The fights for a healthy climate and for LGBTQ+ rights are intertwined. At LCV, we build power for people and the planet, and we’re committed to doing so in a just and equitable way. And, as advocates fight for equal rights and treatment of the LGBTQ+ community, they’re faced with many oppressive systems and challenges, including the fact that LGBTQ+ people bear greater impacts of the climate crisis.

I spoke to three young climate and LGBTQ+ rights activists to learn about how they understand the connection between a safe climate and LGBTQ+ rights, their unique experiences within both movements, and their hopes for the future.

Maggie Peacock

Maggie (they/them) is an intersectional climate activist, social justice advocate, and community organizer in the Coastal Bend of Texas. They are the co-founder of the Gulf of Mexico Youth Climate Summit, whose mission is to bring together young environmentalists from around the Gulf of Mexico to develop an understanding of the importance of climate action, and take initiative to protect the Gulf through efforts in education, policy, and advocacy. Along with their environmental work, Maggie is passionate about showcasing how social justice issues, such as access to reproductive healthcare & attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community, are inextricably tied to the climate crisis.

Jules Nicholson

Jules (she/they) is a recent graduate of Texas A&M University Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) with a degree in Environmental Science and currently works as a Field Ecologist and Conservationist with the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program. While at TAMUCC, she served as president of the Islander Green Team and the Islander Feminists, two student-run organizations that advocated for environmental and social justice causes on campus. They also worked as a student sustainability worker and was responsible for composting all campus food waste and managing campus sustainability operations.

Krishna Karthikeyan

Krishna (he/they) is a student at University of Pennsylvania pursuing a master’s degree in Environmental Studies and a volunteer with Climate Action PA, a program of LCV state affiliate organization Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania. Back home in India, Krishna worked as a LGBTQ+ sensitization workshop facilitator, educating companies in South Asia on trans issues through music-driven online workshops. He was also one of the only transgender playback vocalists in Kollywood, India’s Tamil movie industry. While completing his undergraduate degree in Australia, Krishna helped convince his university to stop using trans students’ deadnames at their graduations.

For Maggie and Jules, becoming involved in the environmental justice and LGBTQ+ rights movements was tied to their respective moves to Corpus Christi, Texas.

“As I grew older and realized, ‘Oh my god, I’m queer,’ I knew that I just didn’t feel accepted. So I moved to Corpus Christi to go to school here, and I found a very loving and accepting community who supported me for who I am,” Maggie said. “But at the same time, Corpus Christi is on the front lines of the climate crisis.”

Corpus Christi (and the larger region of the Texas Gulf Coast) is home to 14+ miles of fossil fuel facilities, including heavily polluting liquefied methane gas (LNG) facilities. Its residents experience high levels of pollution leading to higher rates of cancer, asthma, and other public health impacts.

“We’ve met people who firsthand are experiencing the externalities of fossil fuels and industry presence, and I felt that, once I was educated [about what was going on], I had a responsibility and motivation to do something about it,” Jules said.

“I’ve found my community where people love me, but these people are on the front lines of the climate crisis and environmental injustice. Many of them are sick or have cancer just because they’ve lived in Corpus [Christi] their whole lives… [It made me] realize that climate change, social justice, queer liberation – it all ties together. We have a moral responsibility to not only protect our home, but to protect the people who have protected us,” Maggie said.

Hopes for a future where barriers to LGBTQ+ and climate justice are eliminated

Maggie and Jules are dedicated to creating a safer, more inclusive community in their adopted home of Corpus Christi, and across the country. They hope to achieve this through battling the expansion of fossil fuels in Corpus Christi and working to dismantle systems of oppression that are destructive to the LGBTQ+ community and the environment.

Their hopes for the future also include a government that is representative of and that works for the people, a goal that they are helping to bring about in Corpus Christi by participating in Get out the Vote campaigns and encouraging their peers to get to the polls.

They also hope that we can collectively shift our mindset to start thinking about and building a society that doesn’t rely on these inherently oppressive systems. When we are able to break free of the systems that hold us back from addressing climate and human rights issues, we can create a future that is better for people and the planet.

LCV and its partner organization LCV Education Fund (LCVEF) are passionate about creating a more inclusive society and democracy in order to protect the planet, including through voter registration and other work at the grassroots level. Most recently, LCVEF announced it will be expanding its multi-state voter registration program focused on getting eligible members of historically excluded communities registered to vote. In the 2024 election season to date, LCVEF has registered over 100,000 eligible voters in historically excluded communities.

For Krishna, the ideas of nature and queerness cannot be separated from one another, therefore the environmental and LGBTQ+ movements must not exist separately, but as one cohesive movement.

“[Queer people] see nature in ourselves, and we see the importance of nature… There is a sense of connection, a sense of safety, a sense of home that the Earth has, that nature has, toward queer or trans people. You’ll notice a lot of trans and nonbinary people giving themselves nature related names, like Fern, because our communities are super linked. And you will find that there is no other community that feels as strongly about environmentalism,” they said.

Unlike society, which likes to place people in boxes and is organized by “cruel binaries– profit, loss; male, female; this, that,” nature doesn’t have these binaries and is much more fluid, says Krishna, and this makes it a safe place for people who don’t fit into those pre-determined binaries. He is passionate about rethinking these rigid definitions of self and society in order to “see things for what they really are, which is essentially a spectrum, a really beautiful cluster,” because continuing to view society and nature through these binary lenses “keeps [LGBTQ+ people] and the Earth from being protected.”

As the climate crisis worsens, that sense of belonging that nature provides to the LGBTQ+ community is under attack because nature itself is under attack.

“That very source of safety is in jeopardy because of human actions and human interference,” said Krishna. In order to protect a sense of safety and home for the LGBTQ+ community, we must necessarily protect the Earth and the diversity, both of life and thought.

As he works to complete his master’s degree, Krishna is dedicating his studies to advancing this goal. His work focuses on the intersection between social equity and sustainability, and he is both a researcher and co-author of academic papers which are currently in review on this topic.

Krishna is also a volunteer with Climate Action PA. A program of LCV state affiliate organization Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania and LCV’s Climate Action initiative, Climate Action PA focuses on training climate activists to fight for climate and environmental justice, and developing deep relationships with progressive partners, environmental justice leaders, justice organizations, and the community at the grassroots level. Krishna says his time with Climate Action PA has been a “really well rounded experience” and that he has enjoyed getting out into the community, canvassing, and making phone calls to educate voters on issues of climate change and adaptation.

Learn more and get involved with our Climate Action teams!

Hope for a future where action replaces queer tokenization and greenwashing

A future where there is climate and LGBTQ+ justice starts with all stakeholders – businesses, governments, and individuals – rejecting the binaries that our society has organized itself into and embracing ways of thinking outside of these binaries, says Krishna. They hope that those responsible for damage to the environment and LGBTQ+ community stop using “queer tokenization [and] greenwashing” (for example, fossil fuel companies sponsoring Pride events), to justify their actions and turn that into real, proactive action in the fight for climate and social justice.

Each of these three young LGBTQ+ and climate activists have a unique perspective and passion, but they all agree on several things: the environmental and LGBTQ+ rights movements are inextricably linked, the fight for justice is ongoing, and that fight starts with all of us. LCV is dedicated to advancing these fights through the work we do every day. Join us in the fight for people and the planet here at LCV by taking an online action or getting involved with one of our Climate Action teams.