LGBTQ+ Rights Are Environmental Rights
Pride is more than just the rainbow capitalism-driven event it’s become today. It has and always will be a fight for LGBTQ+ folks to live freely and equally without harm.
The first Pride, also known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, was a commemoration of the NYC Stonewall Riots that occurred a year prior on June 28, 1969. The riots sparked the LGBTQ+ movement as we know it, born from the LGBTQ+ folks who bravely stood up against police violence and discrimination.
HONORING TRANS AND QUEER PIONEERS OF COLOR
This movement would not exist without the work of trans and queer women of color such as Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Stormé DeLarverie. Their legacies live on through trans and queer women of color who continue to fight for LGBTQ+ rights.
Sadly, these groups face immense discrimination and systemic inequities both within and outside the community. As a result, many LGBTQ+ people of color are forced to live in dangerous environments that put their health at risk.
How are LGBTQ+ Rights & Environmental Rights connected?
“Trans and queer communities, especially Black and Brown and low-income queer and trans people, live on the frontlines of climate change. Many young queer and trans people do not have the resources or ability to flee verbal, emotional, and physical violence in their hometowns. Instead, around the world, they are often abandoned by family and forced onto the streets with little to no support to survive.”
(Source: bit.ly/gristlgbtq)
These statistics show a heartbreaking reality: Whether it's the dewatering of streams that sustain cultural practices or living beside toxic GE fields, LGBTQ+ Kānaka (Native Hawaiians) often bear the brunt of environmental injustices in their own land.
If we wish to advocate for the betterment of Hawaiʻi’s land, we must also advocate for the health and safety of its indigenous people. Always remember that there would be no Pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.
“Once we stop seeing these fights for humanity as separate, we open ourselves up to the possibility of learning from each other in deeper ways.”