Dear GCF Community,
Happy Pride Month!
As we work towards building a just future and a more inclusive green economy, we stand proud with our LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, plus additional identities) community members and other LGBTQIA+ environmental leaders.
Recognizing the social injustices faced by LGBTQIA+ and intersecting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Color) LGBTQIA+ communities — and the disproportionate environmental injustices faced that may not be as widely known (read about some here) – GCF holds space for each person’s lived truths and experiences.
In this everyday work, we seek to help reclaim narratives of climate leadership that include LGBTQIA+ voices and ensure that GCF Eco-Hubs and other GCF spaces are not only community-led sources of climate resilience, green workforce development resources, opportunity and connection, but ones that are inclusive and safe to show up as your true self.
We celebrate past and present LQBTQIA+ leaders fighting environmental and social injustice such as:
- Audre Lorde (she/her) – Black queer writer, feminist, scholar and rights activist
- James Baldwin (he/him) – Black queer writer and civil rights activist
- Rachel Carson (she/her) – Lesbian conservationist, ecologist, writer, activist
- Deseree Fontenot (she/her and they/them) – Co-Founder of the Queer Ecojustice Project
- Ysanet Batista (she/her) – Queer Harlem-born Black-Dominican and Farm School NYC alum, Founder and Chef at Woke Foods
- Precious Brady-Davis (she/her) – Black trans speaker and author, Sierra Club Communications Director
- Jabari Brisport (he/him) – Black LGBTQIA+ activist and NY Senator from Brooklyn
- Chi Ossé (he/him) – Black queer activist and Brooklyn NYC Councilmember
- Tiffany Cabán (she/her) – Queer Latina Queens NYC Council Member and Co-Chair of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Caucus, NYC Council
- Crystal Hudson (she/her) – Black Gay Brooklyn NYC Council Member and Co-Chair of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Caucus, NYC Council
- Tortuguita (they/them) – Indigenous queer and nonbinary environmental activist
- Pinar Sinopoulos-Lloyd (they/them) & So Sinopoulos-Lloyd (they/them) – Queer interracial co-founders of Queer Nature
- Pattie Gonia (they/she/he) – Drag queen, environmentalist, community organizer, Co-founder of Outdoorist Oath
- Isaias Hernandez (he/they) – “Queer Brown Vegan” and environmental educator
- David Buckel (he/him) – Gay rights lawyer, master composter and environmental activist
Centering diversity, acceptance, affirmation, dignity, safety, joy, power and liberation for marginalized LGBTQIA+ identities is key to advancing true equity that is so inextricably tied to environmental justice and climate solutions. Lifting up one another, we are all forces “for the people – for the change!”
Throughout the rest of the month, continue celebrating Pride across the city: https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/pride-month-2023-what-to-see-hear-and-do-in-new-york-city
In service and solidarity,
GCF