Gay sex and protecting the birds and bees and trees..

 

Image taken from Ego-Eco-Seva Revisted  by Martin Brown on Fairsnape

Gay sex

"We are human too" one woman said in answering why members of the LGBTIQ+  community should be concerned about the climate crisis and the environment.

The Guyana Rainbow Foundation - Guybow- hosted a workshop which was facilitated by Sherlina Nageer. The theme of the workshop  was "Environmentalism and the LGBTIQ+ community"  

The assertion that 'we are human too' is that all human beings including LGBTIQ+ humans are affected by climate change and the resulting climate crisis. 

The assertion that 'we are human too' is important in country and region which does not value LGBTIQ+ citizens as equally human  as those who are not LGBTIQ+ (except of course for those people who have 'connections' to the power brokers).

The workshop also discussed , in the line of 'we are human too' , the responsibilities to protecting the environment and recovering if possible from the climate crisis.

Protecting the birds and bees and trees..

Language matters. We discussed what we understood by environment, climate and realised that even though we might have learned things in school about the trees and carbon dioxide and oxygen, we learned to quickly forget after examinations and so.

Climate Change - referring to how patterns in the climate are changing as a result of global warming and that extreme weather - drought, floods, cold, heat, are affecting seasons etc. 

Climate Crisis/Emergency - referring to the consequences of climate change, and to a hope that different actions could be taken to slow down the consequences.

Climate justice - a concept that recognises that different groups of people experience the climate crisis differently. The intensity of the impact is related to other forms of discrimination and prejudice. 

Sherlina shared the quote “Climate justice is founded on the principles that we all deserve a planet where we can thrive and be safe." 

The quote from Aletta Brady, Anthony Torres, and Phillip Brown, “What the Queer Community Brings to the Fight for Climate Justice,” Grist further explains that " Queer and trans communities embody a model of a world that lends itself well to this vision by creating communities that sustain and celebrate all of us in our authentic being.”  

Dominion 

In discussion how we end up in this crisis, people talked about the Christian Dominion theology.. that man (and man with penis too) is meant to have domination over all things including those humans not considered manly. There are various levels of dominion theology. This has meant that God has given nature and so for man to exploit and use.  This theology has been adopted by many other persons of other faiths around the world, even if their faiths do not subscribe to dominion. (In Guyana Muslims and Hindus are very actively pursuing dominion principles in regards to the oil and gas and destruction of the environment in favour of lil money, some of which they hope will sustain the religious institutions . There are ironies too in our Hindu community which recognise for example that the Havan is an important ritual in how we relate to the environment, except of course when we burn the plastic wrapper in which the samagri came or throw it in the ocean with the other puja offerings)

We talked about how the exploitative nature of capitalism is connected to the discrimination experienced in the society by those who are not seen to be modelled according to God.  Some of us felt that since climate change was created by 'dem' , then 'dey must fix it' and is 'not we problem.. we can enjoy de life too'.

 Seva

 Sherlina shared a graphic which looked the positioning of 'man' at the top of the ecosystem - Ego - vs a positioning in which we recognised that 'man' was a part of the Eco system and dependent on that Eco-system.

We discussed how the diversity in sexual orientation and gender identity is experienced in the animal world - even as many Christians have shouted that 'homosexuality' means 'the death of humanity' because it is not 'procreative' even as human's actions in terms of exploiting the environment are probably more likely to cause the destruction of humanity rather than 'gay sex' 

And that diversity is needed to survive (and thrive)

I felt that in the idea that the word 'deserve' was not enough when thinking about protecting the environment.

Some environmentalists have added another dimension to our relationship with the environment - 'Seva'. 

Seva is a Sanskrit word which loosely translates a service - and usually means selfless service, and part of the dharmic duties. The environmentalists advocate that humans have to actively engage with in protective ways with the environment in return for the air, oxygen, water we get from the environment around us.

We discussed in the workshop things we can do to deal with the climate crisis. These included:

• Reduce consumption of things - including clothes
  
• Re-use and recycle as much as possible - plastic bags and other containers , composting 
• Participate in discussions about the impacts of climate change
• Learn about climate change, climate crisis, climate justice and talk to other people about it
  
• Educate others.. 
• Show children on a practical level what they are learning in school about climate change as the education system sometimes is not practical
• Recognise how the intersecting factors of discrimination affect how different LGBTIQ+ people will experience the climate crisis  

I recognised that as we advocate for equality for LGBTIQ+ citizens and all other marginalised groups in Guyana, that in building this just society also means recognising that the society has to exist in harmony with the natural environment.  

A just Guyana is not necessarily one in which everybody get an equal share of the oil money, but rather in which everyone recognises that fossil fuels are dangerous and that we all urgently need to work on alternative energy futures so that we can thrive beyond when the oil finishes.