I'm stunned, heartbroken, grieving and yet not surprised by what has just happened to our sisters and brothers in Orlando.  I see the murderer as a product of our Islamophobic, homophobic, sexist, patriarchal, and Euro-colonialized culture; every part of the world colonized by the British and their anti-'sodomy' insanity have been infected with rampant homophobia.  All sthese systemic oppressions have collided with mental illness (ostracized and untreated holistically in our American culture) to create this massacre.  This event did not happen in a vacuum.
Though I have Cherokee and Quapaw heritage I was raised in a conservative, republican, Christian, homophobic, gun toting, yet very loving family.    I was taught that to be intimate with someone of the same sex was an abomination and the ultimate of reviling behavior.  When I came out to my family as bi-sexual in my early twenties they still loved me, but were shocked and disgusted.  They luckily didn't seem to harbor hatred;  this is probably partly because I started dating a man and had a baby, and partly because they're wonderful people who have been through a lot and get over things pretty well.  In raising our child, my partner and I chose a gender neutral name and cross-dressed and/or neutrally dressed our baby all. the. time.  It was so interesting to see adults connect with our child very differently when they though he was a boy versus when they thought he was a girl.  Our baby 'girl' received more tender words and soft touches, while our baby 'boy' received more rough words and attempts at 'tough guy' fist bumps.  When our child  was 11 months I took him to a Two-Spirit indigenous ceremony at a radical queer faerie community in Tennessee.  He was embraced lovingly by this community in which babies were few and far between; our gender bending parenting strategy was also welcomed without needing to explain anything...so refreshing!  A few years later we took him to their radical faerie gathering.  The Two-Spirit ceremony and radical faerie gathering were full of cross dressing, trans, and queer folks, expressing our own version of our souls' sexuality, beauty, and art through any medium desired.  The safety of this community and land, held powerfully by a native elder guiding the Two-Spirit ceremony was absolutely gorgeous to behold.  When I left that land I felt the rest of the world was grey and dull, missing the brightness and freedom and wilderness of expression inherent in the radical faerie community.  Though I'm sure the mixed race group of radical faeries I spent time with are expressing themselves differently than the indigenous Two Spirit souls before colonization, I could see the respect and the hope in these celebrations for what had gone before and what new culture was being created in the wounds of the Euro-American takeover.  I felt grateful to learn of the Two-Spirit ways of Native Americans, our ancestors, when my little one was so new, but I hadn't read much more about it all till Anton Treuer's book and till the events of this week.  I really appreciate the following article very much.  I hope my family reads it.  I hope you read it.  Bless our communities of Two Spirit souls, and please do community/policy change work in whatever way you feel moved to protect and liberate our world so they can feel safe and free and whole.  Our LGBTQZ community needs everyone right now and forever to stand with them for protection, respect, and healing.  

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/01/23/two-spirits-one-heart-five-genders 

Also, I love this site, full of great online media programming all about aboriginal peoples' history and movements today.  
http://www.cbc.ca/8thfire/index.html

I appreciate this summary of indigenous/Euro history: https://www.facebook.com/cbcdocs/videos/10154256899971950