Though the Gathering of Nations, the largest pow wow in the United States, is renowned for its sense of spectacle and soaring spirit, Brad Charles, a Navajo Two Spirit man and co-founder of Bands in Action (BIA) says GON doesn’t tap into the vibrancy of underground queer counterculture. Thus, the Gathering of Queer Nations was born.

This marks the second year that BIA— a music collective based in Shiprock, New Mexico— will host the Gathering of Queer Nations, which will showcase musical artists, performance art, slam poetry, drag performances and a fashion show.

“The Gathering of Queer Nations is necessary because in some ways we are a separate nation,” Charles says. “In the Navajo Nation, for instance, we’re not granted certain rights. There’s no same-sex marriage allowed, even though there’s a basis for it in our tradition—the two-spirit idea. But modern people don’t accept it.”

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