Mission Statement
Queer Solidarity Action (QSA) works to build international queer solidarity as an essential foundation for social and climate justice. We challenge structures that make queer communities vulnerable, demand inclusive and affirming disaster responses, and advocate for a world where queer lives are centred, protected, and valued.
About Us
QSA is a collective of academics and activists working for social and climate justice through international queer solidarity. We began within Queers for Climate Justice (Q4CJ), researching how climate impacts shape queer lives. This work showed us that social injustice and climate injustice are deeply linked — and that cross-border queer solidarity is essential in confronting both.
We use Queer as a reclaimed, empowering term for people living outside normative structures. In many places, openly claiming an LGBT+ identity depends on access to social capital that many do not have; elsewhere, “Queer” signals resistance to assimilation. Across all contexts, shared experiences of marginalisation make international queer solidarity vital.
We believe that:
Disasters Are Social, Not Natural
We reject the idea that disasters are “natural.” Hazards become disasters when social systems fail — and these failures consistently harm queer people first. Criminalisation, discrimination, poverty, and exclusion from services intensify during crisis rather than disappear.
No one is safe until everyone is safe — before, during, and after disaster.
Queer Vulnerability Is Created by Inequality
Queer people around the world are more likely to face unsafe housing, poor healthcare access, lack of family recognition, and exclusion from shelters or emergency support. Trans and gender-diverse people often face further risks, including denial of medication, harassment, and violence. These harms are socially produced — not the result of nature.
Queer liberation and climate justice are inseparable. All struggles against exclusion, exploitation, and precarity are connected.
Climate Justice Must Centre Queer Lives
To build real climate justice, queer experiences must be recognised and centred. This means:
- Challenging heteronormative assumptions built into policy and practice
- Ensuring inclusive, safe, affirming emergency services
- Strengthening global commitments that protect marginalised communities
- Recognising queer people as essential to community resilience
Queer people are not an afterthought.
We are part of the solution.