Today, Canada and the world—and especially 2SLGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities—face a growing, generational climate emergency. Climate change is a force-multiplier for long-standing inequalities. Without bold action across society, cascading climate shocks and stresses will threaten hard-won progress and push our communities further to the margins. This report is a call for 2SLGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities to build community resilience and demand justice in a changing world. It is based on preliminary conversations with local partners, peers, and experts across North America, and preliminary research on climate impacts and resilience work happening around the world.
We provisionally define “resilience” as building strong, well-resourced, and just communities that can thrive amidst rapid change. The greatest risks in a changing climate come not from extreme weather but from isolation, disempowerment, and the choices of institutions and policymakers to maintain deep inequalities that make people’s lives more and more precarious. Marginalized people have long built joyful communities and networks of care amid crises, while insisting no one be left to fend for themselves. Amid climate, pandemic, and other shocks and stresses, that work is more vital than ever.
Climate change is driving extreme heat, wildfires, smoke, rain, storms, floods, and other impacts across Canada. This increasingly disrupts our daily lives and threatens our health, homes, safety, well-being. Wherever we live, 2SLGBTQ+ face increased risks of illness, injury, trauma, economic loss, and displacement from climate, pandemic, and other shocks and stresses. These risks are rooted in existing inequalities: higher rates of chronic health conditions, isolation, being un- or under-housed or living in institutional settings (like shelters and prisons), and numerous barriers caused by past and present discrimination and stigma. Other factors, such as relying on certain types of medications, or gender-affirming practices such as binding, can also present unique considerations during climate or disaster events.
Marginalized people worldwide have urged for years that the climate crisis threatens the enjoyment of fundamental human rights, both through unequal exposure to growing threats, and because its growing disruptions are so often seized on to scapegoat minorities and sow division.
Climate change may also contribute to more people than ever before relocating both within and to Canada. This increased mobility will present challenges and opportunities for 2SLGBTQ+ and Newcomer communities, and may call for new collaborations across geographies. Other climate impacts are harder to predict but will have major implications for 2SLGBTQ+ communities, including increased risks of infectious diseases, future pandemics, and disruptions to jobs, housing markets, transportation, and supply chains.
