Volunteer Spotlight: Callum Cintron

By Juliet Freiheit

For this month’s volunteer spotlight and in honor of Pride month, CCL highlights the volunteer efforts of Callum Cintron, the leader of CCL’s LGBTQIA+ and Allies OUTreach Action Team and a volunteer on the National Inclusion Team. Callum is a student at Oregon State University who is passionate about social change and climate change mitigation. Striving to make the environmental movement inclusive for people of all communities, their work helps make CCL a welcoming place for all.

We caught up with Callum recently to learn more about them, their work with CCL, and their action team.

Tell us more about yourself!

I live in New Jersey on the ancestral lands of the Lenape. I spend most of my time as a student. At university, I study Natural Resources and Anthropology focusing on JEDIA (justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and access) and Indigenous Studies. Outside of that, I volunteer with the Anishinaabe Treaty Alliance, MN350’s Pipeline Resistance Team, and We, The World. I run a non-profit program called Rethinking Community and we are currently starting our first project, the Gender Diverse Lives Coalition. For Summer 2022, I will be an intern with Felidae Fund on human-wildlife conflict mitigation, namely with big cats.

What do you do within CCL?

At CCL, I am the leader of the LGBTQIA+ and Allies OUTreach Action Team and a volunteer on the National Inclusion Team. The Action Team has had a plethora of amazing speakers such as comedian Sammie James, Founder of 500 Queer Scientists Dr. Lauren Esposito, Queer Cartoonist Maia Kobabe, and Author Syan Rose. My work on both teams includes making CCL a more comfortable and welcoming place for people of communities that have not been historically included in the environmental movement.

What are some of the things you’re working on within CCL? In 2021, I spent about 8 months working with CCL staff to find a solution for our “Write Congress” tool not including gender-neutral honorifics like Mx. Our continuing project is to assemble a spreadsheet of members of Congress who do not offer Mx. on their contact form and lobby with them for gender-inclusive language within the government. The National Inclusion Team has so many wonderful projects! We are working on making a more accessible environment with ASL interpreters, website accessibility aids, and visual descriptions when introducing ourselves during events. Quarterly, we hold Race and Culture conversations and our 2022 Fellows have big ideas brewing for the next six months.

Tell us about the LGBTQIA+ and Allies OUTreach action team! Do you have anything planned for Pride Month?

Stacey McReynolds created our Action Team quite a few years ago and restarted it in Summer 2020. They were looking for co-leaders and it sounded right up my alley! Around June 2020, I was onboarded as a co-leader and have been working with this amazing action team since. This team was made so that LGBTQ+ individuals and our allies had a space to discuss a carbon fee and dividend and our community in a space and context that fit with our identities.

We’re super excited for Pride Month! On June 24 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm ET, we will be hosting a Pride celebration. CCLers of any identity are welcome and feel free to bring friends, family, and others! We will watch a queer history movie, do trivia, play bingo and socialize. You can find the Zoom link and RSVP here or email callumvolunteer20@gmail.com. At that Community link, we also have a Pride Month Zoom background you are welcome to use all month long!

Juliet Freiheit is the CCL Summer 2022 Communications Intern and a student at Trinity College. As an individual who is interested in environmental policy, Juliet is ecstatic to further her experience and impact by working with CCL.

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