Will Faith-Based Agencies Help Haiti's Gay Community?

[NorthCarolina]

Since the world community has descended on Haiti with relief aid in response to the January 12th earthquake, I am wondering how Haiti's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities are being helped.

As one of Haiti's most marginal groups, the question arises in response to how some American LGBTQ New Orleans residents were treated during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort in 2005.

During Hurricane Katrina, former President George W. Bush's conservative faith-based organizations - like the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, and all other organizations in Bush's "armies of compassion" - highlighted how after the storm homophobia blew in.

While seemingly invisible in the disaster, many LGBTQ evacuees of Katrina and their families faced discrimination at the hands of those conservative faith-based relief organizations because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV status.

"Tragedy does not discriminate and neither should relief agencies," stated Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, in a news release in 2005. "In our experience during the aftermath of September 11, LGBT people face compounded difficulties because on top of the disaster, they face discrimination when it comes to recognizing their relationships, leading to even more hardship at the worst moment imaginable."

--snip--

It is my hope that the many conservative faith-based groups and organizations that are now part of Haiti's earthquake relief effort will not discriminate against Haiti's LGBTQ community as many of them did toward New Orleans's queer communities during Katrina.

And it is my hope they remember that engaging acts of goodwill are needed in the face of this natural disaster and they must be inclusive of all God's people.

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-monroe/will-faith-based-agencies_b_443472.html

[mn9driver]

1. Episcopal Relief and Development

http://www.er-d.org/

The Episcopal church welcomes everybody.

[hayu_lol]

2. With one to three million homeless...

how will the fundie helpers find the time to identify who is what?

Given their history however, it seems probably that they will follow the dictates of their peculiar beliefs.

Hungry and homeless people are, bottom line, hungry and homeless people. Either help them or leave Haiti never to return. Next plane out for groups practicing 'selection' of whom they will help.

[Ocracoker16]

3. first organization I thought of too