Native Americans Say “No” to Gay Marriage

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rockin'robin

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In the cultural battle over “same-sex” marriage, one of the American groups overlooked in the debate is the Native American population. Organized along ancestral tribes, these groups form a diverse, yet significant portion of the U.S. population.

Native American tribal leaders have discussed the issue of “same-sex” marriage at length over the past several years as the debate has raged in America.

Where many of them have come out on the matter is sure to make liberals howl.

CNS News reports:


Tribal laws of the two largest Native American tribes in the United States prohibit gay marriage, as do the laws of nine other smaller tribes.

The Navajo and Cherokee Nations, the first and second largest tribes respectively, together have about 600,000 members. The nine smaller tribes that ban gay marriage have another 350,000 members. These tribes all either define marriage as between a man and a woman or explicitly prohibit same-sex marriage, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Since 2011, six of the eleven tribes revisited and upheld their preexisting legal definitions of marriage as between a man and a woman, AP researchers found.

It will not matter what the Supreme Court decides on “same-sex” marriage. These tribes have their own sovereignty as CNS News reveals:

Due to their status as sovereign nations, these 11 tribes will not need to change their marriage laws, which govern nearly one million tribal members, even if the Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage later this month.

If the court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling determines that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, Native American bans on gay marriage will remain in effect because federally-recognized tribes have the right to establish their own laws and are not subject to the U.S. Constitution.

http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/us/native-americans-say-no-to-gay-marriage
 
11 Native American Tribes, Including The Two Largest, Prohibit Gay Marriage

(CNSNews.com) -- Tribal laws of the two largest Native American tribes in the United States prohibit gay marriage, as do the laws of nine other smaller tribes.

The Navajo and Cherokee Nations, the first and second largest tribes respectively, together have about 600,000 members. The nine smaller tribes that ban gay marriage have another 350,000 members. These tribes all either define marriage as between a man and a woman or explicitly prohibit same-sex marriage, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Since 2011, six of the eleven tribes revisited and upheld their preexisting legal definitions of marriage as between a man and a woman, AP researchers found.

Due to their status as sovereign nations, these 11 tribes will not need to change their marriage laws, which govern nearly one million tribal members, even if the Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage later this month.

If the court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling determines that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, Native American bans on gay marriage will remain in effect because federally-recognized tribes have the right to establish their own laws and are not subject to the U.S. Constitution.

For example, the Cherokee Nation Marriage and Family Protection Act of 2004 defines marriage as “a civil contract between one man and one woman” and states that “no marriage shall be contracted...between parties of the same gender.”

Title 6 of Chickasaw tribal law states that “a marriage between persons of the same gender performed in any jurisdiction shall not be recognized as valid and binding in the Chickasaw Nation.” However, the law notes that it does not prohibit “members of the same sex from entering written contracts” with one another.

According to the gay-rights advocacy group Freedom to Marry, at least ten Native American tribes do permit gay marriage. However, this list does not include any of the ten largest tribes according to 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data.

Of the tribes that do recognize same-sex marriage, some have made changes to their marriage laws to include recognition of same-sex couples, while others have adhered to a preexisting policy that tribal marriages be governed by the surrounding state’s marriage laws.

Many other tribes remain neutral, AP reports, neither taking steps to officially recognize gay marriage nor changing the wording of their marriage laws to include or preclude recognition of same-sex couples.

However, the legal language for some of these neutral tribes makes reference to heterosexual couples by use of such phrases as “husband and wife,” “a man and a woman,” and “unmarried male and...unmarried female.”

For example, the Northern Cheyenne Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act defines marriage as “a personal relationship between a man and a woman arising out of a civil contract to which the consent of the parties is essential,” in which spouses “take each other as husband and wife.”

To date, such laws have not been applied to same-sex couples.

CNSNews.com contacted The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy group, for a comment, but the group did not respond.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/kat...s-including-two-largest-prohibit-gay-marriage
 
I'm of the opinion in regards to the Cherokee Nation that yes, such nations have the right to retain their laws per their sovereignty, but if the Cherokee Nation chooses not to honor gay marriages, whether or not the US honors them (suppose the US didn't, for example), then to me, it is reflective of possible Christian intrusion (after all, if you look at the enrollee data for the Cherokee Nation, 85% or more are Baptists, the rest some other Christian denomination, and maybe a handful practice anything remotely like Pre-Contact, Traditional Cherokee beliefs, which is very hard to find because they are kept as oral traditions by the elders, and whatever was given to the missionaries "recording" such information may have been altered by the Cherokee sources in order to hide the true ritual practice, intent, and the power of such spiritual knowledge. You have to remember that much of the spiritual knowledge was forgotten by the Cherokees as early as the 1870s. Perhaps they did not want such knowledge to fall into the hands of the "enemies" to be used as leverage points for conversion of the rest of the people still in possession of this knowledge).

This prohibition of same-sex marriage, or at least the recognition of people of the third sex or gender used to have the same respectful position of certain lines of Hindu beliefs today. I don't know if that was the case for the majority of the Native American nations, but I know that several of them held such people in esteem.

Hopefully, what has sadly happened to Native Americans here in the Americas won't happen to the Hindus in India, which is beset by Christians, Muslims, and communists (Forum of Inquilabi Leftists nexus operating there), but we can see it being attempted there now over the past several centuries as a case study in action now.
 
I have never heard like this with some tribes against gay marriages. I have a feeling that the boarding schools and White churches had really brainwashed them just because they should follow what the bible said. We have gay people for many centuries in our tribal communities. We had never had problems with them. I don't think they were married in the past centuries ago.

But now some gay Native Americans can get married if they wish to get married in the new 21st Century. This is their personal decision, not the society, not even straight Native tribes. I don't believe that the tribes would ban the gay marriage when they know they should respect them to be who they are as human people and to let them make their own decisions. They don't do anything wrong just because they love each other as same sex couple.

Maybe there are some tribes like Navajo and Cherokee that may be against gay marriage. But still it is not right to say "No" to Native American gay couple if they wish to get marry.

I am straight married to my husband who passed away. I respect the right of any human being who love each other no matter if there is man and woman including same sex couple. Love is a very strong emotions between them.

Let them get married if they want to. They wanted to get marry very badly. No one can stop them.

I don't know where this news come from as media can tarnish or destroy any one being happy. They have a right to be happy.
 
Wow, that is amazing that there are some nations so again same-sex marriage. It was not that way on the rez where I was... The hereditary leader was gay, but it was a non-issue since the person was honest, honourable, compassionate, and polite with everyone even the trouble-makers. I didn't realise that there was so much prejudice and ill feeling, until I left that, and encountered the "outside" world. people claimed to be Christian but didn't embody' Christ's :"love your neighbour" unconditional-love. It was an awakening.
As long as one person does not have liberty, no one has liberty..,.
 
Bebonang said:
I have never heard like this with some tribes against gay marriages. I have a feeling that the boarding schools and White churches had really brainwashed them just because they should follow what the bible said. We have gay people for many centuries in our tribal communities. We had never had problems with them. I don't think they were married in the past centuries ago.

But now some gay Native Americans can get married if they wish to get married in the new 21st Century. This is their personal decision, not the society, not even straight Native tribes. I don't believe that the tribes would ban the gay marriage when they know they should respect them to be who they are as human people and to let them make their own decisions. They don't do anything wrong just because they love each other as same sex couple.

Maybe there are some tribes like Navajo and Cherokee that may be against gay marriage. But still it is not right to say "No" to Native American gay couple if they wish to get marry.

I am straight married to my husband who passed away. I respect the right of any human being who love each other no matter if there is man and woman including same sex couple. Love is a very strong emotions between them.

Let them get married if they want to. They wanted to get marry very badly. No one can stop them.

I don't know where this news come from as media can tarnish or destroy any one being happy. They have a right to be happy.
Click to expand...

Cherokee oppose to gay marriage for many centuries, about back in BC before Christians move to America.
 
Foxrac said:
Cherokee oppose to gay marriage for many centuries, about back in BC before Christians move to America.
Click to expand...
This thread is about now, not the past. Actually there were no gay marriages legally in those times.
 
CrazyPaul said:
This thread is about now, not the past. Actually there were no gay marriages legally in those times.
Click to expand...
He's trying to point to WHY they oppose now. I would think the opposition is more to homosexuality- gay marriage in modern times stems from that. There could have been instances of 'gay marriage' centuries ago.. we don't know that... legal or not.

So yes while this thread is about "Now" you still sometimes have to look to the past to why the thinking is the way it is now. You seem to have no problem or difficulty with discussion of the 'past' in other current events threads.

It's interesting to see that some Tribes feel this way. I have a friend who is Native American (one of the smaller recognized Tribes)- she is perfectly fine with gay marriage and LGBT. She believes in 'third gender' or two spirits as well.
 
DeafDucky said:
He's trying to point to WHY they oppose now. I would think the opposition is more to homosexuality- gay marriage in modern times stems from that. There could have been instances of 'gay marriage' centuries ago.. we don't know that... legal or not.

So yes while this thread is about "Now" you still sometimes have to look to the past to why the thinking is the way it is now. You seem to have no problem or difficulty with discussion of the 'past' in other current events threads.

It's interesting to see that some Tribes feel this way. I have a friend who is Native American (one of the smaller recognized Tribes)- she is perfectly fine with gay marriage and LGBT. She believes in 'third gender' or two spirits as well.
Click to expand...
Alright, they can't do nothing about it when gay marriage becomes legal.

Honestly, I have rarely seen gay Native Americans myself. Indians from India, oh yeah there are many gays with whom I have no issues. All I can say is let them be who they are. It's called freedom. Please don't correct me this time.
 
CrazyPaul said:
Alright, they can't do nothing about it when gay marriage becomes legal.
Click to expand...

Did you read the article in the first post? The Tribes do not have to follow all of our laws and this one is one of them.
 
CrazyPaul said:
Alright, they can't do nothing about it when gay marriage becomes legal.

Honestly, I have rarely seen gay Native Americans myself. Indians from India, oh yeah there are many gays with whom I have no issues. All I can say is let them be who they are. It's called freedom. Please don't correct me this time.
Click to expand...

My father's side is from Cherokee so don't mess with me over your ignorant statement.
 
LoveBlue said:
Did you read the article in the first post? The Tribes do not have to follow all of our laws and this one is one of them.
Click to expand...

I agreed under treaty between Indian tribes and federal government.
 
This is still more of a vast majority. I'm Native and actually am Bisexual. Some are just more deep into what is considered 'right' but then again that's with a lot of people these days. It's just their way to maintain order and keep the world as it once was.
 
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