Navajos Override Gay
- Marriage Ban Veto
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, June 4, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The
Navajo Nation's tribal government voted Friday to override its president's veto
of a measure banning same-sex marriage on the nation's largest Indian
reservation.
The Dine Marriage Act of 2005 defines marriage as a relationship between a man
and a woman. It also prohibits plural marriages as well as marriage
between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, brothers and
sisters and other close relatives.
Dine is the Navajos' name for themselves.
''In the traditional Navajo ways, gay marriage is a big no-no,'' said Kenneth
Maryboy, a delegate from Montezuma Creek, Utah. ''It all boils down to the
circle of life. We were put on the earth to produce offspring.''
The Tribal Council vote was 62-14, with 12 delegates abstaining or absent, to
override Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr.'s veto last month.
''My feeling is that the reason they overrode the president's veto is that they
have a huge animosity toward the president,'' said Percy Anderson, a gay rights
organizer who started a Web site and petition to lobby against the marriage act.
Anderson, who previously held an elected office in the tribe's Manuelito, N.M.,
chapter, said he believes the council is locked in a power struggle.
''They want to show the president that they are the governing body,'' Anderson
said.
Maryboy disagreed, saying his constituents overwhelming oppose gay marriage and
generally disapprove of gay relationships.
''My supporters told me to stay firmly against it, especially the ministers who
join people in marriage,'' he said.
A spokesman for Shirley said he will issue a statement override over the
weekend.
Delegate Larry Anderson of Fort Defiance, Ariz., author of the Dine Marriage
Act, did not return numerous phone calls seeking comment.
The Navajo Nation, which has more than 180,000 residents, spans parts of
Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Same-sex marriages are not allowed in any of those
states.
|
