Earth Day: Gay and Green

where to buy Clomiphene “Win or lose, we go shopping after the election,” said Philippine’s former first lady Imelda Marcos.”

In this remarkably disturbing quote prior to her political undoing in 1986, we are reminded that the decade ushered in a wave of spectacle and with it social and pop-culture movements that included MTV, “the Material Girl,” “the Thriller guy,” foppish hair-dos and Pac-Man.

From a more circumspect perspective, the era also produced a unique moral territory wrought by a devastating AIDS-epidemic and homophobic crusades. As a result, the 1980s spurred the environmental movement (which dates back to the early 20^th century) and encouraged platforms for organizing local and global actions, policymaking and justice outcomes that remain vital today. Only fifteen years into the new millennium and we are too familiar with the growing list of 21^st century environmental cataclysms—Hurricane Katrina, 2005 and the People’s Climate Change March, 2014, most immediately come to mind. Similarly, the mid-1980s was marked by disastrous events that included the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, and oil drilling and pesticide disasters in Africa and Bhopal.

However, much like the 1960’s civil rights struggle buoyed the Women’s Liberation and LGBTQ movements, queer folks have emboldened the advocacy that drives a visible, “out loud,” global-green movement.

“They’re really natural fits because they’re both about appreciating the diversity of ourselves and our natural world,” suggests Gerod Rody, president and founder of Out for Sustainability, a Seattle-based non-profit that melds the green, LGBTQ and social activism communities.

Our planet is part of massive cultural shifts.

The Smithsonian article What Percent of the population is gay? More Than You Think, suggests that same-gender attracted people account for about 20% of the American population. What does that mean when factoring in China, India, and Africa? Arguably, that LGBTQ presence is spreading like wild ivy across the eras and redefining identity “norms” along the way. As the strength in numbers continues to swell in sweeping policy reforms and in our deepening commitment to care for the planet and by extension, ourselves, it certainly makes sense that an environmentally safe, more sustainable planet grows not only greener but pinker.

Happy International Mother Earth Day, Pinkos!