Two-Spirit and IndigeQueer people have traditionally held a place of great honor and
responsibility in our communities. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, and colonization have had lasting negative impacts on our existence, because expressing our authentic selves has always been unsettling to colonizer-imposed gender binaries. Two-Spirit and IndigeQueer people were some of the first to be murdered or forced into assimilation during colonization and post-colonization. As we bear witness to increasingly violent and unchecked colonial aggression against the Palestinian people, we are called to demand ceasefire in Gaza and an end to genocide and apartheid in occupied Palestine.
Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) exists to restore and recover the role of
Two-Spirit people within the American Indian/First Nations community by creating a forum for the spiritual, cultural, and artistic expression of Two-Spirit people. BAAITS stands with those who oppose all forms of violence and discrimination, those who want to see the hostages freed, those who support a free Palestine, and those who stand against homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Arab racism, and Islamophobia.
As we collectively witness the war crimes against our kin in Palestine, including our queer Palestinian kin, we call for our elected officials (tribal, local, state and national) to tap into their humanity and bring an end to the senseless and indiscriminate killing of innocent children, adults, disabled and elderly, to end the bombing of hospitals, schools, and homes, to end the blockades and disruption of humanitarian aid, and to end the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and the theft and brutalization of the land. Historical trauma is very real across our Indigenous communities, and, as one of our community two-spirit elders states it best, “silence has and continues to kill our community.” We cannot stand by and let our silence contribute to the decimation of another community.
As we continue to build connections and relationships to our kin globally, BAAITS Board of Directors and leadership welcomes an open honorable dialogue with and among community about the impact of violence, oppression, and genocide on the spirit, health, and vitality of Indigenous communities around the world.
We ask you to stand with us in our fight for the Palestinian people. Show your support by contacting your representatives, listen to the voices and stories coming out of Gaza, and don’t let their stories go silent. This won’t end unless the world stands together in solidarity.
Signatories
Board Members
Dr. Roger Kuhn (Poarch Creek)
Javier Stell-Fresquez (Piru & Tigua Pueblo ancestry, Mixed Chican@)
Sam Campbell (Dine & Yome)
Susana Cáceres (Pipil, Maya & Lenca indigenous)
Xtal Azul (Indigenous roots in Mexico, Apache)
Ayden Prime (Dakota (Fort Peck))
Morgan Wallace (Chickasaw/Sac and Fox)
Faun Harjo (Muskogee Creek and Chickasaw)
Ruth Villasenor (Chiricahua Apache & Mexican)
James Brandon (Accomplice/Ally)
Staff
Dr. Angel C. Fabian - Tlahuizpapalotl (Ben’Zaa/Zapotec)
M. Zamora (Chicana, Yoeme (Yaqui) and Tongva)