When marriage equality became the law of the land in 2015 in the United States, there was great jubilation. It meant that I could marry my sweetheart, Todd, if I wanted to, and now we’re within reach of the “I do” stage, as I wear an engagement ring on my hand.

Unfortunately, while the Supreme Court decision enabled me and homosexuals across the fruited plains the right to marry, that ruling did not extend into the boundaries of Native American tribes. Tribes, like the Navajo, that had laws on the books proclaiming that marriage was strictly between a man and a woman could continue to persecute their two-spirit brethren if they saw fit. The Navajo did.

I spent nearly a decade working for a newspaper near Lake Powell, on the western border of the Navajo Nation. In that time, I made some wonderful Navajo friends, including some gay ones, and it saddened me that the 2015 ruling didn’t allow them to marry whomever they loved, especially since I was there in 2005 when the Diné Marriage Act was passed, spewing the same dogma that other anti-LGBT marriage legislation in the United States contained and lumping same-sex marriage in with incest and polygamy.

Now, though, the winds may be changing in Dinétah. I saw a story in The Advocate that announced that a member of the Navajo Nation Council is sponsoring legislation that would allow for same-sex marriage, the same as their neighbors off the reservation. However, Eugene Tso’s would still allow for traditional Navajo ceremonies for marriage to remain between a man and a woman.

While it’s not a full-throated love song for their two-spirit people, I have to say that I’m impressed that this is even being considered by the tribe. I have not shown much faith in the Navajo Nation Council in the past, even taking the membership to task for spending $50,000 on fancy rings for themselves while allowing many on the reservation to live without electricity and running water.

However, it’s too early to break out the champagne and welcome the Navajo into the tribe of love and decency. For one thing, the legislation is not going to be debated until later in the summer and fall, and even then, there’s plenty of political trickery that could hold it up. For another thing, there’s already organized resistance against Tso’s legislation by—you guessed it—the good “Christians” in and around the reservation.

The argument against the same-sex marriage bill is the same—the Bible tells you so. A full-page advertisement was recently taken out in the Gallup Independent with an unnamed coalition of 174 Navajo Nation churches urging that the legislation be struck down in true biblical fashion. According to Source NM, churches were circulating petitions against the legislation during services.

Source NM quotes one pastor named Bobby George who claims “The issue here is that (same-sex marriage is) an issue that Christians do not believe in. That’s the bottom line.” George also dismisses the Native American beliefs of two-spirit people, tribal members who embody both masculine and feminine spirits, saying “There’s no written history about how the traditional people really did things and what they believed in.”

I’m calling bull. Christians love thy neighbor and accept them without judgement. Meanwhile, padres like George constantly thumb through the Book of Leviticus, citing it as unbreakable law while ignoring the verses on bacon, shellfish and mixed fabrics. His claims that Christians do not believe in same-sex marriage or relationships is an outdated excuse that needs to be put in the same drawer as the excuses for slavery and discrimination and the key tossed away.

Tso’s legislation points out that the Navajo Nation embraced and accepted LGBT people long before “European” influence. That same influence brought about the boarding schools that condemned the beliefs, language and lives of Navajos and other Native Americans and caused tribal culture to come within a hair’s breadth of extinction. Passing the proposed legislation would not only be a victory for same-sex couples but for reclaiming Navajo heritage, as well.

Among the 49 comments from the public comment period supporting Tso’s bill was this statement from Alvina White: “We have many same sex couples that are already legally married outside of the Navajo Nation. To be discriminated from their own tribe is wrong. All they want is equality and a legal certificate saying their (sic) married within their tribe, they shouldn’t have to go off Navajo land to do so.”

A comment that really touched me came from a Navajo named Christopher Belin, who married another Navajo. He said: “We got legally married back in 2016 and are still going strong. I legally changed my name and took my husband’s last name. All my legal documents reflect my married name. When I went to the enrollment office to try and have my Certificate of Indian Blood (CIB) reflect my recognized legal name, I was turned away because the Navajo Nation does not recognize same-sex marriage.”

The tribe has already shown some signs of accepting their two-spirit brothers and sisters in other ways, allowing for Diné Pride events on the reservation and passing an equality act that forbids discrimination against LGBT people. Passing a same-sex marriage act isn’t going to bankrupt the Navajo or cause some kind of civil war, and allowing hatemongers like Bobby George to steer the ship will guarantee the tribe hits the rocks and continues to keep the Navajo shackled by the chains of colonialism.

The Navajo are a beautiful people, as many Native American tribes are. The Diné Marriage Act is a particularly nasty stain of blood on their LGBT people. Passing a new law that allows them to marry who they love—and not what is prescribed in a holy book horribly translated by narrow-minded bigots pretending to be clergy—will wash that stain away.