Gaycation

Ian and I have been traveling around the world,

exploring queer culture.

Woo! I'm kind of dizzy.

We've witnessed some incredible things...

Thank you so much. But have also seen

that many countries still have a long way to go

in the fight for LGBTQ rights.

- Don't let down your hopes. - And nearly everything

we've experienced has made us think of home.

So now, we're going cross country

and bringing "Gaycation" back to America.

"Gaycation: America" in Saskatchewan!

Ahh!

Okay.

So, full disclosure: We're actually in Canada.

But this all used to be one land

before the white man divided it up.

We are starting our trip at a First Nations

two-spirit gathering with tribes from all across North America.

- Hi. - Hi.

Could you just explain

what two-spirit means?

We didn't have a word for our,

as you guys call, gay/lesbian people.

And... and so we coined that word

as an umbrella for all our tribes.

We never said, "Well, you're transgender.

You're bisexual. You're lesbian."

We never knew those terms. Those are all

from Western culture, you know, LGBTQ and all that.

So, on some level, it's about getting rid of labels?

- Yes. - Those terms were forced upon us.

Yeah.

You know, like, a lot of people think I'm trans.

And I said, "No, I'm not transgender."

I said, "I'm just me. I'm just Steven."

And I've seen a lot of people

that were non-natives say, "Oh, I'm two-spirit."

Right. You know, and I...

- Excuse me. No, you're not. - Yeah.

But I says,

"We've had our lands taken from you people."

"We've had our culture taken,

- our language taken." - Mm-hmm.

"And that was all stolen from us.

Now, you wanna steal our terms we picked for our own people?"

- Mm-hmm. - Mm-hmm.

I said, "You really need to go back and look into your...

your own history, your own culture

and find out your own word for that"...

- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.

"And don't use ours because it's ours."

Yeah.

I can remember, when I was younger,

it was never talked about.

You just lived the way you wanted to live.

- And you are who you are... - Mm.

Without anybody trying to tell you,

like, "Don't live as a woman. You're a man."

That wasn't talked about.

For me, it doesn't really matter.

- Right. - You can call me what you want.

- Just don't call me down. -

What does two-spirit mean,

specifically from you, what does it mean?

It's having the male spirit, having the female spirit...

- Mm-hmm. - And having both characteristics

and just, um, combined in one and being one person.

- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.

I'm actually Miss Montana Two Spirit.

My crown and stuff are just sitting right over there.

- You guys can look at them. - It's so beautiful.

The term "two-spirit"

was reappropriated in

to represent people who are queer

and indigenous within the Nations

without displacing each tribe's unique term.

According to the organizers of the event,

it is believed that every tribe and nation

recognized two-spirit people prior to colonization.

Tonight, we're attending a powwow.

It's a safe space, where two-spirit

can express themselves through dance and celebration.

Yeah.

These individuals were called the gifted ones

and considered healers that could restore balance in the universe

with both their male and female energy,

a far cry from modern labels and judgments.

To me, the two-spirit thing

is just such a clear example

of how being gay or being trans

is just a natural part of human existence.

And to have an example of

people who lived in North America before,

shall I say, we showed up,

existed in a way that was free.

It's, to me, a clear example

and negates all the people that say things like,

"This is a Western construct.

This is a modern,

uh, privilege to even be thinking about,

you know, your sexual identity or whatever," which I've heard before.

And it's like the only Western construct

is actually homophobia.

That's what...

that's what we brought.

But recently, it seems like we might be breaking down

the boundaries we once imposed on ourselves.

A historic day here at the Supreme Court,

ruling that same-sex marriage is a nationwide

Constitutional right.

On June 26, 2015,

history was made in America.

This ruling will strengthen all of our communities

by offering to all loving same-sex couples the dignity

of marriage across this great land.

In a five-four decision,

the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage legal under the Constitution.

And 2 days later in New York,

we really have something to celebrate at Pride.

Oh!

It's a pretty unbelievable time for

LGBT people in America...

and everybody, for that matter.

And we're celebrating the joy of being friends.

Yeah. And queer.

And queer.

Hi.

Hi. Can we get your...

That's Juno!

Thank you.

Like, how do you feel about the Supreme Court decision?

You know, it's every gay kid's dream, I guess.

I totally want to get married.

- She's the... - So I'm... I'm, like, the little romantic.

I love it due to the fact that I can do the same thing

my heterosexual partners can do.

It's a sigh of relief that we can finally say,

"Okay, this is my husband."

I think being gay is just validated in, like,

a whole new way that's pretty major.

While Ian and I can enjoy living open lives

in big cities like New York and Los Angeles,

there are still many places where the atmosphere for LGBT people

is not the same.

We're visiting a former Google data scientist

and a New York Times contributing writer,

who is researching just how different life is

for queer people in other parts of the country.

Do you do all of your research here?

And you just hang out at home?

And I'm, like, a 99th-percentile introvert.

- So... - Yeah.

Uh, this is, like, the extent of my human interaction

for the last week, so...

So maybe tell us more about your studies on sexuality.

One of the studies was, how many

men in the United States are gay?

As the surveys tell us, only about 1 percent or...

of... of men are homosexual.

And it's clear from the data that

it's more in the range of about 5 percent.

So what does this suggest?

This suggests a lot of men in the least

tolerant parts of the country are in the closet.

So let's look at pornographic search data.

So is it true that only about 1 percent

or... of... of men are gay in Mississippi?

- Mm-hmm. - But about 4 percent

of pornographic searches are for gay male porn.

We can also look at what men search right after gay porn.

Mm-hmm.

And one of the most common searches,

particularly in intolerant states,

is "gay test."

You can think through the mind set of a guy

who searches for gay porn and then ra...

and then right afterwards a test

probably trying to convince himself

he's not gay.

Another thing you see in the data:

What's the most common completion for the phrase,

"Is my husband," on Google?

By far, it's, "Is my husband gay?"

My data would suggest about 80 percent

of gay men are in the closet,

uh, to some degree and...

and often a large degree,

uh, to the degree they're... they're marrying women.

I totally Googled things like, "Am I lesbian?"

and stuff when I was younger, like trying to...

- Oh, yeah. Yeah. - You know, "Am I gay?"

or, "Why don't I like men?" or,

"How do you go down on a girl?" you know, stuff like that.

- Mm-hmm. - It helps.

New York is one of the most open-minded

places for LGBT people in the country.

Even though there's acceptance and

we have the U.S. Supreme Court decision, and it seems like,

you know, America is at the center of a progressive situation,