linked to the reasons that Native glbtpeople put themselves at risk for
HIV/AIDS. In order to address this link I felt that I had to tackle the
issue of alienation and self- and social acceptance first. Therefore, it is
ix