Think Tank Wants Money to Study “LGBT2SQ+” Issues Plaguing the Arctic

The Arctic Institute has called on researchers to submit papers focusing on “heteronormativity” in the far north region of the world. The think tank, which promotes economic, military, and health security policy for the Arctic, argues that “queerness and Indigenous” identities in the region have often been ignored. In response, analysts are compiling a series of papers called “Queering the Arctic,” which will examine the role of “queerness” among native populations.

The group has posed questions such as “How are queer people in the Arctic challenging well-established systems of heteronormativity? To what extent are they suffering from societal, cultural or structural shortcomings and how are they using their resources to overcome them?” The aim is to challenge deficiency-oriented, ethnocentric and neoliberal approaches, and invite authors to create a space to identify “Hope Spots” from Indigenous and queer feminist perspectives, whether artistic, academic, analytical or narrative. The addition of “two-spirit” to the “LGBT2SQ+” acronym marks one example of how “precolonial Indigenous concepts of gender and identity have gained popularity in recent years, and how queer people are taking matters in their own hands yet again.”

The Arctic Institute, launched in 2011 and recognized as one of the foremost think tanks by the University of Pennsylvania, seeks to raise awareness around gender and sexual identity issues in native communities. The Indian Health Service, a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, acknowledges that some tribes historically have had individuals who “combined activities of both men and women” and therefore “occupied a distinct, alternative gender status.” The disruptions brought about by disease, conquest and the activities of missionaries, government agents, boarding schools, and white settlers resulted in the elimination of many traditions in native communities. As a result, two-spirit traditions and practices disappeared in a number of tribes.

Researchers and academics within gender studies and related fields have been the subject of criticism for their advocacy-driven conclusions and use of pseudoscientific methods.

The Arctic Institute’s project follows an earlier article by the Polar Institute, a division of the Wilson Center, which studies central policy issues impacting the Arctic and Antarctic, which reached similar conclusions on the subject of “queering the Arctic.” The authors of the said article concluded that stigmas surrounding non-traditional households continue to exist in many societies.