This story Originally reported by Kate Soshin The 19th. Meet Kate and read more about their reports on gender, politics and policy.
On January 20th, when President Trump took the oath of office again, Monique “Maffi” Musau received a ton of emails and calls.
“Homophobic people were saying the most frightening things,” she recalls. Two men threatened to kill her, and the woman said she didn’t exist anymore: “I’m a virus for the United States.”
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Muso is the executive director of Integrated recoverya grassroots organization based in Rapids City, South Dakota; LGBTQ+ Native young people since 2019. Following the inauguration, Musso and her wife, Felipa de Leon, made the difficult decision to stop posting about the organization’s events and resources on social media. They are more protected about physical space, which began to house other LGBTQ+ organizations displaced by the threat of violence and loss of funds in the new administration. Recently, safety means maintaining a low profile.
“But we want the public to understand… we exist, we are helping,” said Mousseau, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe.
The interests of the Muso community were not high. Strange indigenous youth – often referred to under the ” ” umbrella “.2 SpiritRecognizing sexual and gender diversity among many native tribes faces the highest rate of discrimination, harassment, violence and suicide among all groups in the LGBTQ+ community.
That’s especially true in South Dakota. Native Americans account for more than 8% of the population, making them the third largest indigenous population in the state. In 2022, the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization for LGBTQ+ youth, looked into how 53% of queer youth in South Dakota were taking suicide seriously.
For years, South Dakota has been like that. LaunchPad for anti-LGBTQ+ methods. Musault and de Leon watch the Trump administration abandon LGBTQ+ rights nationwide, so they are worried about the outcomes at home.
Report Released last month by Human Rights Campaign and Integrated Resilience, it details the extreme challenges faced by young people in two spirits in South Dakota, from schools to housing and law enforcement. The two-year snapshot found that many students who reported facing bullying in schools over gender identity were removed from their classes and forced to learn remotely.
There are many challenges facing South Dakota indigenous people. Native South Dakotans are 2.5 times more likely to experience violent crimes and twice as likely to be sexually assaulted or raped, according to the report. The overwhelming majority of state hate crimes (93%) were related to race, ethnicity, or LGBTQ+ identity, the report said.
Ami Patel, senior litigation advisor to the Human Rights Campaign, said a recent report on two Spirit youth in South Dakota exposed the deep disparities children face that the organization could not have been captured without cooperation with integrated resilience.
“Our hope is to continue to engage with South Dakota’s integrated resilience on the ground, and continue to do this work for years to come and raise awareness,” Patel said.
RGBTQ+ young people, both indigenous and white, are seeking groups to support as Rapids City’s climate becomes hostile towards them. Children are seeking help to get help in school support. Unity resilience knew that tribal history could provide an example for young people. This is an unexplored story that reflects them. Integrated resilience helped link the child and his parents to that history throughout the state.
In 2015, the Supreme Court declared that LGBTQ+ couples could marry in all states. However, the decision did not have jurisdiction over tribal traditions. As a result, de Leon, Musau, and many other strange Indigenous couples spent years without being recognized as married in their own community.
Mousseau and De Leon reviewed tribal cultural teachings to historically clarify the role of LGBTQ+ people. There have been many examples of people who were assigned men who dressed women, cared for chickens, and cooked food. There were people assigned a woman who loaded horses and prepared a sweat lodge for the ceremony. This is usually a job assigned to a man.
“And no one is making fun of them. No one is saying anything. They’re just calling them by their names and doing what they have to do,” Musso said.
In May 2019, De Leon and Mousseau began pushing the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe to admit marriages like them. On July 8th that year, the tribe passed an ordinance that did exactly that. That September, the tribe became the first to pass the Trans Inclusive Hate crime protectionpunished by prison time, fines or compensation.
The next winter, South Dakota found himself in the midst of a national debate about healthcare for trans minors. However, when the national media came down to the Capitol, the lawmakers were greeted by the sight of two horse riders with the transgender pride flag. The Oglala Lakota Sioux tribes and other tribes throughout the state had Appears in large quantities to oppose the bill. The bill failed on the committee, but perhaps more importantly, the state’s Indigenous leaders had sent messages to lawmakers.
“Homophobia is not traditional,” says Musau of the HRC Report. “It’s a colonized idea.”
The group hosts biweekly sweat lodges, weekly youth groups and meetings. Over the past two years, they have hosted over 500 people on their annual PowWow. As anti-trans advocates argue that transgender identity is new, unity resilience teaches young people that they are connected to a long line of people of other gender diverse, and are woven deeply into the history of the state.
“I know our home and our methods and rituals, so I just want you to know that I am the wealthiest person on this continent,” Musseau said. “I don’t judge anyone, and I don’t think anyone is gender.”
De Leon and Mouseau talk about their work in terms of “blinking lights.” They liken everything they do for LGBTQ+ young people to a critical response, and they are the first responders.
De Leon recalls that in 2016 she found out that her nie had died of suicide. Her nie was holding a hand with another girl, but her teacher said she couldn’t. De Leon didn’t even know that her nie was LGBTQ+ because her family didn’t tell her. The fact that teachers and family can talk to her nie in such a way still bothers her.
“[Her uncle was] We already tell our family we have a carpet muncher,” De Leon said. “We don’t need another thing.”
The reality facing two spirit young people in South Dakota is only getting difficult, Muso said. Within two days of Trump’s inauguration, three other LGBTQ+ organizations in the state are calling for office space, called integrated resilience. They had been kicked out of themselves. Uniting resilience, even groups that did not represent native LGBTQ+ people had rooms in the room.
However, in late April, the group made the unbearable decision to shut down their offices altogether. Musau refers to the threat of violence against the organization, murders near the office, and the display of the town’s white supremacist symbols.
“None of our LGBTQ+ groups want to experience any kind of violence…and the board knows that,” she said. “It’s just my stomach talks to you about it, but it’s real and I want you to know from my mouth that reality is sucking right now in this administration.
Integrated resilience will meet and retain youth groups, but will not promote those meetings widely. They have yet to decide whether it is safe to hold the annual pow wow.
But Mouseau and De Leon say they are not discouraged. They work to educate law enforcement on the issues facing two spirit young people. They dream big – hope someone connects them with Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift.
“We just want you to know that we are very active not only in our community, but in our nation, but in our community alone,” Musso said. “You know, if a billionaire needs to donate money, send us our way.”
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
