Queer Ecologies

rather than queers being a threat to nature and society, it is rather homophobia and capitalism that are toxic.

Nightwork similarly contests “against nature” discourses to show that, rather than queers being a threat to nature and society, it is rather homophobia and capitalism that are toxic.

Sexuality, gender, and race, as can been seen in discourses of reproduction, overpopulation, wilderness conservation, and gentrification, are as significant factors within environmental change as the supposedly straightforward processes of ecology.

inherent within the biologically amorphous concept of species are those internal threats that impact the overall strength of the species. Historically, queers have been placed as part of this internal threat, along with people of color, people with disabilities, and chronically ill people.

the more diverse the species, the more resistant it is to external threats or disease or disaster

The acceptance of queer animals as a place of public debate hinges upon the broad public acceptance of diversity as beneficial to social groups.

Nonhuman same-sex acts, as both Bell and Alaimo argue, point us directly to the definition of nature and culture, for at the very least they change how we see the natural life of animals, and perhaps they also make us question the possibility of explaining nature as separate from cultur

“Toward a Queer Ecofeminism”

Gay men, lesbians, and others identified as “against nature” have historically used ideas of nature, natural spaces, and ecological practices as sites of resistance and exploration. In literature alone, one can find numerous examples of authors who have self-consciously deployed dominant nature discourses in the service of queer possibilities, who have brought conventions of nature writing to celebrate sexual diversity, who have taken dominant narratives of nature to task to create space for non-heterosexual possibilities, and who have written in new ways to reflect their views of the commingling of queer and ecological possibilities.

. (Who would have guessed that two “not-queer” white guys fucking among the sheep would be so interesting?)