Eco-Queer: Queering Environmental Politics and Greening Queer Politics

• In Event: Intersectional Identities and Politics within LGBTQ Communities

Abstract

Whereas the mainstream LGBTQIA+ movement's collective identity revolved around such issues like gay marriage and military service, the landscape today is different. We know relatively little about the ramifications of new agenda setting and the politicization of queerness and queer identities in environmental spaces. This research spotlights the underexplored efforts of eco-queer activists and queer-identified activists in the environmental movement to unpack the ways in which linking together disparate movements, either through agenda setting or identity construction, articulates a new sexual politics. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with activists and field notes from informal gatherings in the Bay Area, I present a range of perspectives on practical strategies to queer the green movement and how queer experiences inform both individual and organizational ideologies. My findings suggest the politicization and identity construction of queerness in the environment, through groups such as Queer Farmers or Queers for the Climate, moves beyond rote targeted outreach of queer people and shifts social movement ideologies. Moreover, I argue that movements that imbue an eco-queer consciousness into their organizing, while potentially drawing on intersectionality, focus on indirect, discursive connections with the environment to articulate a queer ecological ideology.

Author

• Jeff L Feng, UC Santa Barbara