We are a group of LGBTQ+ supporters of Just Stop Oil. We have been taking action against the licensing of new oil, gas and coal in the UK, repeatedly putting our bodies and our liberty on the line, in resistance to a government which has been bought by corporations and fossil fuel capital. We take action because the government is continuing to develop new fossil fuel projects in 2023, even though the world’s climate scientists agree that this threatens the collapse of our food systems and the breakdown of ordered society. [1]
As those of us in the queer community are acutely aware, this government is stoking culture wars against us, with a particularly virulent focus on trans and non-binary folks. They do this as a means of distracting the wider public from their criminal incompetence; however their policies threaten our safety, both directly and indirectly.
The climate crisis they are facilitating has already killed, and made homeless, millions of people including many LGBTQ+ people. In the coming decades, hundreds of millions of people are likely to be forced from their homes as conditions become unsuitable for human survival. Scientists are warning of mass displacement, famine and war. We are facing new pandemics, economic inflation and increasingly authoritarian governments who will attempt to crush civil unrest.
It is queer people, and particularly queer people of colour in the global south, who are suffering first in this accelerating social breakdown.
Pride was born from protest. It speaks to how far we’ve come as a community, that high polluting industries and the banks that fund them, now see Pride as a useful vehicle for sanitising their reputations, waving rainbow flags in one hand whilst accelerating social collapse with the other. What would those who instigated the gay liberation movement, during the Stonewall riots in 1969, make of the corporatised spectacle Pride has now become?
We are calling on London Pride to make a statement condemning new oil, gas and coal. We also demand that they cease accepting sponsorship money from high polluting industries and stop allowing the inclusion of floats from these organisations in the parade. These partnerships embarrass the LGBTQ+ community, at a time when much of the cultural world is rejecting ties to these toxic industries.
If London Pride fails to take these basic steps necessary to protect our community, we will have to consider potential escalations which may result in the disruption of Pride. We will also call for the entire LGBTQ+ community to join us in protest and boycott – for the safety of LGBTQ+ people everywhere.
We call on Pride to remember the spirit in which it was founded and to respect the memory of all those who fought and died to secure the rights we now possess, whilst taking the necessary steps to protect our community long into the future.
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
[1] Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups working together to demand that the government immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK. Just Stop Oil is a member of the A22 Network of civil resistance projects. Climate Emergency Fund is Just Stop Oil’s primary funder for recruitment, training, and capacity building.
Just Stop Oil ‘Blue Lights’ policy: our policy is, and has always been, to move out of the way for emergency vehicles with siren sounding and ‘blue lights’ on.
