Queering Disasters In Light Of the Climate Crisis

02/02/2023

Witten by: Vani Bhardwaj

The inter-subjectivities such as the trans individuals of color, dalit queers mired in caste stratifications enwrap the queer community make it evident that climate change-induced disabilities are going to impact them manyfold^[1]Behal, Anuj. 2021. “How Climate Change Is Affecting The LGBTQIA+ Community?” Down To Earth … Continue reading. This article will discuss natural disasters in India and how it brings a double burden of injustice onto the LGBTQ+ population. However, we will eventually see how there is nothing ‘natural’ about the impact of these disasters. Destruction of urban ecology brings a double whammy to the LGBTQ+ population and this aggravation of marginalization is the element of politicization of urban ecology. By which one means that once we go beyond the city, we realize that the lens of Feminist Urban Political Ecology (FUPE) may be a suitable lens to read the city’s landscape, but it remains inadequate for studying peri-urban, semi-rural, or urban environments. Transition zones where strict dualistic logic does not apply are best addressed by queer feminist political ecological paradigms, which, while still in need of theoretical enrichment, provide insights into the dysphoria of the urban landscape in the peri-urban areas. Concomitantly, gendered power imbalances^[2]‘Gender Dynamics of Disaster Risk and Resilience’. 2021. World Bank Blog  https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disasterriskmanagement/publication/gender-dynamics-of-disaster-risk-and-resilience have influenced disaster recovery policies as well.  Similar extrapolations from these studies have highlighted how the heterogeneity among LGBTQ+ members needs to be acknowledged while formulating emergency response plans and policies in the post-disaster recovery phases.

Not only the national disaster recovery policies, but the international framework for the disaster management cycle is also insensitive to transgender people. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, a non-binding agreement adopted at the Third UN World Conference held in Sendai, Japan on March 18, 2015 claims to encompass all stakeholders in disaster prevention, mitigation and rehabilitation by the state, is itself embedded in binaries of males and females and is thereby, exclusionary in its scope. Resultantly, the transgender community as a whole, trans-children, trans-indigenous peoples get side-lined in disaster management policies.

Fig 1: Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction^[3]“Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2022” United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. … Continue reading

Displacement and homelessness of LGBTQI+ population in context of climate-related disasters

It is extremely helpful if the connotations of home are unpacked to go beyond the paradigm of heteronormative familial and kinship networks. The nomenclature of ‘home’ has been problematized in the context of queer communities^[4]Jason Bryant.2015.’The Meaning of Queer Home’ Home Cultures, 12:3, 261-289 https://doi.org/10.1080/17406315.2015.1084754 for it embodies a sense of imagination besides its tangible manifestation. It is therefore undeniable that home has relational spatialities Thence, home is neither that sensory emotion nor the material shelter, but the relation amidst the two. Resultantly, queer solidarities of amicability are formed in community networks rather than bloodline ancestry.

The uprooting of homes of the LGBTQ+ population but also the displacement of the social infrastructure that supports their existence such as queer community forums, networks and public spaces is associated with the phenomenon ‘queer domicide’^[5]Tran, Thomas T., 2021. “Queering Disasters: Embodied Crises in Post-Harvey Houston. ” Master’s Thesis, University of Tennessee https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/6141. What about the LGBTQ+ community members who were homeless prior to the striking of ‘natural’ disaster? Inadequate documentation as proofs to acquire housing makes owning a house a distant reality for transgenders across India^[6]“For Indian Transgenders, Getting A Shelter Home Is An Uphill Task”. 2016. NDTV https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/for-indian-transgenders-getting-a-shelter-home-is-an-uphill-task-1426837. For a segment of the population that already finds locating shelter homes^[7]“Threat of Violence At Root of Homelessness” Hindustan Times, 2019 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/threat-of-violence-at-root-of-homelessness/story-bkYPyxhCNAJxmvUXXQHT4H.html arduous, the post-disaster recovery phase throws up even fiercer marginalisation and vulnerabilities^[8]‘In Disasters As In Everyday Life, LGBT People Face Widespread Abuse’. 2021. United Nations Asia and the Pacific. … Continue reading. For instance, accelerated harassment of LGBTQ+ community at disaster relief shelters and enhanced social ostracization are common^[9]Frank, Thomas. 2020. “LGBTQ People Are At Higher Risk In Disasters” Scientific American https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lgbtq-people-are-at-higher-risk-in-disasters/. Resultantly, homelessness is the norm for the majority^[10]Fraser B, Pierse N, Chisholm E, Cook H. 2019. “LGBTIQ+ Homelessness: A Review of the Literature”. Int J Environ Res Public Health. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16152677 … Continue reading of the LGBTQ+ population owing to constant harassment for official document registration, housing and renting. Evidently, the legal lacuna regarding local and federal laws when it comes to housing remains insensitive to LGBTQ+^[11]Romero, Adam, P. Goldberg Shoshana, K. Vasquez,Luis A. 2020. “LGBT People and Housing Affordability, Discrimination and Homelessness” Williams Institute, School of Law, UCLA.. More devastating is the paucity of data regarding homelessness of the LGBTQI+ community in Indians^[12]Haworth, Billy Tucker, McKinnon, Scott, Eriksen Christine. 2022. “Advancing Disaster Geographies: From Marginalisation To Inclusion of Gender and Sexual Minorities” Geography Compass, Volume 16, … Continue reading. 

Shelters in climate emergencies 

Major concerns regarding privacy in disaster shelters^[13]Scott, McKinnon, Andrew Gorman-Murray, Dale Dominey-Howes. 2014. “Queer Domicide: LGBT Displacement and Home Loss in Natural Disaster Impact, Response, and Recovery” Home Cultures, Volume 11, … Continue reading in the ex-post phase have been flagged. Chaman Pincha brings to light the physical harm experienced by the transgenders from Tamil Nadu, who go by the label of aravanis^[14]Trans women located in Tamil Nadu, India who find themselves cornered into the cis-male identities https://scroll.in/article/662023/hijra-kothi-aravani-a-quick-guide-to-transgender-terminology locally, during the tsunami of 2004. Aravanis are trans women located in Tamil Nadu, India who find themselves cornered into cis-male identities. Comprehension of disasters must go beyond cis-normative and heteronormative paradigms^[15]Tran, Thomas T., 2021. “Queering Disasters: Embodied Crises in Post-Harvey Houston. ” Master’s Thesis, University of Tennessee https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/6141; otherwise, natural disasters will continue to exacerbate social marginalisation for hitherto marginalised LGBTQ+ communities. In fact, the families of the aravanis who lost their lives did not receive any government compensation either^[16]Pincha Chaman, Krishna Hari. 2008. “Aravanis: Voiceless Victims of The Tsunami” Humanitarian Practice Network https://odihpn.org/publication/aravanis-voiceless-victims-of-the-tsunami/. It must not be forgotten that such is the state of those who belong to the LGBTQI+ community publicly and does not begin to account for the numerous lives that constitute the community at a clandestine level due to personal non-disclosure. Discriminatory policies within disaster relief camps have been reported by All Assam Transgender Association, wherein clusters of residential premises for trans-people were washed away in the seasonal floods in Assam besides biased ration distribution^[17]“Floods Hit Assam’s Trans Persons Hard”. 2019. Hindustan Times https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/floods-hit-assam-s-trans-persons-hard/story-PGhvsVtQAWbHvZp3rdPF1M.html. Dale Howes, Andrew Murray, and Scott McKinnon, academicians positioned in Australia, suggest provisions for gender-neutral toilets^[18]Scott, McKinnon, Andrew Gorman-Murray, Dale Dominey-Howes. 2019. “LGBTI Experiences of Disasters In The Antipodes” The Gender Security Project … Continue reading in premises of emergency shelters. They also advocate for availability of hormone therapy in ex-post-disaster shelters to make the process more seamless for disaster-displaced transgender persons.

Overlapping issues of concern

The sense of uprooting due to cyclones, floods, tsunamis creates intense psychosocial trauma. Displacement due to climate change-related crises, therefore, impacts the queer community adversely due to pre-existing multiple marginalities. Low-income LGBTQ+ population is affected more adversely than their better-off urban peers. The LGBTQ community feels dispossessed and dislocated from their material memory^[19]Scott McKinnon, Andrew Gorman-Murray & Dale Dominey-Howes. 2016. “The Greatest Loss was a Loss of Our History’: Natural Disasters, Marginalised Identities and Sites of Memory” Social and … Continue reading which is experienced manifold for gendered minorities.

Media and coverage of the LBTQ+ population in the news during the disasters and in their aftermath are rare to come by. Reading of disaster meanings in mainstream media is inconspicuously silent and blind to LGBTQ+ population^[20]Scott, McKinnon, Andrew Gorman-Murray, Dale Dominey-Howes. 2016. “Disasters, Queer Narratives, and the News: How Are LGBTI Disaster Experiences Reported by the Mainstream and LGBTI Media?” Taylor … Continue reading. Mainstream media develops the narrative of climate disasters around heteronormative households and families while LGBTQ+ individuals and communities are invisibilized in national media discourses.

 Many times, owing to disasters LGBTQ+ people were forced to come out^[21]Scott, McKinnon, Andrew Gorman-Murray, Dale Dominey-Howes. 2016. “Disasters, Queer Narratives, and the News: How Are LGBTI Disaster Experiences Reported by the Mainstream and LGBTI Media?” Taylor … Continue reading whereas they were closet-gendered and sexual minorities earlier; particularly in cases of sex disaggregated name rolls in disaster recovery^[22]“Responses To Climate Disasters Must Be LGBTQ-Inclusive, Expert Says” (2020) Devex. https://www.devex.com/news/responses-to-climate-disasters-must-be-lgbtq-inclusive-experts-say-98062. Displaced from their daily lives prior to the striking of the disaster, it further pushes them into dangerous employment opportunities such as human trafficking and beggary in the ex-post and reconstruction phase of climate-induced disasters^[23]Behal, Anuj. 2021. “How Climate Change Is Affecting the LGBTQIA+ Community”. Down To Earth … Continue reading.

The heterogeneity within LGBTQ+ members needs to be acknowledged while formulating emergency response plans and policies in the post-disaster recovery phases. Disaster preparedness is very often premised around heteronormative families rather than same-sex LGB families^[24]“Responses To Climate Disasters Must Be LGBTQ-Inclusive, Expert Says” (2020) Devex. https://www.devex.com/news/responses-to-climate-disasters-must-be-lgbtq-inclusive-experts-say-98062. Climate justice is associated with racial justice therefore we see how the LGBTQ+ community of color^[25]“Climate Justice is Racial Justice” 2022. Amnesty International https://www.amnesty.ca/blog/climate-justice-is-racial-justice/, is at greater risk of climate-related events and disasters. The need of the hour also includes decolonizing disaster-related policies to perceive the inherent injustice that plagues the LGBTQ+ in climate disasters of the Global South.  

In studying post-disaster responses in Australia and New Zealand it has been found that the transphobic attitude of disaster relief volunteers^[26]Andrew Gorman-Murray, Scott McKinnon, Dale Dominey-Howes, Catherine J. Nash & Rillark Bolton. 2018. ‘Listening and Learning: Giving Voice To Trans Experiences of Disasters’, Gender, Place … Continue reading presents yet another policy challenge in the framework of disaster prevention and management planning^[27]“Responses To Climate Disasters Must Be LGBTQ-Inclusive, Expert Says” (2020) Devex. https://www.devex.com/news/responses-to-climate-disasters-must-be-lgbtq-inclusive-experts-say-98062.

What can be done?

All in all, it is evident in the case of the aravanis how the pre-existing structural violence in the Indian society hampers the preventive and mitigative measures that could have been put in place in the pre-disaster phase and enhanced the preparedness of the LGBTQ+ population. The recovery phase is further fuelled by the silencing of the community and trans and homophobic responses of the systems like media, official paperwork and social security schemes in post-disaster settings. However, in recent times, the National Institute for Disaster Management (NIDM) has been cognizant^[28]‘Transgender and Disasters’. 2020. National Institute of Disaster Management https://nidm.gov.in/pdf/trgReports/2020/August/Report_27August2020aw.pdf of the differential needs of the transgender community due to climate-related disasters and how their inclusion in disaster management policies will enhance social justice in Indian society.

• Unless and until we queer climate change meanings, disaster prevention, management and recovery policies will not become inclusive of LGBTQ+.
• Disaster risk reduction policies must undertake vulnerability mapping that is sensitive to LGBTQ+ concerns.  
• The conception of what the LGBTQ+ population understands to be home is already built on fragile contexts. For people who already feel alienated and displaced from society, disasters bring greater chaos.
• We need to look closely at how class, physical disabilities and aging within the LGBTQ+ peoples further make these segments of the population more vulnerable than others, say the queer young people.
• Mainstreaming of LGBTQ+ community in reportage for coverage of natural disasters in local languages will advance queering of climate change. This will facilitate highlighting the additional requirements of the LGBTQ+ community in all phases of the disaster cycle.  
• Disaster preventive strategies should incorporate non-heteronormative families in their local action plans, zoning and schemes.
• Climate adaptation finances must fund LGBT sensitive disaster recovery programs.
• Particularly in the case of Indian legislation, additions to the 73rd and 74th amendments that encompass the inclusion of LGBT leaders in local disaster mitigation committees are required.
• Dalits are the outcast and ‘untouchable’ community stigmatized by the entrenchment of the caste system in India. Greater research regarding dalit^[29]Outcast and ‘untouchable’ community stigmatized by the entrenchment of the caste system in India. “Dalits: World Directory Of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples”. Minority Rights International … Continue reading queer community and the impact of natural disasters on them needs to be recorded statistically. Currently, the literature is lacking regarding such tenets.

To cite this production: “Queering Disasters In Light Of the Climate Crisis”, Vani Bhardwaj, 02/02/2023, Gender Institute in Geopolitics, https://igg-geo.org/?p=10929&lang=en.

The statements in this article are the sole responsibility of the author.