Statement of Solidarity with our Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ Relatives

Statement of Solidarity with our Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ Relatives

For Immediate Release
Thurs, 06/17/2021
Seattle Urban Native Nonprofits
www.seattleurbannatives.org
Contact: sunn.outreach@gmail.com

SEATTLE — Seattle Urban Native Nonprofits (SUNN) members stand together in support of our Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ relatives, especially our youth, in light of recent disparaging and damaging comments made by a highly visible Native influencer.

The significance of these comments arising during Pride Month is not lost on us. At a time when we come together to celebrate the visibility, diversity and endurance of the 2S/LGBTQ+ community, we are reminded that we still have a long way to go to achieve true equity and justice for our 2S/LGBTQ+ friends, family and community members.

SUNN’s core values are respect and leadership rooted in love, compassion, courage, accountability and humility. We ask our cis-straight Native friends, relatives and allies to call out attitudes and behaviors that continue to cause harm to the 2S/LGBTQ+ community and to hold those around us accountable.

SUNN affirms Two Spirit individuals and the vital place they hold in the health and well-being of our Native communities. For millennia, our Two Spirit relatives have been respected as medicine people, healers, and teachers. To our 2S/LGBTQ+ kin- we honor you. You complete the circle.

We all can and must do more to consistently, continuously support our Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ communities. We can lift them up. We can believe them. We can call out injustice and discrimination when we encounter it. We can practice both compassion and courage when confronting individual and group actions that cause harm.

Only then will our communities fully heal.

We are strong, together.

In the spirit of Our Ancestors,

Seattle Urban Native Nonprofits:

Chief Seattle Club
Duwamish Tribal Services
Indigenous Showcase (Longhouse Media)
Na’ah Illahee Fund
National Urban Indian Family Coalition
Native Action Network
Native American Women’s Dialogue on Infant Mortality
Northwest Justice Project – Native American Unit
Potlatch Fund
Red Eagle Soaring
United Indians of All Tribes Foundation
Urban Native Education Alliance

View this statement as a PDF.

SEATTLE URBAN NATIVE NONPROFITS
Seattle Urban Native Nonprofits collaborative convenes and strengthens Native-led organizations throughout the Greater Seattle area to build collective power through dialog, education, action, and advocacy. To increase the well-being of our urban Native family, we call upon Indigenous strength, resilience, and wisdom to address systemic inequities and galvanize community-centered solutions.