LGBTQIA2S+ justice

This page contains knowledge shared by people present at the HUB's learning circle on LGBTQIA2S+ issues and climate justice.

Defining 'Queer'

Queer is “a multi-faceted word that is used in different ways and means different things to different people such as; 1) Attraction to people of multiple genders, 2) Does not conform to cultural norms regarding gender and/or sexuality, 3) General term for all non-heterosexual people. Some people in the community may feel the word has been used against them in a hateful way for too long, and therefore do not prefer to use it.

What makes a group LGBTQIA2S+ friendly?

• Meet the accessibility and space needs of queer people. See our wiki page on making your activism accessible for more.
• Educate yourself about the issue of intersectionality
• Effort to build trusting relationships between people, especially other queer people
• Have a culture of listening to the needs of others

Environments still have work to do to become welcoming to queer people. The queer people who are part of it experience a great mental and emotional burden from having to do educational work relating to the issues they are experiencing. It can lead to burnout. Some activists may choose to organize as a queer-based group to mobilize without having to do educational labour while fitting into larger movements such as climate justice.

Learning from queer environments

Question for learning circle participants: What have queer circles taught you / are teaching you?

Check-in with one another

Present moment check	At the start of the meeting, practice asking yourself what state of mind you are in to better understand each other.
Communication of sensitive topics	When there are sensitive topics to discuss, include these points:  desires and fears related to the outcome of the discussion limits (ex: "in case of conflict, I would like us to postpone the discussion")
Self-consciousness	Self-awareness in the space shared with others, such as balancing speaking time.
Open mindedness	Encourage a culture of learning and growing together, and practice giving and receiving feedback. This means challenging perfectionism and defensiveness.
Sharing capacities	Challenge the gender roles and values ​​of capitalism pushing us towards overworking. Prioritize primary needs (i.e. nutrition, sleep etc.) before working, studying or being an activist. Regularly remind one another to avoid falling into the culture of burnout and hyper-productivity.  “There are a lot of activists with disabilities or illnesses who still get involved. Sometimes you have to check in with these people often to [make sure] they don't take too much on their shoulders. We have to do check-ins with our communities."

LGBTQIA2S+ identities as a factor of marginalization and vulnerability in the context of the climate crisis

Government attitude

Familialism is the tendency to emphasize the importance of the family in society. There is concern about the familialism attitudes of governments adopted during crises. In particular, trans BIPOC people would be more vulnerable if they leave their towns of origin to move to big cities.

Migration

With natural disasters, more and more people will have to move from their places of residence. Queer people (and other marginalized groups) will be particularly affected by these realities which will affect issues of jobs, government services, access to housing. It is of great importance to create networks of solidarity with groups that fight in particular for migration justice. E.g: a migrant will have to wait several years to be recognized in the gender with which he identifies.

Erasure of queer struggles

Tolerating attacks on the dignity of minority groups because we have to focus on climate is very dangerous. If we do not listen to the voices of vulnerable groups, marginalization will become more severe (e.g. access to housing). We must listen to people and act on the social realities of the climate crisis. This is why anti-oppression education is imperative. When we talk about the climate emergency, we have to talk about climate justice and how we can support the people who are most vulnerable to this crisis.

Delays in care and services

Deadlines for having identification papers in the gender with which a person identifies will be lengthened by the climate crisis.

If you have any suggested revisions or additional resources to share related to the above content, please email them to kenzie@lehub.ca.

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