Since the Diné Marriage Act, the rights and benefits only marriage provides are null and void for my partner and me within the Navajo Nation.

We cannot jointly file for a home-site lease to build a house for our family in Arizona because of this law. We cannot jointly adopt a Navajo child or have protective rights as guardians because of this law.

We are not safe in the workplace or in public because the Navajo Nation has no anti-discrimination or hate crimes prevention laws that would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals from violence. My partner and I have no right to claim each other on our health insurance policy or neither can we apply as a “legal” family for help because we have no marriage license that is usually needed as proof for government-assistance programs or for Medicare when we are both elderly men.

Gay and lesbian couples share the same economic, health care and child-raising experiences as our parents. These everyday life decisions between two human beings in a loving, committed relationship have been taken for granted because of the Diné Marriage Act and we must repeal it now.