Celebrate Diversity
Written by Jay Horton
June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month, a month dedicated to celebrating and advocating for diverse gender and sexual expression. In the last several months, the United States has seen a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in state legislatures, including Georgia.
Advocacy groups frequently discuss the ways this discriminatory legislation unnecessarily restricts LGBTQ+ individuals movements and increases the prevalence of interpersonal violence. Less talked about though are the ways these laws are putting the LGBTQ+ community more at risk for environmental harm.
While race is the largest casual factor for environmental injustice, recent studies have shown that LGBTQ+ people are also subject to a “disproportionate burden of pollution compared with cisgender heterosexual people.”(citation) This is primarily due to increased exposure to environmental pollutants, vulnerability to extreme weather, and lack of access to adequate healthcare.
In the United States, LGBTQ individuals are more likely than non-LGBTQ people to be living in low-income neighborhoods, to be renters, have unstable housing, or to be homeless. This is due to discriminatory housing practices, lack of safe employment opportunities, and the high rate of LGBTQ youth kicked out of their homes by families who disagree with their gender or sexual expression, often because of religious reasons.
Recent studies have found that between 20 and 45 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ. That is more than two times that of all youth who identify as LGBTQ. LGBTQ young adults ages 18-25 also have a 2.2 times greater risk of homelessness than non-LGBTQ people. In extreme cold or heat, and inclement weather, lack of housing puts vulnerable populations at greater risk of heat stroke, hypothermia, and respiratory distress.
Transgender individuals often find it especially difficult to seek shelter as most shelters lack safe, gender-affirming accommodations. Living in ill-maintained housing conditions also exposes LGBTQ+ individuals to toxins like lead, asbestos, and radon which have been known to lead to cardiovascular disease and cancer.
If that were not bad enough, LGBTQ+ individuals who seek medical treatment often experience additional discrimination and difficulty paying for services. Certain medical conditions with greater prevalence in the LGBTQ+ community, like HIV, may also worsen the health impacts of environmental pollutants.
It is important for people of faith to not continue to support policies that push LGBTQ+ individuals out of housing and resourcing that will keep them healthy and protected from environmental pollutants.
It is equally important for environmental activists to not forget the queer nature of nature.
For too long humans have tried to tame, colonize, and conform the natural world to achieve industrial goals—damming rivers, mining hills, and murdering whole populations of animals. All of these activities have led to increased flooding, global warming, and mass extinction. Nature has proven time and time again that it does not fit inside human molds. It cannot be contained.
The beauty of nature is that it was created to exist beyond the binary, beyond the black and white, ever-changing, and ever-adapting. Its variation and fluidity are its strength.
This Pride Month, find ways to celebrate biodiversity in your faith community and work for environmental justice for people of all identities. This may look like submitting comments to cut climate pollution, attending public hearings, or working to elect officials that understand and elevate the gifts of all peoples. It may look like establishing partnerships with other justice-seeking organizations in your area or partnering on rewilding and sustainability projects. Whatever it may be, remember our diversity is a sacred gift.
