LUCY FIRTH

COSTUME AND TEXTILES DESIGNER AND VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR WITH AN ARTS AND MENTAL HEALTH CHARITY

"CLIMATE CHANGE IS TOTALLY LINKED TO HUMAN RIGHTS"

I was excited to see such a dynamic and new ‘ political’ group in XR working with immense direct action that was creating a huge public awareness of the climate crisis. But I was also disappointed to read of their lack of diversity. My friends and social media were full of criticism of XR because of this. It was frustrating; here was a powerful, creative group acting for climate justice, but who were unable to reach the community as a whole as it was failing to include our BAME sisters and brothers.

I believe our queer community should be an integral part of XR to fight and work together to support our siblings across the planet. We have a powerful political history from having to come together to continuously fight for our rights. We can encompass this; our history, our power, our love, our skills and our amazing knowledge and experience of fighting for what is right and what is true.

Peter Tatchell spoke of the effects of the climate crisis and how this is affecting the rights of our LGBTQI community and marginalized groups – specifically, those indigenous peoples whose lives are being hit with death, murder, wildfires, sea- level rises, sea erosion of islands and horrific lifechanging experiences.

Climate change is totally linked to human rights and is bolstered by the rich and powerful, directly affecting the security of the masses. The areas of the world such as the Southern hemisphere, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, where our queer communities suffer persecution and lack civil rights, are the same areas that will be hit the hardest by climate change and these communities will suffer an even greater loss of their human rights and security.