Six Navajo presidential candidates back repealing same-sex marriage ban

Six candidates for Navajo Nation president said they would sign legislation repealing the tribe’s same-sex marriage ban if elected, turning an old law into a live campaign issue for Apache County, where Window Rock serves as the Navajo Nation’s capital and seat of government.

The pledge came at a May 23 forum in Phoenix hosted by the Navajo Two-Spirit LGBTQIA+ Leadership Forum at Native American Urban Ministry. The six candidates who attended were Justin Jones, Jordon J. Begay, Alexander Chambers, Debbie Nez-Manuel, Andrew Curley and Speaker Crystalyne Curley. Organizers said it was the first forum ever centered on Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ issues for candidates running for any tribal presidency. Ten of the 16 people who filed to run for Navajo president did not attend, including incumbent President Buu Nygren.

The law at issue is the Diné Marriage Act of 2005, passed by the Navajo Nation Council in April 2005. It says marriage between persons of the same sex is void and prohibited. But the legal landscape is already shifting. On Oct. 21, 2025, the Navajo Nation Department of Justice issued opinion AG-04-25 saying the act does not block the Executive Branch from recognizing valid same-sex marriages performed outside the Navajo Nation for tribal employment benefits or spousal rights.

That distinction matters for readers in Apache County. A Navajo president cannot repeal the ban alone. The president can sign or veto legislation, direct executive policy and decide how the administration carries out the law, but the Navajo Nation Council still has to pass any repeal or amendment. Title 9 materials in the Judicial Branch still reference CAP-29-05 and say marriages valid where performed are generally valid within the Nation, except those voided by Section 2.

The repeal effort has already surfaced before. In 2023, Delegate Seth Damon sponsored Legislation 0139-23 to repeal Title 9’s same-sex marriage ban and recognize all marriages within the Navajo Nation. The Health, Education and Human Services Standing Committee approved it on July 26, 2023, and council materials later placed it on the 2024 fall session agenda. Former President Joe Shirley Jr. vetoed the original 2005 act, but it still became law.

Trudie Jackson, the forum coordinator and an openly transgender Diné woman who previously ran for Navajo president, said she did not want the next generation to face the exclusion she had lived through. She recalled that for years she "could not go home because of who I was."

For Apache County couples and families, repeal would decide whether the Navajo Nation keeps the ban, rewrites it or fully removes it from tribal law. It would shape how same-sex spouses are treated in employment records, benefit coverage and family recognition across Navajo communities tied to Window Rock and the wider county.