Climate Justice Is Queer Justice

By Ellen Salter
August 2020

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Climate Change Intersectionality refers to the interconnectedness of climate change within and between human societies, social institutions, and the natural environment. The concept has received growing attention both in popular culture and as an emerging academic field. You may have seen popular slogans littered across the media - ‘Climate Justice is Social Justice’, ‘Climate Justice is Racial Justice’, ‘Climate Justice is Intergenerational Justice’, and so on.

In recent times, the intersectionality between climate change and the queer community has reinforced environmental issues as LGBTQIA issues. According to Billy Stockwell, a member of Extinction Rebellion's queer affinity group Rainbow Rebels, ‘seeking safety is a common theme to queer struggle’ and also acts as a ‘central topic of the climate breakdown’. In the UK, it is estimated that 24% of the young person homeless population identify as LGBTQIA, with the figure reaching 40% in the United States. The LGBTQIA homeless are therefore disproportionately affected, experiencing heightened vulnerability to extreme weather events, heatwaves, and severe flooding. Within this figure, members of the BAME community are significantly over-represented.

Beyond the immediate impacts of climate change related events, it is also evident that relief and recovery practices and climate action planning further adds to the unequal burden faced by the LGBTQIA community. This is exemplified across global case studies, including the catastrophic Category 5 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans – resulting in the death of almost 2,000 in August 2005. Academic literature has time and time again highlighted the unequal burden of the hurricane’s impacts on the queer community, including the imprisonment of a transperson for using the women’s bathroom in a disaster relief shelter; and the palpable lack of safe spaces for the community. The 2005 Indian Ocean Tsunami further highlights this burden, whereby non-binary individuals were excluded from disaster shelters and were subjected to ‘physical harassment, abuse, and corrective rape.’

It is evident that a concerted and coordinated effort must be adopted to ensure that LGBTQIA individuals are included and represented within climate-related disaster relief and recovery. This should extend not only to acknowledging vulnerabilities by creating safe spaces and inclusion within the immediate aftermath of climate-related events, but to resilience through comprehensive stakeholder engagement in inclusive climate action planning to rebuild communities.

How can you support?

October 2019: My friend and I organised an evening of Spoken Word to raise money for the AKT Charity. We had vegan rainbow cake too.

October 2019: My friend and I organised an evening of Spoken Word to raise money for the AKT Charity. We had vegan rainbow cake too.

  1. Campaign for LGBTQIA inclusion within climate action planning.

  2. Fundraise for Intersectional Organisations.

  3. Raise awareness.

  4. Listen to others.

  5. Support charities such as Out for Sustainability, The Albert Kennedy Trust, and Friends of the Earth – charities actively recognising and supporting queer justice for climate justice.

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