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Abstract

This thesis highlights actions and reflections by queer organizers in the San Francisco Bay Area who are working broadly towards climate justice, under Martinez-Lugo's (2023) definition as “a radical praxis and a theory of deconstruction of self-determination, anti-capitalism, and decolonization.” Situated in the social movement and queer histories of the San Francisco Bay Area, I argue for the potential of queerness as a framework for taking radical political actions (e.g. Cohen, 1997; Gaard, 1997; Oswin, 2008). I then bring two distinct case studies of "queer climate justice": the interconnected struggles of the Queers for Palestine movement and the network of queer intentional communities challenging traditional family structures. Through interviews and ethnography, I illustrate how queer activists in the Bay Area have acted from their particular structural vantage point as queer people to build lessons for cross-movement solidarity building (e.g., through forming queer-specific anti-Zionist groups). Simultaneously, they create new worlds and enact futures in the present (Muñoz, 2009) via cooperative living arrangements that explore alternative economies, model relationship building and community care, and create seed possibilities that are necessary in a warming planet.