Indigenous Queer Resistance to Binaries, Stereotypes and Internalized Oppression
My name is Riley Kennedy (he/him). I am a twenty year- old Indigenous queer person living in London, Ontario. I am bicultural Haudenosaunee and Settler Canadian and a member of Oneida Nation of the Thames. I am a student at Western University and Brescia University College studying Community Development and Indigenous Studies. The following is written from my perspective based on my experiences and knowledge. I recognize that there is a lot for me to learn and experience. Throughout my life, society has forced me to fit within binaries. Gay or straight, Indigenous or non-Indigenous, white or person of colour, top or bottom, status or non-status, urban or rural, traditional or non-traditional, male or female, masc or fem, rich or poor, fat or skinny etc. Society has created these binaries to be able to categorize individuals and make assumptions about them. In the gay community, there is an expectation to choose a sexual position and corresponding gender expression. As a young gay man, I had thought that all I had to do was figure out I was gay – then I was faced with more decisions about how I would express my homosexuality. To the world around me, my fashion sense was equivalent to that of a straight man while the way that I walked and talked was “too gay to function”. I have often wondered why communities that have been harmed by these stereotypes continue to reinforce them within their own communities. In the gay community, we have been directly harmed by the cis-heteronormative patriarchy, meanwhile we continue to reinforce the same ideology within our own community. In the Indigenous community, we have been directly harmed by settler colonialism and similarly reinforce the same ideology within our own communities. While it is not our fault that we function in this way due to the collective trauma of both the cis-heteronormative patriarchy and settler colonialism and the supremacy of these ideologies within our society, it is our responsibility to work to heal from the trauma and unlearn these ideologies so that we can move towards a healthier, more inclusive society and community. Often these binaries are important pieces of an individual’s identity – I have found that they can also be used to reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about people. The assumptions, or biases, that people have based on their real or perceived
differences create experiences of interpersonal and structural violence. These biases are often used to make sense of the world around us but when they are taken at face value – instead of constant critique and evaluation, they become dangerous. For people who struggle to fit into these binaries, there is a tension which can have unhealthy effects on these individuals. Where do you belong? Who are you? Which community do you belong to? All questions, I have had and continue to have as an individual who often exists in the spaces between the binaries. It is important to both have a strong identity but remain true to your authentic self. I have vigorously tried to fit myself into these binaries to the point of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion. Recently, I have been beginning to understand that I don’t have to fit within these binaries and that I can define my own space that make me unique yet still belong. I am too masc to be fem and too fem to be masc and therefore I have decided to be myself. I am working on becoming more comfortable existing in the tension between the Settler Canadian and Indigenous worlds. I have made a conscious decision to resist cis-heteronormative patriarchal and settler colonial ideas of binaries and stereotypes to create my own identity and belonging.
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PRIDE Villager
Page 7 Issue 7 • Fall 2021
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