{"id":53057,"date":"2020-06-24T21:33:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T03:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-first-time-navajo-nation-officially-observes-dine-pride-week\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:02:39","slug":"for-first-time-navajo-nation-officially-observes-dine-pride-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-first-time-navajo-nation-officially-observes-dine-pride-week\/","title":{"rendered":"For first time, Navajo Nation officially observes Din\u00e9 Pride Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Navajo Nation Council signed a proclamation Monday recognizing the Nation\u2019s first official Din\u00e9 Pride Week.<\/span>Courtesy of Din\u00e9 Pride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FARMINGTON \u2013 The Navajo Nation Council signed a proclamation for the first time this week recognizing Din\u00e9 Pride Week, despite not recognizing same-sex marriage as legal.<\/p>\n

Din\u00e9 Pride Week \u2013 from June 22 to June 28 this year \u2013 has been held since 2017, but this marks the first time the Navajo legislative council recognized the event, passing a proclamation in support of the LGBTQ+ rights events.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a day that brings light and hope to every portion of our four sacred mountains,\u201d said Council Speaker Seth Damon, during a speech after the signing. \u201cWhether you\u2019re an individual going to middle school right now in Page, Arizona, or you\u2019re having a hard time at Chief Manuelito Middle School, trying to understand who you are in this unpleasant world that we live in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damon signed the proclamation outside the Navajo Nation Council\u2019s chambers in Window Rock, Arizona, on Monday. The Nation\u2019s legislative council passed the proclamation earlier that day.<\/p>\n

While the rainbow flags were flown over the council chamber in support of the LGBTQ+ community for the first time last year, the Navajo Nation government does not legally recognize same-sex marriage. The Din\u00e9 Marriage Act was passed in 2005 by the Navajo Nation Council and defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman and prohibits same-sex marriage. There also is not a law protecting LGBTQ+ people from gender-based discrimination.<\/p>\n

Din\u00e9 Pride, an advocacy group, has been working to change that. The group has been working to make identity-based discrimination illegal, and eventually bring a same-sex marriage case to the Navajo Nation Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Carl Slater also plans to introduce legislation aimed at repealing the Din\u00e9 Marriage Act and protecting LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. The Office of Legislative Counsel is reviewing the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for us to open up an opportunity to have further discussions in making sure every single person on the Nation has an opportunity to be with their partner, their significant other,\u201d Damon said at the proclamation event, which was streamed live on Din\u00e9 Pride\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Damon said it was time to repeal the Din\u00e9 Marriage Act and protect transgender tribal members from violence.<\/p>\n

The Din\u00e9 Pride organization said it began the event three years ago to \u201chonor our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and two-spirit family members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of the coronavirus, the pride festivities will be held online, and the theme of this year\u2019s weeklong event is Indigenous LGBTQ+ Youth. A tribal leaders summit on LGBTQ+ policy, a panel with Indigenous LGBTQ+ youths, a panel with Indigenous trans women and a drag show are scheduled.<\/p>\n

The week of events will end Saturday with an art showcase and closing ceremonies.<\/p>\n

A full schedule is posted on the group\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

lweber@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

doesn\u2019t recognize same-sex marriage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1765,1655,29,443],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-lgbt","tag-navajo-nation","tag-newsletter","tag-san-juan-county-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88207,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53057\/revisions\/88207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53057"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}