Reflecting on how we see ourselves in nature 🌈☀️

June's reflection comes from Liz Ferguson, who serves at Faith in Place as Operations & Data Management Coordinator. Please enjoy it below and sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on upcoming events. 

---

Since the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, Pride month has been observed in June across the United States to celebrate generations of queer people who fought to live openly and authentically. The month also commemorates the ongoing struggle for LGBTQIA+ civil rights and is a reminder to us all- however you identify- that everyone should be free to love and live as their most genuine selves. 

Alongside the parades and protests throughout the month, I will be reflecting on the ways that Pride month inspires my work as an environmental justice advocate. As a queer person, June is the ideal time to reflect on how I see myself in nature and inspires me to continue the work of liberation for all beings everywhere. Our planet is home to immense diversity in terms of both sex and gender. Over 1,500 species have been observed engaging in same-sex behavior. Nature also includes examples of other queer identities like asexuality, polyamory, gender fluidity, and more. The natural world is much wilder than we can imagine.  

Celebrating Pride month is also about demanding equality and liberation from heteronormative, capitalist, and patriarchal systems of oppression. These are the same systems that the environmental movement has called out time and again to be held responsible for the damaging impacts of climate change. The most vulnerable populations, those that are racially, ethnically, or religiously marginalized, disabled, neurodivergent and/or queer, continue to be most impacted by natural disasters, polluted air, and unstable housing. 

I hope that this Pride month can be an intersectional and wholistic month of healing as we work to create a safe, sustainable, and healthy future where everyone is free to love who they love and be who they are. Working at the intersection of my queerness and my ecological self, I hope to inspire us to reimagine our relationships with our bodies, our peers, and nature. 

Liz Ferguson