Word of the Gay: "Pte Winkte"

"Pte Winkte" is the Lakota word for a two-spirit Bison.

Petition: A Campaign for Native GLBT Funding Justice

Two recent national philanthropy reports have released information indicating that Gay Funders contributed $37 million in one year to GLBT organizations across the United States. Native American Two Spirit People, the poorest of all the GLBT communities, received only 4 small grants of about $2,500. The average grant to gay organizations nationally is $16,000 a year. Gay funders have a mission to serve all equally, but it's time for a summit with the Two Spirit People here in our ancestral domains to help the funders achieve their mission. Two Spirit People have significant spiritual and ceremonial roles in our Native cultures, and Gay Philanthropy has a significant role to play in realizing a vision of funding-justice and social justice with our people."

Click Here to Sign the Petition!

Word of the Gay: "Winkte"

A "winkte" is a two-souled person in Lakota (Sioux) Native American culture. "Winktes" are gay medicine men and were regarded highly by the community.

Happy ThanksLiving 2008!

Happy ThanksLiving to all QU blog readers, you have truly become part of the extended online family. I am thankful for all your support and insight that you have provided over the course of many months, I look forward to renewed queer activism and spirit in the wake of our defeats this election day. United we stand, divided we fall, queers and allies together as one will bring about true equality as evidenced by the reality of the dreams of the great ones before us like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohatmas Gandhi.

On this day we also must as queers extend our arms and hearts to those who have been so affected by this day we call "thanksgiving" that represents sorrow for millions. I am deeply saddened and in mourning for the millions of Natives of this land who were murdered, raped, and evicted from their homeland. This holiday represents the destruction of a beautiful and wise culture with rich spirituality and history of preserving the land and exploring its beauty and vastness.

Included in the destruction of heritage and culture were queer Natives, commonly referred to as Two-spirits.

http://www.intltwospiritgathering.org/
http://www.nativeout.com

I also am horrified by the continual massacre of beautiful sentient beings that are intelligent and kind only to be murdered in the name of food because they look different and aren't equated with deserving any rights. "Thanksgiving" has become associated with the massacre of hundreds of millions of Turkeys. Beings who are de-beaked, packed so tightly with the inability to move, forced to stand on excrement, having their throats slit while still conscious, and scalded to death in the feather removal tank.



The video above highlights the unacceptable standard practice on factory farms.

"In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up." (Pastor Martin Niemöller)

I won't be part of the "Thanksgiving" tradition which does not honor life and speak up for others. ThanksLiving for me is about honoring others and aspiring to be grateful and committed to a better future. I honor the living tradition of the Natives, and respect the life and dignity of my fellow creatures. Happy ThanksLiving!

New Yorker's Working for an LGBT-Youth Center at Pier 40

FIERCE! is a community organization for Transgender, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Queer, and Questioning (TLGBTSQQ) youth of color in New York City. They are working hard to oppose commercial development of Pier 40 which has traditionally been a place for Queer youth to feel safe and hang out. They are trying to build a 24 hour LGBT youth center in its place. Please help with their efforts.

Fierce NYC

Word of the Gay: "Two-Spirit"

"Two-Spirit"-This is a term to refer to third-gendered people.

Traditionally it referred to Native Americans who embraced both genders.

Today many Native Americans as well as others identify with this duality of masculine and feminine spirits within their bodies.