“The Opposite of Doom Is Curiosity”: Pattie Gonia Gives Advice for the Climate Fight Under Trump

Pattie Gonia believes that toxic masculinity poses an existential threat not just to society, but to earth itself.

“Toxic masculinity is killing this planet,” the drag artist and environmental activist tells Them, not hedging her words. “It’s the root of war, it’s the root of leaders that are fueling this world, it’s the root of billionaires grabbing power, it’s the root of everything.”

With her bright red hair and love of nature, you could compare Pattie’s aesthetic to the Batman villain Poison Ivy, whom queer people know was in the right all along. But while Ivy may be a definite chaotic neutral on the moral alignment chart, there’s no doubt Pattie is in the column of good. Her work focuses on getting queer people back in touch with nature, in part through Outdoorist Oath, a charitable organization she co-founded that seeks to bring more diversity to the environmental movement. And while her résumé is long, including millions of dollars raised for LGBTQ+ and environmental groups, she is also a powerful personal messenger for the cause.

At the start of a second Trump administration, she doesn’t want to give too much oxygen to the president or his DOGE cronies; she wants to talk about giving nature, and ourselves, the chance to heal. “I very much view Trump and Elon Musk as spoiled toddlers,” she tells Them. “I’m trying to give less of my attention to the crying toddler, because they’re just going to keep on acting up.”

In February, Pattie became the first person in drag to deliver a TED Talk, entitled “Why Joy Is a Serious Way to Take Action,” and while it’s themes might seem clear to those already familiar with climate justice and environmental activism, they’re increasingly anathema to the current political moment, in which the White House is attacking both LGBTQ+ people and the very habitability of the planet. “Nature knows that diversity is the only way for an ecosystem to survive or thrive,” she says in the precedent-setting address. “The healthiest ecosystems on earth are the most diverse ecosystems.”

Sitting down with Them in the weeks after the address, Pattie Gonia shared why queer people need to reconnect with nature — and with each other — as a mode of resistance. “No one’s coming to save me or the people that I love,” she says, recommending a mindset we should adopt. “I have to be there for the people that I love.”