A Call for Liberation – Climate Generation

From a very young age, I knew the gender I was assigned at birth didn’t make a lot of sense to what I felt internally.

Unfortunately our society does not do a good job of embracing complexities that exist within one person. This binary of “man” and “woman” has always been something that I was confused about, which resulted in me completely rejecting it. Growing up I didn’t have the language we have now to acknowledge different gender identities and expressions. “Why is there no word to describe what I’m feeling?” was always spinning in my mind. 

For me Pride month is about remembering our history of resistance and persistence as Queer people. Whether it was the Stonewall riots or the Compton Lunch riots, we have always rejected societal norms that want to erase and make us fit this “perfect image” of what it looks like to be a man or a woman. It is these historic events that remind us that the fight for Queer liberation has and is being led by Black and Brown Trans people.

Pride month is for Queer joy and recognizes how far our advocacy efforts have gone. Our Queer elders have laid the groundwork for us to exist and for us to keep fighting, but only if we choose to do so. The simple act of showing up as your authentic self is a huge middle finger to those who are actively attacking us, but we must continue to remember our past of resistance and community organizing as we move forward.

My mind went into so many different directions when I was preparing to write this blog. I asked myself “what connection even is there between combating homophobia and combating the climate crisis?” This sent me into an interesting research spiral, where I learned about Queer Ecology and how these binaries, that I reject, are even applied to nature. I also read about how Queer people, specifically Trans people, are in Frontline communities as we have a large number of Trans people who are homeless and more exposed to the harms of pollution due to climate change. 

Although these are really great reads that show some connection between Queer rights and Environmentalism I still struggled to feel the connection… until I did some deeper reflection. 

The Power of Storytelling: Who are the Muxe?

Growing up, the men in my family told me to be the most competitive and aggressive person in order to achieve success. I was never this person, though, and found it hard to see why I needed those traits in order to survive. 

Being the oldest of 3 and being labeled a “boy”, who would later become a “man” just didn’t sit well with me. Sadly it was who I was told to be, especially in the Catholic church. I don’t hold a grudge with my family, this is how they were raised and there is no handbook on how to raise a gay child. Luckily for me I accepted my own Queerness from an early age, so even if I was confused I was able to navigate the world as a Queer kid. After that I was struggling to learn about how I can show up as my authentic self in my Latine community. 

Much like stories, toxic traits are passed down through generations. These traits aren’t random and learned in one day, they are systemic. They are the result of oppressive systems that don’t prioritize community and collaboration. Capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy are very big and scary words, I will admit, but being able to name them now has been eye-opening.

My family never talked about Queer people, so I didn’t know what LGBTQ+ history existed in Mexico until I did my own research. Through online storytelling, I was able to discover that the Indigenous people of Mexico, specifically the Zapotec in Oaxaca, recognize and celebrate a “third gender”. The Muxe (mu-shay) are a fabulous group of people in Mexico that embody masculinity and femininity both internally and in how they present themselves. 

As a nonbinary person, I asked myself, “Why was I never introduced to the Muxe?” If they are an integral part of Mexican culture and history, then why does the binary way of thinking still exist in Mexico?

As I learned more about colonialism, specifically in Mexico, I learned that so much of what makes Mexican culture is a result of being colonized by Spain. From our language to the religion practiced there, I see how Spain “influenced” what I know Mexico to be today. It is important to remember that religion was a tool used for colonization and deeming what is or isn’t “natural”. 

Colonization not only takes land and its resources away from the people indigenous to it, but it erases culture and replaces it with a straight, white version.

The Muxes and other Third Gender people were almost erased completely if it wasn’t for storytelling. I would not have been able to connect to my gender identity if it weren’t for storytelling. The story of the Muxe tells me that the world I’m envisioning is not far-fetched; it was once and still is a reality that shouldn’t be swept under the rug. We must keep fighting, not only for our rights and the rights of the planet, but also for the stories that helped guide us, as organizers. 

When I say LGBTQ+ liberation, I mean breaking away from the harmful and oppressive systems and way of thinking that don’t serve our needs and dehumanize us. This liberation also means that people don’t suffer because of how and where they were born; everyone is taken care of regardless. Everyone should have access to housing, healthcare, and a healthy environment. Systems like capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy have created a world centered on the voices of the white wealthy elites. 

The Fossil Fuel Industry perfectly embodies this way of thinking. Accepting Queer people and advocating around the climate crisis goes against everything the Fossil Fuel Industry was created to silence. For this reason we are seeing Queer and Environmental advocates being targeted, which is not new. Pushing back against the status quo is what our advocacy work should be centered on and failing to do so will only create incremental change, which is needed, but won’t be liberating anyone. 

In order to achieve liberation for all Queer people we must reject capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy not only to avoid those systems from returning, but because it also means protecting the planet from further destruction. Although the language for homophobia has changed over the years, it still stems from viewing LGBTQ+ people as “unnatural”, which I find ironic since these are the same people who reject nature by exploiting our Earth. 

As I become more of an Environmental organizer, I am doing a lot of unlearning on what I thought was “eco-friendly” and what I thought being an Environmentalist means. On the surface, I am getting better at recycling and teaching others how to properly recycle: I am getting better at not using single-use products; I am producing less food waste. On a deeper level, I am learning that the systems I listed above are not only the reasons why we are in the climate crisis, but are the reasons why so many people don’t deem LGBTQ+ people as human.

The Current Erasure of Queer Identity

Last year, we saw how Target backed out from openly supporting the LGBTQ+ community by removing products created by us. Now we are seeing the company remove all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion protocols. This corporation also sells a lot of greenwashed products like those made from “recycled materials,” when in reality, it is single-use plastic in green packaging. 

These are clear examples of how these systems, in this case capitalism, try to infiltrate movement spaces. 

Whether it be in the Environmental or Queer spaces it is important to remember one thing: corporations are not our allies and they must be rejected from entering our spaces. Failing to do so will destabilize our movement spaces and we will repeat the same harms… only this time it will be with a rainbow and Earth sticker. 

As I enter into Pride season, I remain grounded in keeping the movements alive through stories. I challenge myself to think about how all these different issues connect. Housing, access to healthcare, defeating homophobia and racism means challenging the oppressive systems that got us in this mess to begin with. 

It is not us vs. each other, but rather it is us vs. the problem. Being centered around this will not only ground me on who is to blame, but also on who I am working with to achieve liberation.

B. serves as Policy Manager for Climate Generation. They are a Minneapolis Southsider and first generation graduate of the University of Minnesota. B. has several years experience in community organizing and policy work and is excited to bring their experiences in voting rights and housing advocacy to Climate Generation’s climate justice work. They believe in investing in our young leaders to build a better future and sustain movement work and have centered the voices of young people in previous campaigns. B. is a participant in the Wilder Foundation’s Community Equity Program, a nine-month political leadership cohort-based learning journey for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color community leaders and change makers.

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