How a failed anti-trans bill in South Dakota changed everything for Indigenous queer people
April Matson, a two-spirit person, works on youth music camps on the Pine Ridge and the Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota. Every year, Matson sees more youth changing their names and pronouns and exploring their gender expressions.
“Their parents or caretakers are just so supportive,” Matson said. “And it’s been this way for a long time since they were babies. There’s this big supportive community there.”
Matson grew up seeing Native people fight erasure and oppression. But neither Matson nor Daniels had seen their Indigenous communities come out for transgender equality before.
That morning in February was different. At the end of the sidewalk, in red and black jackets, two elders stood with bundles of herbs, a transgender pride flag and the flag for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe had come to protest the bill. They were not alone. Two-spirit people, their family and friends had trekked from across the state to protest HB 1057.
As the sun started to rise, a cheer echoed over the capitol grounds. Daniels would recall it as one of the most beautiful moments of his life.
“And suddenly, with a cry of, “Hoka hey!” two Native riders galloped across the capitol lawn on horseback,” he wrote.
One rider held up the transgender pride flag. It snapped in the wind. The kids and their parents shouted in delight. A photographer for the ACLU snapped a photo of the riders.
Tribes across the state showed up. They crowded into the committee room with banners and signs, the first visible Native protest to anti-trans bills the nation had seen. It wouldn’t be the last.
Matson, who was in Vermillion, four hours southeast of Pierre, watched the day unfold via social media updates and messages from Daniels, with whom they are raising kids.
“That was really incredible,” Matson said. “I hadn’t really even thought to start organizing in that way where we’re having these Indigenous two-spirit people showing up … like we’ve always been here and this is actually a really big part of our culture.”
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HB 1057 ultimately died in committee the day of the protest after Sen. Wayne Steinhauer was ambushed on the floor by a 16-year-old transgender constituent. But this year, the legislature passed a transgender youth health care ban. Gov. Kristi Noem signed it into law in February, the same day the Transformation Project had scheduled its gala.
“We all just wanted to stay home and curl up under a blanket and cry,” Williams said.
Instead, 250 people showed up to the gala. Anti-trans bills are passing, said advocates. But the community supporting transgender kids is growing more vocal, too. Native people, who have battled removal for generations, are now part of that fight.
“We’re in a time where we have folks coming out and reclaiming that term of two-spirit and stepping into those roles and finding ways that we can heal our people,” Viera said. “That’s something that I think that we’re working on as a community.”