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. [1]
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:
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| 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. [2] 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.
Resources
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"The Collectif NU.ES is a non-profit organization whose goal is to create interdisciplinary and contemporary performative pieces on the diversity of bodies, intimacies, and eroticisms. It brings together artists passionate about these subjects and keen to explore them from Queer and sex-positive perspectives. Its artistic mission is to create and develop an art that will question our identity, relational and aesthetic standards, an art that is both intimate and political. | |
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"Noting that ecological movements struggle to integrate the question of minorities, particularly sexual minorities, and sometimes adopt hostile positions in the face of PMA and transidentity, for example, the author went to draw on currents of English socialist thought. 19th century models of communities that experimented with minority lifestyles." | |
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"The Nap Ministry was founded in 2016 by Tricia Hersey and is an organization that examines the liberating power of naps. Our “REST IS RESISTANCE” framework and practice engages with the power of performance art, site-specific installations, and community organizing to install sacred and safe spaces for the community to rest together. We facilitate immersive workshops and curate performance art that examines rest as a radical tool for community healing. We believe rest is a form of resistance and name sleep deprivation as a racial and social justice issue. We are very active on social media because we view our pages as one of our many tools to help deprogram the masses from grind culture. Please feel free to follow us to learn more about this justice movement." | |
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Small, Broke, and Kind of Dirty: Affirmations for the Real World (Hana Shafi) |
"Let's get one thing straight: Small, Broke, and Kind of Dirty: Affirmations for the Real World is not a book of advice. You're not going to find a step-by-step guide to meditation here, or even reminders to drink lots of water and get enough sleep.Those things are all good for you, but that's not what Hana Shafi wants to talk about. Instead, Small, Broke, and Kind of Dirty—built around art from Shafi's popular online affirmation series—focuses on our common and never-ending journey of self-discovery. It explores the ways in which the world can all too often wear us down, and reminds us to remember our worth, even when it's hard to do so. Drawing on her experience as a millennial woman of colour, and writing with humor and a healthy dose of irreverence, Shafi delves into body politics and pop culture, racism and feminism, friendship, and allyship. Through it all, she remains positive without being saccharine, and hopeful without being naive. So no, this is not an advice book: it's a call to action, one that asks us to remember that we are valid as we are—flaws and all—and to not let the bastards grind us down." |
| FIRE & FLOOD: QUEER RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CLIMATE CHANGE | "Tells the story of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the fires in Santa Rosa, California, two-near simultaneous climate-related disasters in the fall of 2017, through the voices of LGBTQ people who lived through them and were part of the community response The film explores the vulnerability of LGBTQ communities to climate disasters and also lifts up queer and trans strategies for resilience, transition, and survival. "Fire and Flood" was piloted at the National LGBTQ Task Force's Creating Change Conference in January, 2018, with positive feedback on the need for these stories in the LGBTQ movement." |
| FIRE & FLOOD: QUEER RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CLIMATE CHANGE | "Treating such issues as animal sex, species politics, environmental justice, lesbian space and "gay" ghettos, AIDS literatures, and queer nationalities, this lively collection asks important questions at the intersections of sexuality and environmental studies. Contributors from a wide range of disciplines present a focused engagement with the critical, philosophical, and political dimensions of sex and nature.These discussions are particularly relevant to current debates in many disciplines, including environmental studies, queer theory, critical race theory, philosophy, literary criticism, and politics. As a whole, Queer Ecologies stands as a powerful corrective to views that equate "natural" with "straight" while "queer" is held to be against nature." |
| FIRE & FLOOD: QUEER RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CLIMATE CHANGE | "This episode brings together five queer and trans climate justice organizers to talk about how struggles for queer and trans liberation connect with fights for climate justice. From cities across the US to Belgium and Botswana, we discuss how queer and trans people, particularly those of color, are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change; how personal experiences with homophobia and transphobia have impacted our lives; and the ways in which systemic violence and oppression towards those who defy gender norms often leave members of queer and trans communities abandoned, homeless, and forced to survive with little to no resources or support in times of climate crisis." |
| FIRE & FLOOD: QUEER RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CLIMATE CHANGE | An article by Aletta Brady, Anthony Torres and Philip Brown published on the Grist website that highlights lessons the queer community can bring to climate justice movements. |
If you have any suggested revisions or additional resources to share related to the above content, please email them to kenzie@lehub.ca.
