Harlan Pruden is a First Nations

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

scholar and community organizer known for his work in the

two-spirit Two-spirit (also two spirit, 2S or, occasionally, twospirited) is a modern, , umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional third-gender (or other gender-variant) ...

community.

Background

Pruden was raised in northeast

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada and is a member of the

Cree Nation The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree or ...

. He grew up on his mother's reservation, the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, but is a member of the

Saddle Lake Cree Nation Saddle Lake Cree Nation ( cr, ᐅᓂᐦᒋᑭᐢᑿᐱᐏᓂᕽ, onihcikiskwapiwinihk) is a Plains Cree, First Nations community, located in the ''Amiskwacīwiyiniwak'' (" Beaver Hills") region of central Alberta, Canada. The Nation is a signator ...

in Alberta. PRUDEN moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in May 1994. In addition to serving on the board of for the

American Indian Community House Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk Channel. The National Park S ...

's board, he co-founded the NorthEast Two-Spirit Society (NE2SS) in New York City, which organizes traditional cultural ceremonies for two-spirit Indigenous peoples. He was also a co-chair of the National Native HIV/AIDS Coalition, one of the first national efforts within the HIV/AIDS field to include all of the Two-Spirit organizations and groups in the United States. In 2011, Pruden was instrumental in helping the Chicago-Based Legacy Project, whose outdoor

LGBT history LGBT history dates back to the first recorded instances of same-sex love and sexuality of ancient civilizations, involving the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) peoples and cultures around the world. What survives af ...

installation, The Legacy Walk, included a plaque co-written by Pruden. In April 2011, Pruden was appointed to Manhattan Community Board 12, where he served as the Chair of Parks and Cultural Affairs. In the spring of 2013, he was appointed to be an American representative to the International Indigenous Peoples Working Group on HIV/AIDS. In August 2014, he was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Pruden is the co-chair of the global subcommittee and a member for the health disparity subcommittee. He is one of the lead organizers of the National Confederacy of Two-Spirit Organizations; serves as the principal two-spirit consultant to USA's federal agency of Substance Abuse Mental Services Administration (SAMHSA) Tribal Training and Technical Assistance Center. He serves as an honorary committee member of the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

, and is a native community advisory expert panel member for the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

’s Indigenous Wellness Research Institute. Pruden has also headed SpeakOUT: LGBT Voices for Recovery, a program of the LGBT Community Center in New York City. Pruden has worked on political campaigns, including

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

’s 2000 Senate race; as well as

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan com ...

and

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs. The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...

races. He was formerly Chief of Staff for

Craig M. Johnson Craig M. Johnson (born April 21, 1971) is an American politician and former Democratic Party member of the New York State Senate for the 7th district. Education and early career Johnson earned a B.A. degree (''magna cum laude'') from Amherst ...

, a former State Legislator, when Johnson was in the

Nassau County Legislature The Nassau County Legislature is the lawmaking body of Nassau County, New York. Currently, it has 19 different members from 19 different districts. It was formed in 1996 to succeed the county's Board of Supervisors, which was ruled unconstitutio ...

. Up until March 2014, Pruden worked for the State of New York's Empire State Development Corporation in the Division of Minority & Women's Business Development, which promotes equality of economic opportunities for

MWBE Supplier diversity refers to the use of minority-owned businesses as suppliers, and a supplier diversity program is a proactive business program which encourages such use within an organisation's supply chain. Minority-owned includes black and min ...

s works towards the elimination of barriers to their participation in state contracts.

Personal life

As of April 2015, he now lives in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

with his spouse Stephen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pruden, Harlan 1970 births Living people Cree people First Nations activists LGBT First Nations people Canadian LGBT rights activists American LGBT rights activists Two-spirit people 20th-century First Nations people 21st-century First Nations people First Nations academics 21st-century Canadian LGBT people 20th-century Canadian LGBT people