THE
NEWS
MEDIA
has
moved
on,
now
that
the
one-year
anniversary
of
Hurricane
Katrina
has
passed.
In
its
place,
Sept.
11
anniversary
coverage
fills
the
airwaves.
But
as
the
headlines
about
Katrina’s
anniversary
receded,
just
as
when
the
waters
finally
left
New
Orleans,
the
stench
from
wrecked
homes
and
lives
remains.
And
the
story
you
haven’t
read
about
in
the
mainstream
media
is
how
Katrina
relief
efforts
have
been
divided
along
the
odious
fault
lines
of
heterosexism
and
faith-based
prejudice.
While
seemingly
invisible
in
this
disaster,
gay
and
transgender
evacuees
and
their
families
faced
all
kinds
of
discrimination
at
the
hands
of
many
of
the
faith-based
relief
agencies
because
of
their
sexual
orientation,
gender
identity
or
HIV
status.
Since
most
of
the
evacuees
were
African
American,
racial
issues
and
the
“down
low”
of
many
African-American
gay
men,
many
black
LGBT
evacuees
experienced
discrimination
from
both
general
and
black
faith-based
institutions.
“The
Superdome
was
no
place
to
be
an
out
black
couple,”
said
Jeremiah
Leblanc,
who
now
lives
in
Shreveport.
“We
got
lots
of
stares
and
all
kinds
of
looks.
What
were
we
thinking?
But
my
partner
and
I
were
in
a
panic
and
didn’t
know
what
to
do
when
we
had
to
leave
our
home.”
GEORGE
W.
BUSH’S
faith-based
organizations
fronted
themselves
as
“armies
of
compassion,”
but
their
anti-gay
ministries
kept
gay
people
way.
The
same
was
true
with
black
churches,
who
were
a
large
part
of
the
relief
effort,
since
many
are
known
for
their
unabashed
homophobia.
“When
we
were
all
forced
to
leave
the
Dome,
we
were
gathered
like
cattle
into
school
buses,”
said
Leblanc.
“[My
partner]
Le
Paul
and
I
both
needed
our
meds,
clothes
and
a
way
to
find
permanent
shelter
after
the
storm,
but
we
knew
to
stay
the
hell
away
from
the
black
churches
offering
help.
“We
couldn’t
tell
anyone
we
were
sick
and
HIV-positive,”
he
said.
“And
when
we
got
to
Houston,
we
saw
the
Salvation
Army,
but
Le
Paul
and
I
knew
to
stay
the
hell
away
from
that,
too.”
The
Salvation
Army
offers
a
different
kind
of
salvation
for
gay
families,
declaring
on
its
website,
“scripture
forbids
sexual
intimacy
between
members
of
the
same
sex.
The
Salvation
Army
believes,
therefore,
that
Christians
whose
sexual
orientation
is
primarily
or
exclusively
same-sex
are
called
upon
to
embrace
celibacy
as
a
way
of
life.”
NOT
ALL
CHURCHES
and
faith-based
organizations
were
unwelcoming
to
LGBTQ
people.
There
were
a
few
opening
and
affirming
parishes
in
the
area
before
Katrina
hit.
“I
wasn’t
going
to
the
Superdome,”
said
Angelamia
Bachemin,
an
African-American
lesbian
percussionist
renowned
for
her
pioneering
style
of
jazz/hip-hop.
She
was
a
professor
of
ethnomusicology
at
the
Berklee
School
of
Music
in
Boston
before
she
returned
home
to
her
native
New
Orleans.
“When
my
partner
and
I
and
the
children
fled,
it
was
not
an
issue
for
the
folks
at
this
Catholic
church,”
she
says.
“The
people
at
Epiphany
Church
just
took
us
in,
and
we
began
rolling
with
the
evangelists
during
the
relief
effort.
They
paid
money
for
the
materials
for
my
roof.
They
have
done
more
for
me
and
my
family
than
the
government.”
Bachemin
is
one
of
the
lucky
few
gay
families
now
in
the
long
process
of
rebuilding
their
homes
and
lives
in
New
Orleans.
Leblanc
isn’t.
His
partner,
who
was
in
the
full-blown
stages
of
AIDS,
died
two
weeks
after
Katrina.
Since
Leblanc
and
his
partner
were
not
legally
married,
Leblanc
is
not
eligible
for
surviving
spouse
Social
Security
benefits.
And
because
he
is
gay,
he
also
feels
excluded
from
the
faith-based
relief
effort
assistance
to
help
him
get
his
life
back
in
order.
Katrina
revealed
for
all
the
botched
relief
efforts
of
FEMA
and
the
federal
government,
along
with
the
fault
lines
of
race
and
class
in
this
country.
But
many
still
missed
the
hidden
abuses
of
heterosexism
and
homophobia
from
Bush’s
faith-based
organizations.
Consequently,
those
at
the
margins
of
society
became
the
center
of
the
tragedy
as
Hurricane
Katrina
nakedly
exposed
how
Bush
neither
sees
nor
wants
his
administration
to
be
the
primary
source
of
assistance
or
compassion
for
all
Americans
in
crisis.
