The firm , the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund ( CELDF ) , has been at the vanguard of a motion to grant legal personhood to lake , rivers , watershed , and other ecosystems , acknowledge as theRights of Nature motion . But seven of the group ’s 15 stave members , which include contract lawyer , have leave behind in recent months ; three of the former employees told E&E that a toxic piece of work culture , including a limit hostile to LGBTQ citizenry , was one of the reasons for their departure . Staffers told E&E that they find out colleague repeatedly misgender employees , admit while speaking to them in conversation . They also say a coworker once muse over a “ connection between an step-up in transgender people and an increment in chemical in the piss , ” a scientificallyfalse statement .
“ Current and former staff and others have criminate CELDF of make a cultivation that hook up with transphobia , ” the organization said in a statement posted to its website in February , after E&E first attain out about the staff member ’ allegation . “ That story is faux and unfounded . ” ( We ’ve reached out to CELDF to see if the organization has any further comment on E&E ’s story and will update this piece if we hear back . )
Also at issue are CELDF ’s longstanding ties toDeep Green Resistance , a group of environmental activists whose leaders have a long history of transphobia . In anFAQposted to its website , the group take it is not “ transphobic , ” but the same FAQ calls trans women “ men ” and describes internal secretion discussion for trans early days as “ eugenics . ” E&E reports that one of CELDF ’s founders , Thomas Linzey , who broke tie with the organization in 2020 , has a ten - long relationship with the founder of Deep Green Resistance , Derrick Jensen , who also sit on the CELDF board of advisor . Jensen has ahistoryof hosting conversation on his podcast with public figures who have seemingly no tie to environmental causes but do hold transphobic viewpoints .
The site of a proposed lithium site in Nevada. In recent months, the transphobic views of groups supporting the fight against the mine have divided the movement.Photo: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times (Getty Images)
In January , E&Ebroke the storythat Deep Green Resistance was a core player in a coalition to push against a proposed lithium mine in Nevada , which fall apart after the organization ’s transphobic survey came to light . CELDF staff member who spoke to E&E said they were not made aware of Deep Green Resistance ’s affiliation with the movement to press the mine , even as CELDF was supporting their effort in Nevada — and as CELDF employee were turn to find ways to make the organization more inclusive and distance the administration from its preceding ties to Jensen .
CELDF ’s exploit have gotten a lot of high - profile care over the past decade . In 2020 , actor Mark Ruffalo produced and tell afilmabout CELDF ’s oeuvre , while the Daily Show also profiled their drive in 2019 . CELDF has also bring financing from Patagonia and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation .
Almost all of the mainstream pressing that has cover the organization ’s efforts has not noted its crosstie to Deep Green Resistance . In 2019 , Earther was one of those outlets : Weran a piecefeaturing interview with both Linzey and Will Falk , a Deep Green Resistance member . Less than a month after our story ran , Jensen and other Deep Green Resistance leadership — include Max Wilbert , who partnered with Falk on the effort against the Li mine — author an essayfor a Canadian cartridge that begin with the passage “ Okay , hand up everyone who predicted that when Big Brother arrived , he ’d be get into a dress , haul anyone who reject to wax his ladyballs before a human rights judicature , and bellowing ‘ It ’s Ma’am ! ’ ”
The idea of a left over - annexe environmental group holding deeply transphobic vantage point may seem like a fringe upshot that has nothing to do with the enceinte causes they ’re press for . But not only is transphobia — which pop off against New science and medicine — a base of some groups ’ environmental rhetoric , but this rhetoric also opens the door for button-down , anti - environmental forces to take vantage of the movement .
“ Right - wing trope have been really eager to seek out these anti - trans left - offstage voices to say , depend , this is a mainstream issue , even when you see most people are just not that actuate by it , ” Ari Drennen , the LGBTQ Program Director at nonprofit watchdog Media Matters , narrate Earther in January .
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