{"id":3751,"date":"2024-06-28T12:09:08","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T16:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weact.org\/updates\/pride-and-environmental-justice\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T13:24:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T17:24:33","slug":"pride-and-environmental-justice","status":"publish","type":"update","link":"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/pride-and-environmental-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride and Environmental Justice"},"template":"","class_list":["post-3751","update","type-update","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","update_type-blog","focus_tax-movement-building","person_tax-briana-carbajal","person_tax-tali-natter"],"acf":{"details":{"":null,"featured_image":5491,"update_type":[364],"focus_area":[11],"authors":[214,222],"abstract":""},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"

Green Stripes<\/b><\/h3>\r\n
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Illustration by Deema Alawa\/ YES! Magazine<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nAt the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, leaders across the environmental justice movement, including from here at <\/span>WE ACT<\/span> for Environmental Justice<\/span>, developed <\/span>17 Principles of Environmental Justice<\/span><\/a>. These principles have served as a guide for environmental justice work ever since. Principle #2 demands \u201cthat public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias.\u201d In the environmental justice movement, we usually understand this to mean across race and class, but it can also be applied to the idea that we must stand in solidarity towards justice across the intersections of identity, including LGBTQIA2S+ folks. As we celebrate the end of Pride 2024, we must look at environmental justice through multiple lenses, including a queer lens. All people of every gender and sexuality deserve safe, inclusive, and healthy environments.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nQueer folks, particularly queer folks of color, have long been at the forefront of activist movements throughout the country. This ranges from civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin to writer James Baldwin, with many modern protest movements taking inspiration from the organizing strategies of the <\/span>ACT UP movement<\/span><\/a>. Queer communities of color, in particular, face increased threats due to intersecting oppression and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, class, ability, gender, sexual orientation, and other forms of systemic prejudice, which cannot be addressed in isolation. For example, LGBTQIA2S+ people of color may experience environmental injustices related to race and ethnicity, as would their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts, in addition to the disproportionate challenges, injustices, and harms the LGBTQIA2S+ population. Our understanding of these injustices, alongside our solutions and organizing must be intersectional, too.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nOn the pride flag, yellow signifies the sun, and green signifies nature, showing the importance of the environment to queer communities. Indeed, the liberation of queer people is tied to environmental justice. As more and more parts of the country legalize discrimination against queer communities, it\u2019s time to broaden our understanding of what a safe and healthy environment means for\u00a0 LGBTQIA2S+ people.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n

Poverty and Housing<\/b><\/h3>\r\nDue to systemic oppression and lack of adequate protections for queer and trans individuals in the workplace, in housing, and in healthcare, according to the <\/span>National Network for Youth,<\/span><\/a> LGBTQIA2S+ individuals are up to 120 percent more likely to be without stable housing. LGBTQIA2S+ youth in particular are more than four times as likely to experience homelessness than the U.S population at large. Queer people likely also experience indoor air pollution because of the high rates of indoor environmental hazards in housing shelters, such as lead paint and pipes, asbestos, and other pollutants.<\/span>\r\n\r\nUnhoused populations in major cities are always the first to suffer in extreme climate and weather events. Additionally, emergency centers are rarely equipped to adequately provide a safe and comfortable space for queer people, who often face difficulties accessing aid and other resources due to discrimination and a lack of government recognition. During natural disasters, LGBTQIA2S+ individuals of color face unique discriminatory practices, such as <\/span>the two Black transgender women who were arrested for using the bathroom of their gender at an emergency temporary shelter during Hurricane Katrina<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\r\n
\u201cThe people who are going to be most impacted by climate change are our people. They\u2019re queer Brown people. They\u2019re Brown people. They\u2019re queer people. They\u2019re poor people. And when you look statistically at who experiences poverty in this country, in the LGBTQIA2S+ community, it\u2019s trans people. Our trans brothers and sisters are going to be the ones excluded from emergency disaster relief. They\u2019re the ones who are going to face violence. So asking questions like, \u2018How is climate change going to hurt our communities specifically?\u2019 has become so important,\u201d \u2013 <\/span>Lindi von Mutius, a board member at Out4Sustainability, said in an interview with Earthjustice<\/a>.<\/blockquote>\r\n

Health and Medical Care<\/b><\/h3>\r\nMuch like social determinants of health have been shown to be associated with inequitable environmental exposure based on race and socioeconomic status, chronic diseases associated with environmental exposure \u2014 respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer, for example \u2014 are found at a higher rate in the LGBTQIA2S+ community than in cisgender, heterosexual populations, according to a study in the <\/span>American Journal of Public Health<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>\r\n\r\nStudies<\/span><\/a> have found that areas with higher proportions of same-sex couples saw increased amounts of hazardous air pollutants compared with areas with lower proportions of same-sex couples. This has resulted in LGBTQIA2S+ people suffering higher rates of chronic diseases associated with environmental exposure, such as respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. <\/span>Half of Black gay and bisexual men have HIV<\/span><\/a>, and Black transgender women are also particularly affected. Air pollution can cause and worsen conditions such as pneumonia and tuberculosis (TB) in HIV-positive individuals. For example, exposure to particles found in dust, such as from construction sites, smoke from waste burning, or nitrogen dioxide from car fumes, has been associated with an increased risk of <\/span>pneumonia hospitalization in people with HIV<\/span><\/a>. Given their compromised immunity, people with HIV are particularly distressed by poor air and water quality, and during environmental disasters can suffer disproportionately from lack of lifesaving medications and lack of access to health centers.<\/span>\r\n\r\nAdditionally, queer communities face greater exposure to toxics from unsafe beauty products. Hair straighteners, skin lighteners, and makeup products can be packed with harmful chemicals that can leave negative impacts on the body. Many of these toxic products are disproportionately aimed at women and femme identified people of color. WE ACT hosted a panel on the topic of <\/span>Beauty Justice<\/span><\/a> for Pride Month in 2021, which featured a panel of researchers, advocates, and queer drag performers discussing the toxic chemicals found in beauty and other personal care products and their impact on the queer community.<\/span>\r\n\r\n