This blog post was adapted from a post that Josh Pullen wrote last year, who at that time was the co-chair of Proudly King’s and Waste to Resource Project Coordinator in the Sustainability Team.
February marks LGBTQ+ History Month alongside King’s celebrating Sustainability Month. Environmentalism has always been a core issue of the LGBTQ+ community since the inception of the now-iconic rainbow flag. Each colour represents a different part of the LGBTQ+ experience, and green is for nature.
A study done in 2018 found that LGB people were twice as likely to join environmentalist, anti-war and anti-corporate movements. As a social justice movement, the queer community has a keen awareness of issues outside the progressing of sexual and gender identity and has found intersectional links with the Black Lives Matter movement, Occupy Wall Street and the environmentalist movement. Examples of this can even be found within King’s itself with many active Sustainability Champions members being part of Proudly King’s, the LGBTQ+ staff network.
With growing support for ethical and sustainable business practices, the link between progressive environmental issues and the LGBTQ+ movement grows stronger as people understand that fair treatment of the environment means fair treatment of people.
