WINDOW ROCK, May 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The head of the Navajo Nation, Joe Shirley, Jr. said that the issue of homosexual unions was not important enough to Navajos and has vetoed last week’s decision to ban its legal recognition. “Same-sex marriage is a non-issue on Navajoland,” he said. “So why waste time and resources on it? We have more important issues to address.”
Inexplicably, he cited the breakdown of the family among Navajos as one of the problems that were “more important,” even though the widespread acceptance of homosexuality has been a major factor in the breakdown of the family elsewhere.
Shirley said that if individual members of the Navajo Council wanted to define marriage, he would support them, but through an initiative rather than a Council vote. The Council, however, voted unanimously to support the Dine Marriage Act.
In Navajo culture, marriage is far more about the uniting of families and the raising of children than about the individual union of the spouses. It is an essential conflict with Navajo culture, therefore, for marriage to acquire the same kind of liberal, individualistic or political connotations it has in the general North American culture.
Shirley, however, said that the proposed act focused on a problem in Navajo culture that did not exist and pointed to the problems of domestic violence, sexual assault and gangs as being more deserving of attention.
Apparently buying into the homosexual mantra that support for marriage is an expression of ‘hate,’ Shirley said that opposition to homosexual unions goes against the Navajo teaching of “nondiscrimination and doing no psychological or physical harm to others.”
Read Previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Navajo Indian Nation Outlaws Same Sex “Marriage”