Queer(ing) Environmentalism
By Katy Constantinides
Despite the tendency of LGBTQ+ and environmental movements to operate in separate spheres, queer liberation is intrinsically tied with environmental justice. Mainstream environmentalism has been a historically white, cisgender, and heterosexual space, but environmental justice movements led by queer people of color have shown that issues of climate change, pollution, and land rights disproportionately affect marginalized communities. The same systems of oppression which affect LGBTQ+ people also perpetuate harmful dualisms which posit humans as separate from and above the natural world, leading to exploitation and injustice. Queer liberation is explicitly linked to racial justice, indigenous sovereignty, and disability justice, all of which are part of seeking environmental justice.
On a very tangible level, queer people face higher risk of experiencing environmental harm due to toxic pollution. Research from Yale University has shown that LGBTQ+ people are “disproportionately at risk to environmental exposures.” The study found that chronic diseases associated with environmental exposure to pollutants such as respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer, are found at a higher rate in the LGBTQ+ community than in cisgender, heterosexual populations. This is largely due to discrimination which impacts queer people’s ability to access affordable housing and healthcare.
The impacts of climate change will likely be felt more urgently by queer communities as well. Homelessness and poverty place individuals at higher risk during natural disasters. Due to familial and systemic discrimination, LGBTQ+ people comprise a disproportionately high segment of the homeless population. For example, in the U.S., 40% of youth who experience homelessness are LGBTQ+ despite only comprising approximately 7% of the total population. Low-income Black and Brown trans communities are far more likely to experience poverty and homelessness, living “on the frontlines of climate change” while also being systematically excluded from emergency disaster relief. The violence faced by queer communities through inaccessible healthcare systems, lack of housing, and discrimination, will only increase in periods of environmental disaster.
Climate change compounds struggles already faced by trans and queer people worldwide. To fully capture the impact from environmental injustice, queer people must become “a focal point of the environmental justice movement,” especially low-income LGBTQ+ people of color. Queer liberation and environmental justice are inseparably tied together, and neither movement is complete without the other.
LGBTQ+ communities are undoubtedly disproportionately affected by environmental concerns, but it is not all bad news; queer ecologies also offer new perspectives and contributions to environmentalism. Queer ecologies challenge the nature and culture binary, a separation that fosters human-centric attitudes and leads to environmental exploitation and degradation. Queer activists also bring into question common environmentalist practices of protecting “wilderness,” bringing into focus environmental concerns affecting humans in urban areas as well. The “environment” is envisioned not as an abstract place separate from humans, but as an integral part of everyday existence. An explicitly queer environmentalism is concerned with protecting forests and rivers and oceans, but it is also deeply aware of the need to create conditions where every human being can live in safe and clean spaces free from contamination and with access to essential resources.
For centuries, LGBTQ+ people have “developed resilient and interdependent communities that challenge societal norms that condition us to be individualistic, materialistic, and competitive” to survive in a world hostile to their very existence. These strategies of community-building and challenging capitalist norms are essential to creating and sustaining environmental movements which address the underlying causes of climate injustice and center those most affected. Environmentalist movements which center queer and trans people of color can learn from and utilize these strategies to not just survive but create a world where all can thrive.
Many queer-led organizations currently exist, creating spaces for LGBTQ+ people to engage with outdoor spaces and advocating for more inclusive environmentalisms. One of these organizations is Out 4 Sustainability which provides “a platform for co-creating climate resilience and environmental justice by and for the LGBTQIA+ community.” They are focused on advocacy, training, and relationship-building, and have programs covering disaster preparedness for the LGBTQ+ community, more sustainable LGTBQ+ events, and educational events highlighting the connections between LGBTQ+ communities, sustainability, and justice.
Outdoor spaces have been historically shaped by white, cisgender and straight bodies, creating an environment in which engagement with the outdoors is frequently restricted to upper- and middle-class white folks who can afford access to gear, time off, and travel. Lindi von Mutius, a founder of Out 4 Sustainability and a current leader at the Sierra Club, writes “a biracial, bisexual, immigrant is still an oddity in the outdoor space.” She proclaims that this land, while historically claimed and controlled by white cisgender and heterosexual men, it must also be there for queer folks and people of color to enjoy the benefits from as well.
Some LGBTQ+ environmentalist organizations, such as the Venture Out Project, are dedicated to promoting access to the outdoors for LGBTQ+ people. Venture Out leads backpacking and wilderness trips for members of the queer community, an act in direct opposition to the dominant heteronormative and masculine construction of the outdoors. Their vision is to create community for LGBTQ+ people, and to focus on environmental stewardship and social justice. For LGBTQ+ people, an opportunity to exist in an outdoor space that is safe for them to be openly queer in can be an empowering and impactful experience.
Queer Nature, led by Pinar and So Sinopoulous-Lloyd, focuses on engaging queer people in land stewardship practices and solidarity. Their work is rooted in recognizing the impacts of settler colonialism on land and environmentalism and implements “ecological awareness and place-based skills as vital and often overlooked parts of resiliency-building for populations who have been marginalized and even represented as ‘unnatural.’” Queer nature seeks to “go beyond recreation” in a distinctly queer and indigenous-led engagement with the natural world to “build-interspecies alliances and an enduring sense of belonging for all.”
The disproportionate burden of climate change on queer people, especially trans people of color, necessitates that these communities be centered in the fight against environmental injustice. Queer environmentalisms create space for new ways of thinking about and engaging with the natural world, addressing issues of environmental injustice, and building a world that is safe and abundant for all people and living beings. As the climate crisis continues, it is essential that more mainstream environmentalisms follow the lead of LGBTQ+ organizations to prioritize communities most affected and explore new ways of living in and interacting with the natural world. ∎
Katy Constantinides graduated from The Fletcher School with a MALD degree in May 2022.
This is the first blog post in CIERP’s Pride Month Blog Series. Stay tuned for future posts in this series, to be released throughout the month of June.