Which Community Can You Inspire?
You probably agree that we can’t afford the wait of turning people into environmentalists one person at a time. A Seattle-based non-profit understands that it makes more sense to inspire whole communities to move progressively along the sustainability spectrum.
OUT for Sustainability was established last year as a platform for catalyzing community-based environmental and social change. The audience addressed comprises only 3-10% (or more…) of the American population. But once this community turns green, the US is meaningfully closer to being the country environmentalists everywhere want it to be. The non-profit aims to galvanize queers who have learned that the successful organizational efforts paying off in increased legal protections and benefits can be applied to improving environmental challenges we all face.
And data show promise for attitudinal shift within communities. A 2009 survey supports that 21% of lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) adults identify as “environmentalists,” while only 13% of heterosexuals do. Other survey results show that LGBT adults feel a deeper sense of accountability for environmental impact (see graphs below).
"I Believe..."
Thought and emotional leadership via the web is likely accountable for some of this intra-community conversion. One example is the It’s Easy Being Green column of The New Gay, an online collection of blogs on LGBT-related topics. Subjects range from the need to increase corporate efforts targeting queer communities with eco-product advertising to vegetarian recipes and cooking demos. While the author voices occasionally feeling like an anomaly rather than the norm as a gay environmentalist, Web 2.0 is a proven change agent.
Which community might you help lead along the sustainability spectrum?
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