Did I ever think that this would happen on tribal land?

No.

Hello, everybody.

My name is Navi Ho.

When I was very young, I definitely knew that there was something different about me.

I was like, why am attracted to guys?

Shouldn't I be attracted to women?

It was very unsafe to be a gay person in the 80s and 90s.

Everything was in the shadows.

Everything was hidden.

Everything was a taboo.

And especially on the reservation, it was not accepted.

And you were looked at, and degraded by your own people.

The guests on this show are heartbroken and devastated.

There was one time when I was watching Ricki Lake with my mom, and it was about kids opening up to their families, and my mom looked at me and she goes, if you ever came out gay, I would kill myself.

And so at 13, 14, at that time, I was very scared that I didn't want my mom to die just because I wanted to be myself.

It took a while to really, find my true self.

Alright, you guys ready for some shows?

In the Navajo teachings, there's five genders.

And one of the genders is called the two spirit.

Or Nádleehí is the name.

And its basically an umbrella term of having both essences of the male and the female spirit.

Many of the different tribes, the two spirit person was like considered a shaman, was considered a a medicine man or medicine woman or medicine person.

And it was these, these individuals that I feel that helped their community understand what it meant to to bring blessing, to bring love within the community.

they were the ones that the community would go to and say, I need advice, I need help, and I feel that resonates with me because I always felt there's something inside of me that needs to either teach somebody or I need to be there to help somebody in some way.

Currently here on Navajo Nation, there is a law that forbids same sex marriages.

We did get a lot of, hate for having this event.

Because of the threats and things like that that were happening, I was like, I wonder if people are going to be here.

But we had the police here to help us.

And obviously they felt safe enough to come out just like we do.

Just to see the crowd was amazing And the kids, oh my God, the kids.

To see them coming up to you with a dollar or a sticker.

I just saw nothing but happiness, love and just joy I'm just hoping that the Navajo Nation will look in your tradition, look in your culture.

Look who we are, it's there.

It's written.

We are not just doing this for fun.

It's doing this to help our families, help our friends, help our lovers.

So treat us equally like you treat everybody else.

After high school, when I got into college, I, I came to terms with myself and I said, I am a gay person.

And so I, I took my mom to her favorite Mexican restaurant and I let her or anything on the menu, and I just said, hey, mom, I'm gay.

And she was a little shocked.

She was a little upset.

But, she was.

I will love you regardless.

I love you who you are.

And I would embrace you.