By Ray Buckner — 2017
Ray Buckner offers a personal view of what it means to be Buddhist, gender-queer, and trans—and why they all fit together like “a miracle.”
Read on www.lionsroar.com
CLEAR ALL
The sound of drums, singing and prayers marked the opening of a powwow in Phoenix on a Saturday afternoon this month. . . . It was Arizona’s first Two-Spirit Powwow, one of a handful of powwows that have sprung up across North America to celebrate LGBT Native Americans.
So many of the little rituals I have each day—like my makeup or skincare routine—do help soothe and/or rejuvenate me. For me, any type of solo practiced routine is good. But I’ve learned that self-care does not, and cannot, sustain me. And I believe that this may be the case for many of you.
Sitting on the floor of a teepee, in a circle of patients, friends and relatives, Doctor James Makokis cried as he remembered his father struggling to accept him when he came out as gay at the age of 17.
“If LGBTQ people get assaulted or beaten up in a hate crime on tribal land, it’s often not prosecuted,” one advocate said.
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The term “Two Spirit” in Native American culture often describes a person possessing both male and female spirits. And they’ve been around well before the Santa Maria or the Mayflower dropped anchor.