Author: Maya Ghanem

 My first time at the COP was both exciting and frustrating. I had the opportunity meet some wonderful queer and BiPOC organizers at the side events and the pavilions, but it was infuriating to see how their perspectives were not adequately represented in larger negotiations. Many organizers I met said it felt exhausting to come to an international conference– with a history of extraction, colonialism, and capitalism– put in the effort and energy in the side events and pavilions to explain why these institutions are harmful to their communities, all to be largely ignored by negotiations. Setting aside a few events or pavilions for marginalized voices is not adequate representation. In fact, many marginalized people overcome barriers to attend the COP, and if they are not sufficiently compensated, the effort and energy they expend to be here can result in further harm. These voices should be central to international conversations, and reparations– not aid– to these communities are long overdue.

As a person with Lebanese and Syrian heritage, I hoped to find my home countries represented at the COP, but I couldn’t find anyone with these ethnicities at the pavilions or side events. I even attended the Arab League Negotiations and still could not find representation from my countries. I would think that this is reflective of both the internal politics in these countries and the fact that Arab gulf states often take up the most space in international negotiations. Countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar must be held accountable for their role in the Yemeni crisis, oil and gas corporations, and slave labor. These are central human rights and environmental justice violations.

However, I did get the opportunity to witness Amal, a 3.5 meter puppet of a Syrian refugee girl raising money and awareness for refugee children, and I had the honor to meet and feel empowered by Syrian, Palestinian, and Pakistani people who lead and organized Amal’s walk. Art is a beautiful way to center joy and inspire action.

It was inspiring to meet youth voices and see the People’s Summit Events. I was honored to witness protests and events centering Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and disability activism. I find hope in an emerging coalition that dismantles oppressive structures and disrupts international negotiations.

This is part of an article I wrote on queer environmentalism that was published as part of the Not Without Us Project. You can find the article here.

I had the privilege to attend a COP 26 side event on “Intersectionality at the Nexus of Climate, Human Mobility, Loss and Damage: Regional Perspectives.” At this panel, I met wonderful grassroots organizers and heard queerness specifically mentioned at a UNFCCC event for the first time. Two key panelists, Alicia Wallace, director of Equality Bahamas, and Lavetanalagi Seru, Climate Justice Project Officer at the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, discussed their work providing resources for communities vulnerable to natural disasters and prone to climate migration, centering women, non-gender conforming, and queer folks. For Wallace’s community in the Carribean and The Bahamas, many queer people are rejected by their families, experiencing difficult living situations only exacerbated by natural disasters. With Equality Bahamas, Wallace held a post-disaster resource drive in a gallery art space, distributing food, clothing, and menstrual products. The grassroots organization also takes part in feminist policy making, shifting decision making power towards their queer constituency. 

Lavetanalagi Seru says that queer people in the Pacific Islands feel unsafe reaching out to evacuation centers after natural disasters for fear over safety and protection, with most of the evacuation centers being government schools and churches that have a history of colonialism and homophobia. In the Pacific Islands, many queer people are forced to drop out of school, resorting to work in informal sectors and the sex industry. Although the harassment and abuse they face in these industries are only exacerbated by the pandemic and other environmental disasters, queer people in the region find healthcare facilities to be inaccessible. Seru works with faith based organizations, who hold power in these communities, to try and dispel the harmful narratives that religious institutions can impose. Seru also advocates to change policy and political messaging surrounding queer people in the Pacific Islands.

Wallace and Seru demonstrate true queer environmentalism in practice, bringing queer bodies to the decision making table, demanding reparations for queer communities hurt by climate change, and integrating queer theory with envrionmental justice. Both aim not only to bring their queer constituency into decision making spaces, but also to shift decision making powers to these marginalized identities, ensuring that any organizing or policy advocacy has full their input and consent. Wallace and Seru also actively incorporate queer and gender theory into their practice. At the beginning of the panel, Wallace established that the term “intersectionality” originates from Black Feminist scholar Kimberly Crenshaw, centering “the voices of those experiencing overlapping, concurrent forms of oppression in order to understand the depths of the inequalities and the relationships among them in any given context.” (Crenshaw, 1991 p. 1241). Seru detailed the queer affirming and gender inclusive history of the Pacific Islands prior to European colonization, emphasizing that once the Pacific Islands were colonized, the region’s gender and sexually diverse native communities were wiped away and replaced with Christian, patriarchal societies. Given the current role of political and faith-based organizations take in perpetuating homophobia in the Pacific Islands, colonization clearly extends to the marginalization and environmental dangers queer people face today. 

I also had the opportunity to learn from Melania Canales Poma from the Organización Nacional de Mujeres Indígenas Andinas y Amazónicas del Perú (ONAMIAP), who along with a panel of Indigenous women, shared the experiences and ways of being in their communities. Melania took the time to explain how practices in Indigenous groups fundamentally respect Nature, conceived as one with themselves: “Nature is a living creature just like us. We have a connection, and they are part of our life and spirituality. When colonizers destroy nature, we lose our brothers and sisters. We are connected to Nature’s thoughts and spirituality.” Indigenous knowledge tells us that Nature and humans are inseparable. Since queer environmentalism shares a simliar world view, it can significantly draw from Indigenous knowledge and simultaneously uplift Indigenous voices.  

As demonstrated by Wallace, Seru, and Poma’s ideals and experiences, I note that queerness, environmentalism, and queer environmentalism cannot be separated from the experiences of BiPOC people. BiPOC communities embody a precolonial history with the most queer affirming and gender inclusive societies. Any form of environmentalism that does not center BiPOC people is antithetical to intersectional feminism, queer environmentalism, or environmental justice. We must not only uplift women’s voices at the COP, but we also need to uplift the voices of BIPOC groups and queer BIPOC people. This is true feminism for climate justice.

Thank you to Alicia Wallace, Lavetabalagi Seru, and Melania Canales Poma for taking the time to share insight and experiences, even in an international setting that has historically excluded queer BIPOC people. 

Hello! This was written at 7:09 am on November 8th, and we are on a train to the COP 26 exhibition center, where we will register and retrieve our badges for the week. Going into the COP, I feel both excited and nervous, as I look forward to many of the events and featured exhibitions, but I am fairly intimidated by the anticipated commotion surrounding the exhibition. Because my client is Gender CC and I wrote a policy memo on Queer Environmentalism in the UNFCCC, I plan to focus on the Women and Gender Constituency schedule. I also plan to attend and learn about the Indigenous People’s Platform, Pavilions for Middle Eastern and North African Countries, and the People’s Summit Events. I hope to learn about building coalition between marginalized groups in the fight for climate justice through connections between Indigenous knowledge, queer environmentalism, and the environmental injustices faced by people of color. Some events I would like to attend include: “Women for Climate Justice Leading Solutions on the Frontlines of Climate Change,” “Sustainability, Equality, and Peace: Integrating the Climate Change and Women, Peace, and Security,” and “Energy Transition: Defining Equity and Justice for Communities.”

Before the COP, I had a few meetings with representatives from Gender CC and was able to share my policy memo on queer environmentalism. Representatives from the organization asked to publish my memo on their platform! In the next week, I will be working with Gender CC to polish and add to my memo, and I hope that it will be published in the next week or two. I intend to change the format of the piece from a policy memo to an article, embedding what I learned from my COP experiences and events I attended. In regards to this, I especially look forward to attending an event highlighting Indigenous Women and a side event hosted Gender CC.