[4] Although initially a social group, GAI became involved in AIDS activism and the promotion of the Two-Spirit concept and community.
[4] The organization began the GAI History Project in 1984 to collect the oral records and traditions of same-sex relationships as well as gender variance in Indigenous tribes.
[9] Subsequently, in 1988, GAI and the History Project, in collaboration with white anthropologist Will Roscoe, published Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology.
Living the Spirit contained fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, as well as visual art, from gay Native contributors, with a particular focus on Two-Spirits.
At the 1992 Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, members of GAI met with anthropologists from the AAA to advocate for the substitution of "Two-Spirit" for "berdache" in scholarly works.