From "To Survive Climate Catastrophe, Look to Queer and Disabled Folks" by Patty Berne, as told to and edited by Vanessa Raditz in Disability Visibility, 2020
Communities around the world are grappling with a growing number and intensity of climate-related disasters. In the United States, federal, state, and nonprofit agencies frequently pour financial resources into the communities affected by the latest fire, flood, or earthquake.
But these emergency support systems are usually unable to address the long-term needs of those affected, and all too often, these structural support systems entirely overlook those of us who live at the intersection of multiple oppressions: race, class, gender, disability, and sexual orientation, to name a few.
There are endless stories. During Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, queer and trans communities lost access to medical necessities such as psychiatric prescriptions and hormones, and many faced discrimination and violence. During the fires in Northern California, a black queer environmental justice activist with asthma went into respiratory distress and now lives with permanent brain injury. From homeless encampments to local jail cells, social, political, and economic disparities put our communities at the front lines of ecological disaster.
The forces of capitalism, racism, ableism, transphobia, and homophobia may have cornered us into a vulnerable position in this unprecedented moment in our planet’s history, but the wisdom we’ve gained along the way could allow us all to survive in the face of climate chaos.
The history of disabled queer and trans people has continually been one of creative problem-solving within a society that refuses to center our needs. If we can build an intersectional climate justice movement—one that incorporates disability justice, that centers disabled people of color and queer- and gender-nonconforming folks with disabilities—our species might have a chance to survive. ...
