Harlen
Pruden
can
walk
the
walk
down
the
streets
of
New
York,
but
to
some
of
his
neighbors,
he’s
ill
equipped
to
talk
the
talk.
“People
speak
Spanish
to
me
all
the
time,
and
I
don’t
know
Spanish,”
he
says.
“Then
they
get
really
upset
with
me
when
they
have
to
speak
to
me
in
English.
They
think
I’m
turning
my
back
on
my
culture.”
But
as
culture
clashes
go,
Pruden
is
well
versed.
“I
have
to
say,
‘I’m
not
Spanish,
I’m
Indian,’”
he
says.
Indian
as
in
Native
American,
specifically,
Cree.
And
he’s
gay.
He
knows
about
upholding
a
brown
culture
in
a
white
world,
he
says.
“One
of
the
things
that
I’ve
found
is
that
as
a
person
of
color,
I
am
constantly
counting,”
Pruden
explains.
“If
you
walk
into
a
room,
you
count
where
the
other
people
of
color
are.
Any
room,
you’re
like,
people
of
color,
gay
folk,
and
you’re
judging
whether
or
not
it’s
safe
space.”
As
a
co-founder
of
the
Northeast
Two
Spirit
Society,
Pruden
is
a
leader
among
a
struggling
culture
of
gay
and
lesbian
Native
Americans.
While
fighting
to
preserve
the
culture
that
white
American
history
has
relegated
to
the
sidelines,
Native
Americans,
who
represent
only
about
one
percent
of
the
U.S.
population,
are
also
locked
in
a
battle
with
HIV,
addictions
and
poverty
—
all
of
which
appear
in
disproportionately
high
rates
among
people
of
indigenous
heritage.
In
April
2006,
the
Atlanta-based
Centers
for
Disease
Control
&
Prevention
reported
that
Native
Americans
have
the
third
highest
rate
of
HIV
infection
among
non-white
populations
in
the
U.S.
It’s
a
problem
worsening
as
millions
of
dollars
in
research
and
media
campaigns
are
spent
targeting
other
groups.
“There
were
significant
resources
looking
at
why
the
transmission
rates
were
what
they
were,
and
what
was
going
on
within,
the
African-American
community,”
Pruden
says.
“And
just
like
there
were
lessons
to
be
learned
with
the
African-American
community,
there
are
lessons
with
the
Native
community.”
ONE
WAY
LEADERS
FIGHT
THE
ECOnomic
and
social
disparity
that
separates
gay
Native
Americans
is
the
soon-tolaunch
Two
Spirit
Alliance,
a
unified
collective
of
gay
Native
groups
from
across
North
America.
The
alliance
plans
a
website
launch
in
2007
that
they
hope
gay
Native
Americans
and
non-Natives
can
use
as
a
starting
point
to
learn
about
the
group’s
special
concerns.
A
key
glossary
term
in
any
lesson
about
gay
Natives
is
“Two
Spirit.”
The
term,
in
hundreds
of
different
forms,
has
loosely
meant
an
alternate
gender
that,
in
many
of
the
Native
American
nations,
was
a
revered
and
mystified
tradition
that
helped
establish
centuries
of
acceptance
for
homosexual
and
transgender
people.
But
that
acceptance
started
evaporating
shortly
after
Columbus
docked
in
the
Caribbean,
says
Karen
Vigneault,
a
lesbian
and
leader
of
the
Nations
of
Four
Directions,
a
gay
Native
American
organization
in
San
Diego.
“Traditionally
in
our
culture,
it
was
a
part
of
our
culture,”
Vigneault
says.
“The
creator
makes
no
mistakes,
and
it
wasn’t
until
the
people
who
came
to
Turtle
Island,
what
you
guys
call
America,
they’re
the
ones
who
put
their
beliefs
on
us.”
For
every
image
of
the
proud
Native
heritage
displayed
by
colorful
Wind-Catchers,
practical
crafts
and
nature
paintings,
there
remains
a
defiance
among
Natives
like
Vigneault,
who
says
that
gay
Natives
not
only
have
to
struggle
with
being
gay
among
their
nations
of
origin,
but
are
largely
ignored
by
gay
people
and
gay
historians.
“What
the
hell’s
wrong
with
the
gay
community?
Why
aren’t
they
acknowledging
us?
We
are
the
beginnings
of
homosexuality
on
Turtle
Island,”
she
asserts.
“The
gay
history
didn’t
start
with
Stonewall.
We
were
the
groundbreakers.
We
are
the
history
of
gay,
but
it’s
not
even
talked
about
in
the
gay
culture.
It’s
very
frustrating.
It’s
like
we’re
fighting
everybody
and
having
to
educate
everybody.”
And
don’t
get
her
started
about
Thanksgiving.
“We’re
still
teaching
our
children
this
crap.
Our
kindergartners
are
still
wearing
the
stupid
bandana
with
fake
feathers
coming
out.
What
is
that
crap?
I
do
not
celebrate
it,”
she
says.
“I
do
celebrate
the
fact
that
if
people
just
want
to
come
together
to
love
one
another,
and
celebrate
the
unity
of
their
families
and
have
a
good
time,
that
I’m
down
for.
But
don’t
feed
me
the
bullshit
that
‘this
is
Thanksgiving,
and
this
is
what
these
Indians
and
these
pilgrims
did.’”
LIKE
THEIR
GAY
NEIGHBORS
ACROSS
the
U.S.,
some
gay
Native
Americans
are
struggling
to
start
a
new
marriage
tradition.
A
Cherokee
Nation
high
court
upheld
the
nuptials
of
Dawn
McKinley
and
Kathy
Reynolds,
a
Cherokee
lesbian
couple,
in
2004
and
2006.
The
marriage
is
...
