Five LGBTQ+ Environmentalists You Should know

Happy Pride Month! June is the month we commemorate the struggles and joys of the LGBTQ+ community. But while we dance under the rainbows, we also need to celebrate the activists fighting for the earth who are part of this fantastic community.

Because climate change is an LGBTQ+ issue.

Climate change affects us all and hits the most vulnerable of us the hardest. Those without stable housing (of which statistically many LGBTQ+ persons, especially trans youth, face) have been irrevocably affected.

Luckily, there are countless LGBTQ+ activists both past and present who have fought and are fighting for the protection of the planet, so we can all be protected from climate change.

Here are just a few of the LGBTQ+ Environmentalists to recognize:

Rachel Carson

Scientist and marine biologist Rachel Carson published her groundbreaking book Silent Spring in 1962, examining the effects of the chemical DDT and other pesticides on natural habitats around the world. She sparked the modern global environmental movement.

Mahri Monson

As an Environmental Protection Specialist for the EPA, Monsoon describes her work as “enforcing U.S. environmental laws, addressing serious pollution problems to protect communities and the environment.”

She’s done important work in the EPA to ensure inclusive policy for transgender and gender non-conforming EPA employees.

Pınar Sinopoulos-Lloyd

“Pınar is an Indigenous multi-species futurist, mentor, consultant and eco-philosopher; co-founder of Queer Nature, an “organism” stewarding earth-based queer community through ancestral skills, interspecies relations and rites of passage.”

They were the 2020 recipient of Audubon National Society's National Environmental Champion, involved in countless BIPOC and LGBTQA organizations, and runs Queer Nature, a nature education and ancestral skills program serving our local LGBTQ2+ community.

Rikki Weber

A Legal Practice Manager and Litigation Assistant II at EarthJustice, a nonprofit that uses “the power of law” to protect people and wildlife and fight climate change, Rikki Weber has long been an activist for the planet and people. Earthjustice represents clients free of charge as its enforces and strengthens environmental laws in court.

She also started a LGBTQ group at EarthJustice and has been a part of many inclusion and diversity initiatives.

Rose Marcario

As the former President and CEO of Patagonia, Marcario led the sustainable brand into the future. An LGBTQ+ environmental advocate, Marcario was involved in tons of conservation work, including advocating for better policies, fighting climate change, and increasing voter turnout.

Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard, said: “Rose has grown our advocacy efforts in ways I could never have imagined. With Rose at the helm, we are leading an overdue revolution in agriculture, challenging this administration’s evil environmental rollbacks, growing a movement to increase voter participation in our elections and raising the bar on building our product in the most responsible manner possible.”

Follow their lead in fighting for the planet and its people.