Roll Call!!
WYA!?
These days I’ve been leaning into the glitter-anointed magic that is our 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, all y’all’s creative genius has sustained me and has me looking to the horizons of gender/gender expression, gender talk, gender walk, gender everything. Ahé’hee for building your own theory and gender practice you are showing us just the beginning of the horizon!
I’ve learned in conversations, conversations had over the years, over coffee, tea, over a blanket on grass, stomping down historic concrete sidewalks, in DMs, we all think and dream and are preoccupied with gender. We are all still talking and wondering and thinking about gender. That’s not surprising, but it is strangely relieving to know many others think about it and fight with it as much as I do and in many different ways. It’s normal and we should talk more about it, like every day, because it changes for many of us every day, maybe many times during a given day. So, let’s talk about gender and share how we walk gender. Let’s build a language that enables us to improve the conditions for third/fourth-gendered, 2SLGBTQIA+ relatives. I promise it will improve conditions for everyone else, too.
For your learning enjoyment included here are just a few (and I stress, just a few) amazing Diné 2SLGBTQIA+ youth who are talking openly about their connections to gender and their lived expertise as third and fourth-gendered Diné in context in the here and now and beyond.
“My experience with writing has been one of transformation and time-traveling.”
-Charlie Amáyá Scott
Charlie Amáyá Scott (they/her) is Diné and identifies as I love that they have started to qualify pronouns as English, one conversation I find myself having with my colleagues here at Wingbeat 88 and with other family is how do we as Diné incorporate Western understandings of pronouns into our everyday colloquial conversational language? I used the quote above from their blog (which is just as magical as the quote!).
“Today, we are witnessing many [Diné youth] who are embracing our own knowledge and calling into question colonial thinking, including the gender binary…”
-Souksavanh Tom Keovorabouth
Souksavanh Tom Keovorabouth (they/them/he/him/she/her) is Diné and Laotian and identifies as Queer, Two-Spirit, and Nádleeh. Their work centers around how the Diné gender system was impacted by colonization. Yes, please! Follow this link to learn more about them!
“I certainly did not know I would be here, thriving, flourishing, and glowing.”
-Yué Begay
Yué Begay (she/her) is Diné and identifies as nádleeh/Two-Spirt, she lives and works in Los Angeles and has a YouTube channel. Here’ a link to the beautiful channel trailer. You can also follow Yué on all the social media platforms. Learn more about Yué and their work here.
This is a very short list of the generation(s) preceding mine, namely the millennial and gen z crowd! I’ve read their work and/or are following them on social! These beauties have the stories and they are telling them, we need to listen!!!
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