Lyric Aquino, Underscore Native News and Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News+ ICT
Affirming Identities: This is the second 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.
SEATTLE — The National Congress of American Indians Two-Spirit task force came back in full force after a nearly five-year hiatus at the organization’s annual conference in November. As anti-trans policies and rhetoric continue to intensify nationwide, access to care and safety concerns elevate for trans and Two-Spirit relatives — a risk that NCAI’s Two-Spirit task force says can’t go undiscussed in Indian Country.
“We need our own people to protect us as Two-Spirit people, particularly in these times,” said Elton Naswood, co-chair of NCAI’s Two-Spirit task force and the executive director of the Two-Spirit and Native LGBTQ+ Center for Equity.
The task force, established in 2015, came after community leaders advocated that NCAI and Indian Country needed to be better at including Two-Spirit relatives in the sovereignty and policy agenda of NCAI.
Since the Trump administration took over in January, his second term has been marked with increasing hostility towards trans and nonbinary people across the country.
From the signing of an executive order banning the federal government from acknowledging gender as a concept to attempting to limit access to gender-affirming care and most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of an anti-trans passport policy putting trans, nonbinary and intersex travelers at risk.
As the U.S. government rolls back rights on gender-affirming care and the legalization of same-sex marriage is called into question, Naswood spoke with Underscore Native News + ICT about why Indian Country needs to band together again, as they did in 2015, to offer support and protect its Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ community under increased threats. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Editor’s note: this interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Underscore Native News + ICT: What was the impetus to restart the Two-Spirit Task Force at NCAI, and can you tell us a little bit about the goals of the task force?
Elton Naswood: The impetus of relaunching the Two-Spirit Task Force at NCAI was actually kind of discussed when we were invited to speak at their [executive council] winter session earlier this year, in February 2025. NCAI leadership and some of our Two-Spirit relatives in [Washington,] D.C., gathered and kind of came up with an opportunity for several of us to sit on a plenary panel at the winter session.
That’s when these executive orders started to come out, primarily the binary-male-female executive order, and then attacking trans-affirming care. So as a response, they wanted to highlight those issues at NCAI, which to me, was the first time that the organization specifically reached out to Two-Spirit people.
[It] was just a really good discussion opportunity for us to educate our tribal leaders about the need for them to treat us as citizens, because we are, and to advocate for us as citizens of their nations. The majority of us live in urban areas, but still we are tribal members, right? So that was kind of the point we were trying to make with them, and then for them to begin to review their laws and policies to ensure that they protected our community more effectively.
So hopefully our presence at NCAI will become a little larger, a little bit more visible now that we’re beginning to be established. I’m hoping we could utilize the task force as a strategy to get our tribal leaders to listen to us, to hear our concerns, and to make actual change in their communities.
UNN + ICT: Looking at what’s happening on a national level, we know that under the current administration there has been a huge increase in executive orders and actions geared towards restricting trans rights. When it comes to this administration’s stance on trans rights, thinking about both policies and how they talk about trans relatives, what concerns you the most right now?
EN: I think there are a couple of things. The main issue that concerns me is the violence, the misunderstanding and the violence that can happen towards our relatives in that way, and if and when that violence occurs, are we prepared as a community to respond? Meaning, are our healthcare facilities well trained to respond to any violence that may happen because of that? Are our tribal law enforcement well aware of how to handle those situations if needed? Those issues are always in the back of my head, myself as a victim survivor of a hate crime.
The other issue too is just health care, access to health care, particularly for our trans relatives who are already in the process. Because just talking to some of our relatives, if you stop treatment, it’s a little bit more challenging to continue not only physically and medically, but also just mentally and spiritually for someone as they’re going through that process of transitioning.
Another thing I see with that too is that some of our health care providers, our pharmacists, they don’t really know the language of these executive orders, so they just conflate their own interpretation so that also kind of hinders people’s access to their gender affirming care. [For example] the executive order for hormone and testosterone treatment is around more youth to a certain age. But I’ve seen clinics [restrict] some of our adult relatives.
UNN + ICT: What do you think Native nations can and should be doing to support our trans and Two-Spirit relatives?
EN: When these executive orders came out, I was like, ‘I wonder how many of our tribes have laws and codes that specifically have LGBTQ and or Two-Spirit in the language?’ And just from my initial review, I would say less than five had that out of our 574 [federally recognized] tribes. So that made me go, ‘wow, this is really concerning.’
So I developed this concept that we need to do a review of tribal laws and codes and ensure that they’re inclusive, because if issues like this come up again we need to reference our own tribal laws to protect us.
I was able to get UCLA law school, their Indian legal program, to have a conversation about my idea of how many tribes have protections in their laws and codes. I met with them right before NCAI, as well as with a representative from the Williams Institute, which is one of the largest LGBT legal think tanks. They’re committed to help us with this project, which I’m just calling a Two-Spirit Policy Project for now.
[The project] will have law students and undergrad students begin to review tribal codes and laws to see where that language is lacking, and see how we could advocate to ensure that tribal leadership, judges, court personnel, can update their laws. I think that’s one way of helping our tribes to be able to do that.
The strategy is to go to tribes to say, ‘Are your laws reflective of gender identity?’ And then from there, continue that conversation to include LGBTQ [relatives].
UNN + ICT: What do you feel like gives you hope right now?
EN: I think just the resiliency. Personally, being in community space, seeing someone, asking them how you’re doing, knowing that I’m not the only one feeling this way. Even being at NCAI, seeing our relatives there, that was very meaningful to me. It gave me that sense of energy, because when we’re together, we have the same feelings, we have the same compassion, we have the same experiences. For me that helps me and it motivates me to look at other creative ways we can support our communities during this time.
When we started the Two-Spirit Center we were intentional [to] not get federal funding, which has kind of helped us now during these times where federal funding has been pulled. A lot of our allies, our good relatives, are very supportive. It is a lot more evident during these times.
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.