Navajo fight is set over same-sex unions

Washington Post ^ | 1/1/2014 | Saba Hamedy

[markomalley]

New Mexico has seen celebrations across the state since its highest court unanimously ruled it was unconstitutional to deny a marriage license to same-sex couples. Not so for the sovereign Navajo Nation, whose borders spill over into the northeastern part of the state and where tribal law is clear: Such unions are banned.

Some Navajo hope to change that, buoyed by the cultural climate shift underscored when the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Gay marriage is permitted in the District of Columbia and 18 states, the most recent being Utah, although officials there are appealing a federal court decision that overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

For Navajo activists, it won’t be easy.

The Dine Marriage Act, passed in 2005 by the Navajo Nation Council, defines marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman and declares polygamy, unions between family members and same-sex marriages “void and prohibited.”

A grass-roots attempt to block it from becoming law failed when the legislature overrode a veto from the Navajo Nation’s then-president, Joe Shirley Jr.

[Morgana]

“The Dine Marriage Act, passed in 2005 by the Navajo Nation Council, defines marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman and declares polygamy, unions between family members and same-sex marriages “void and prohibited.” “

Oh please! It’s not like this will be the first treaty the white man has broken with the Indians.

I stand with the Navajos

[Chode]

it'll never fly on the Rez...

[CedarDave]

A late NM Ping.

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[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Is it any wonder the first Spanish in the area found whole villages of “Sodomites”? Obviously the normal natives wanted nothing to do with sodomites either.