We Are All Connected: Lessons on Nature, Queerness, and Collective Care

“Nature has always been a supreme place of comfort for me

I came to understand who I am through countless hours spent alone and wandering through natural spaces around the world.”

-AJ Hardie

One of the first lessons I learned as a kid interested in nature was that everything is connected, and everything matters. As we wrap up official Pride month celebrations across the country, I’ve been thinking more about what this means for me as a queer and transgender nonbinary person and as the leader of an environmental organization.

Nature has always been a place of supreme comfort for me - I came to understand who I am through countless hours spent alone and wandering through natural spaces around the world. To paraphrase bell hooks: nature is a sanctuary for me, a place of refuge and for healing wounds. My understanding of and relationship to my queerness is deeply and inextricably linked to my interconnectedness with the natural world, and at moments when I have felt the most isolated and persecuted I have returned to nature for peace and understanding.

Any student of the natural world, as we all should be, can tell you that diversity and variation are the sources of strength and resilience in nature. We know that biodiverse forests are more resilient, we know that genetic variation is the essential ingredient for evolution. Students of the natural world also know that cooperation and mutualism are as integral to our survival and evolution as competition, perhaps even more so in a social species like humans.

When we arrive at moments that test us, as individuals or as a society, I hope that we can remember these lessons that the natural world provides for us. I hope that we can remember that every individual deserves the safety and freedom to live as themself and to do so feeling supported and cared for by their community. And I hope that we recommit ourselves, daily, to the work of ensuring that as we protect our environment we are also protecting each other regardless of identity, immigration status, or any other characteristic - because we are truly all connected.

-AJ Hardie, PhD
Executive Director, Asheville GreenWorks