Lyric Aquino, Underscore Native News + Report for America & Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News + ICT
Affirming Identities: This is the first installment in an ongoing Underscore Native News series on how Native nations and community members in the Pacific Northwest are addressing threats to 2SLGBTQ+ rights with continuing legislation and harmful rhetoric on a federal and local level.
TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains reporting on anti-2SLGBTQ+ rhetoric, violence against the 2SLGBTQ+ community, and suicide.
An onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation has begun dismantling the rights and security of Two-Spirit LGBTQ+ people in just 11 months since the current administration has taken office.
In the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second administration, he signed more than 140 executive orders. At least one in 10 of those addressed changing regulations around gender, according to the Trans Journalist Association.
Earlier this month, Them reported that a memo from the U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, “instructed the Federal Bureau of Investigation to crack down on supposed ‘domestic terrorist’ organizations, the definition of which includes those who promote ‘radical gender ideology.’ Part of that crackdown involves the establishment of a cash reward system for providing information on leaders of so-called ‘domestic terrorist organizations.’”
Indian Health Service has taken down almost all information about gender-affirming care from its website. Several sources told UNN + ICT that it is getting increasingly complicated to get gender-affirming care covered through any health care facility. They also shared that some health and wellness organizations beyond IHS, such as community based-nonprofits, that were providing resources have removed information from their websites.
UNN + ICT spoke to providers and Two-Spirit relatives while reporting on this story who were not comfortable going on the record for fear of retaliation.
“One of the things that has really always stuck in my mind recently was when one of our relatives called and said, ‘Elton, why aren’t our people protecting us?’ And that really hit home, meaning protecting us as LGBT people, as sacred beings, as relatives,” said Elton Naswood, co-chair of NCAI’s Two-Spirit task force and executive director of the Two-Spirit and Native LGBTQ+ Center for Equity.
Tribes are sovereign nations and have the political power to protect their citizens as they see fit since it differs from the U.S. government. Multiple sources expressed frustration to UNN + ICT about Native Nations not protecting their 2SLGBTQ+ relatives.
“We have the opportunity, or we have the sovereign status, for our relatives to protect us,” Naswood said. “More so on reservation communities, but then still also in the urban settings as well.”
During Pride month in June, organizations and individual allies from across the country worked together to create the virtual hub, Two Spirit Support Boat, in part as a response to increased attacks on 2SLGBTQ+ rights.
The goal of the online hub is to archive resources and develop a space for site users to ask questions and connect with community.
As more grassroots forms of care and resource building pop up in Native communities and beyond, legislation continues to come down from the federal government directly impacting 2SLGBTQ+ relatives across the country.
In November, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an executive order only recognizing two genders and blocking new passports for trans and nonbinary U.S. citizens requesting an “x” gender marker or a gender marking differing from the one assigned on their birth certificate.
Simultaneously, the Supreme Court decided to turn down the request to reconsider its decision to legalize same-sex marriage which was legalized nearly a decade ago.
Access to gender-affirming care differs state by state. In June, the Supreme Court ruled on a case challenging a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care. The court ruled that the law did not constitute sex-based discrimination. As a result, currently 25 bans on gender affirming care for minors remain in place in states across the country. This follows an executive order directing agencies to limit access to gender-affirming care for minors signed by Trump.
“What’s wrong is this country is actively harming them and putting their lives at risk. And we need to love our babies, our elders, our youth, so much that we will take whatever risk is necessary to ensure their health and well being. And for our Two-Spirit community, that means that it is essential that they have access to gender-affirming care.”
Other executive orders have included a move to ban trans girls from sports, a military ban of transgender people – upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, erasure of trans history on a national level like when the National Park Service erased the term “transgender” on the Stonewall website, and more.
For trans, nonbinary and Two-Spirit relatives, gender-affirming care is often life saving. Studies show that access to gender-affirming care decreases levels of gender dysphoria, anxiety and depression.
Gender-affirming care is supported by every major medical organization, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the American Psychiatric Association. Those organizations represent millions of doctors, health researchers and mental health professionals across the United States.
“Thoughts of suicide and suicide attempts also increase for our Two-Spirit community, and it’s not because there’s anything wrong with them,” said Abigail Echo-Hawk, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation, executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board and the director of the Urban Indian Health Institute. “What’s wrong is this country is actively harming them and putting their lives at risk. And we need to love our babies, our elders, our youth, so much that we will take whatever risk is necessary to ensure their health and well being. And for our Two-Spirit community, that means that it is essential that they have access to gender-affirming care.”
With the increasing attacks on gender affirming health care, specifically for youth, it has only been exacerbated by executive orders, according to multiple sources who spoke to UNN + ICT, who wish to remain anonymous. Many providers worry that this will lead to an increase in mental health crises and an increase in people turning to unsafe forms of care such as buying unregulated hormones.
If you or someone you know is in need of support, here are some national resources that work to connect people to local resources.
The Two Spirit Support Boat is an online hub offering resources and an online community for Indigiqueer adults, caregivers of 2SLGBTQ+ youth and clinicians.
The Two-Spirit and Native LGBTQ+ Center for Equity is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advocacy resources, violence prevention, and healing in the Two-Spirit and Native LGBTQ+ and broader communities.
As UNN + ICT continues to report on this topic, we are looking for more organizations and resources to share information with trans and Two-Spirit relatives seeking support.
This story is co-published by Underscore Native News and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest.