Celebrating Earth Day with 50 LGBTQ+ environmental activists from around the world

Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of research and much conversation about the overlap of environmentalists and LGBTQ+ activists. There are many LGBTQ+ activists worldwide, who not only share a vision of creating a better world where people can lead their lives safely, but are taking much-needed action to protect our planet's environment. For Earth Day 2024, we celebrate 50 LGBTQ+ environmental activists from around the world who have stood up and fought for climate justice (in alphabetical order).

Gregory Barker (UK)

Gregory is Chair of the London Sustainable Development Commission and a member of the London Infrastructure Delivery Board, as well as a trustee of the Climate Group, a member of the European board of the Environmental Defense Fund, and a trustee of the board of De La Warr Pavilion. The former Conservative member of parliament (2001-2015), was former Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change, and former Envoy on Climate Change, before he divorced his wife and declared his homosexuality. The member of LGBTory was appointed to the House of Lords in 2015, as Baron Barker of Battle.

Vic Barrett (US)

The 22-year-old climate justice activist was inspired to take action against climate change after his home in New York was flooded by Hurricane Sandy. He and 20 other young people decided to sue the US government for its role in the climate crisis by supporting the fossil fuel industry. The ongoing case, Juliana v. United States, is based on the belief that a safe and livable climate is a constitutional right.

Andre Boisclair (Canada)

Andre was President of the Urban Development Institute in Quebec City (2016-2020) and the former provincial party leader for the Partis Quebecois, 2005-2007. Between January 1996 and March 2003, he served as Citizenship and Immigration Minister and Social Solidarity Minister under former Premier of Quebec, Lucien Bouchard, and as Environment Minister under former Premier, Bernard Landry. He is also the former special advisor to Quebec Environment Minister on climate change, having served as the provincial delegate-general for the Province in New York City (2012-2013).

Bob Brown (Australia)

The medical doctor and environmentalist was also the former senator and former Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens (2005-2012). He was also the first openly gay member of the Australian Parliament, and first gay leader of a political party in Australia. He founded the Bob Brown Foundation, an environmental activist charitable fund.

Dragos Bucurenci (Romania)

Dragos is a communications strategist and coach, as well as an environmentalist and LGBTQ+ television personality. He founded the environmental consulting firm MaiMultVerde and led advocacy campaigns for the protection of wildlife in the Romanian part of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, and for the ecological restoration of the large areas of the Danube Delta. He is also a columnist for Elle, Esquire, The One and Evenimentul Zilei (a national newspaper) and producer/presenter of television programs relating to the environment

Andreas Carlson (Sweden)

The former deputy mayor of Ekerö Municipality (1990-1994), former member of parliament for the Centre Party (2006-2011) and Minister for the Environment was also the first openly gay Swedish cabinet member. He is currently vice-chair of the Stockholm Environment Institute Board, and has served on the Stockholm Environment Institute board since 2012.

Rachel Carson (US)

Did you know that the global environmental movement was founded by American LGBTQ+ person and scientist/marine biologist Rachel Carson? Her ground-breaking book Silent Spring (1962) came from her scientific studies on the effects of the chemical DDT and other pesticides on natural habitats around the world. This book caused an international sensation with its warnings and scientific evidence of the damage being caused to wildlife and insects from unbridled use of chemicals in agriculture and industrial waste from manufacturing. Carson successfully argued that government supervision in the area was largely propaganda, without true regulation of industrial manufacturers and users. Throughout Carson’s career studying and researching environmental science, she had many other accomplishments in addition to her written works. She won many awards for her discoveries and brought awareness to the public about what humans do that causes damage to the environment. Sadly, Rachel Carson was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after the publication of this monumental book and she succumbed to the disease in 1964. Rachel was also lesbian. She began a life-long intimate relationship with Dorothy Freeman in 1953, although Freeman was married at the time, they both acknowledged the deep personal relationship that lasted until Carson’s death.

Haven Coleman (US)

The young teenage climate activist and organizer from Colorado co-founded the US Youth Climate Strike along with Isra Hirsi and Alexandra Villaseñor. Haden first caught the public’s attention when videos of her emerged speaking passionately about climate change to politicians at their town hall meetings when she was just 12 years old.

Don Dunstan (Australia)

The Labor Party Member of South Australian Parliament (1953-1979) and Premier (1967-1968 and 1970-1979) was notable for his socially progressive policies, especially with regards to aboriginal and indigenous rights, consumer rights, the environment, and decriminalizing homosexuality. But fears of his homosexual life being revealed forced him to resign. He was also the first director of Tourism Victoria in 1982, and then chairman of the Victorian Tourism Commission until 1986. Other roles included the National President of the Freedom from Hunger Campaign (1982-87), president of the Movement for Democracy in Fiji (1987), and national chairman of Community Aid Abroad (1992-93).

Ian Duncan (UK)

The deputy Speaker of the House of Lords was formerly Minister for Climate Change in the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy and minister in the Northern Ireland Office. The LGBTory member was also member of European Parliament between 2014-2017, and was Vice-Chair of the LGBTI Rights Intergroup. He was also former head of the Scottish Parliament’s European Office in Brussels, responsible for relations between the Holyrood Parliament and the EU institutions, and is the former European Advisor to the Parliament and Clerk to the European and External Relations Committee. He started out in public affairs positions in Scotland, with posts including Secretary of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation and Head of Policy and Communications with the Scottish Refugee Council.

Dale Eftoda (Canada)

Dale Eftoda was Canada’s Liberal Party member of the Yukon Legislative Assembly from 2000-2002, and the first open LGBTQ+ member. He was also the former Minister of Renewable Resources and Minister of the Environment.

Stephen Fry (UK)

The English conservationist has given his mother an adopted hectare of Cambridgeshire Fen, a project restoring more than 9,000 acres of fenland habitat in Cambridgeshire, helping to conserve one of Britain’s most beautiful and biodiverse areas. Stephen Fry was also given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the LGBT Awards. Every year, Stephen is delighted to invite all his Terrence Higgins Trust “Friends for Life” and “Associate Friends” to his summer Gala Dinner and to a special Christmas party as a supporter of making a difference to all those lives shattered by HIV.

Kelly Fuller (US)

Kelly Fuller is the Energy and Mining Campaign Director of the Western Watershed Project, a nonprofit environmental conservation group dedicated to protecting and restoring western watersheds and wildlife through education, public policy initiatives, and legal advocacy. With a focus on the impacts of energy and mining, Fuller has spearheaded campaigns to preserve public lands and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, notably leading a 78-mile walk across the California Desert in protest of a transmission line project. In addition to her climate advocacy, Fuller has written about being an LGBTQ+ environmentalist in rural America, including an essay published by the Center for Biological Diversity’s publication The Revelator.

Greta Gaard (US)

Greta Gaard is an ecofeminist writer, scholar, and activist. She was one of the first to integrate queer theory, queer ecology, veganism, and animal liberation in ecofeminist studies. As professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, she teaches human-animal studies, environmental justice, and LGBTQ+ literature. Her academic research focuses on the realms of ecocriticism and ecocomposition. She also co-founded the Minnesota Green Party. She penned The Nature of Home (2007) and Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature (1993), and was member of the now-inactive Feminists for Animal Rights.

Pattie Gonia (US)

Self-described as the “world’s first backpacking queen,” drag queen and social media personality Pattie Gonia brings a fresh, fun, and inclusive perspective to the outdoors community. Often captured wearing high-heeled boots and dancing atop a mountain, Pattie Gonia carries messages of diversity, outdoor immersion, and environmental advocacy. It was during one of Wyn Wiley’s backpacking trips, he traded in his hiking boots for some sleek high heels, which led to the birth of Pattie Gonia. Wiley sees Pattie Gonia as a way to inspire people, particularly the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, and fat folks, to immerse themselves in the outdoor spaces from which they have been historically excluded. The fierce drag queen pushes through for a green lifestyle and lots of outdoor leisure. Serving fashion and beauty, Gonia is unafraid to disclose her sustainable, upcycled style. In a community dominated by cis-hetero, Caucasian males, Gonia produces her own path in intersectional environmentalism to aid marginalized groups at the forefront of the ecological conversations.

Paul Getsos (US)

The LGBTQ+ New York-based activist has worked for decades on leading and encouraging marginalized communities to participate in the climate movement. He wrote the book Tools for a Radical Democracy, which is a guide for grassroots organizers, and he is a national coordinator for the People’s Climate Movement, He also co-founded Community Voices Heard, which runs various programs to improve education and training for welfare recipients, so they can more easily get hired for jobs.

Stephanie Goodwin (Canada)

Stephanie Goodwin has been the Executive Director of Out on Screen, and producer of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival since 2015. She is also the former BC Director of Greenpeace, an environmental organization, and helped to draft the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement.

Leo Goldsmith (US)

Leo Goldsmith is a recent graduate of the Yale School of the Environment. His research focuses on how climate change disproportionately impacts the health of the LGBTQ+ population, primarily those with intersecting marginalized identities. His interests stem from his own personal identities as a queer, transgender Latino, and his passion for intersectional climate justice. Leo joined the Bell research group in early 2020 as a research assistant and starting May joined as an Environmental Justice and Health Strategic Initiative Fellow. He is researching potential unequal environmental exposures, such as cigarette smoke, air pollution, and natural disasters on the LGBTQ+ population and its subsequent health impacts. As a student, Goldsmith co-chaired the student interest groups Environmental Justice at Yale and Out in the Woods, an LGBTQ +affinity group at the school. He also organized “Queer and Present Danger in the Context of Climate Change,” a workshop that brought climate experts to campus to discuss the climate impacts and risks specific to the queer community.

Anja Hajduk (Germany)

Anja Hajduk has been a member of the supervisory board of German development agency GIZ since 2014. She is also the deputy chairwoman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Australia, New Zealand, and East Timor and a full member of the German-Chinese Parliamentary Friendship Group. Hajduk was the member of parliament of Hamburg (1997-2002), member of the Bundestag as a Green Party member (2002-2008) and Minister of City Development and Environment of Hamburg (2008-2010).

Christine Hallquist (US)

Transgender Chief Executive Officer runs Cross Border Power, a renewable energy company, and is focused on curbing the effects of climate change. As Democratic nominee for the Governor of Vermont in the 2018 elections, Christine was the first transgender individual to run for Governor in the United States. She was also Chief Executive Officer of Vermont Electric Cooperative and is a former chair of the strategies and technical advisory committees of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. She also chaired the Sterling Area Services Mental Health Board, and served on the Hyde Park School Board.

Pekka Haavisto (Finland)

Finland’s Pekka Haavisto has been a member of the Finnish Parliament representing the Green League (1987-1995, and since 2007-today). Pekka also ran for President in 2012 but was runner-up, and has been voted 5th most influential Finnish individual. Pekka has held positions as Minister of the Environment, Minister of International Development a member of Helsinki City Council. Pekka has also worked for the United Nations between 1995-2005.

David G. Hallman (Canada)

David G. Hallman has worked in environmental ethics and has written six non-fiction books, including his memoir, August Farewell (Rising Star/iUniverse, 2011), in which parts from his 33-year relationship with his gay partner are integrated into an intimate chronology of the final two weeks of his partner’s life. Other notable works include Searching for Gilead.

Iyer Harrish (India)

Also known as Harish Iyer, this author and LGBTQ+ activist has been a television panelist for a number of socio-environmental issues, including animal rights, gay rights, environmentalism, and victims of child sexual abuse. He is also a radio host of Gaydio on radio station Ishq 104.8 FM. He is reported to be the first openly gay individual in India to join a political party. He has also been named as one of India’s seven most influential LGBTQ+ people.

Barbara Hendricks (Germany)