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Gay Life in New Orleans After Katrina
Gayest Neighborhoods
Spared; Lesbians and
Blacks Hit Harder
By Rex Wockner
Contributing Writer .
NEW ORLEANS — A few Christian
political activists blamed Hurricane
Katrina cm gays, noting that it hit imme
diately prior to gay-friendly New
Orleans' famed "Southern Decadence"
gay festival
But, in fact about the only parts of
the city that weren’t severely damaged
by the massive flooding from burst lev
~ eeswere the gayestareas. AndtheNew
Orleans gay scene appears to be bounc- 1
ing back faster than the city in general.
"The 20 percent of the city that Was
spared, 80 percent of those parts of the
city are gay [neighborhoods]," said
Lany Bagneris, executive director of the
New Orleans Human Relations
Commission. "The benefits of living in
that environment — the French Quartet;
the Marigny, the Bywatei; Uptown —
where most gay people live, they were
spared the water. We've come back not
only to dry land, but to our jobs.
"All those preachers who blamed the
Belinda Hernandez (I) and Brobson Lutz.
The Bourbon Pub is up and running,but tourists are hot coming, as available
hotel rooms are limited. Many locals have failed to return to the city.
gay community for Katrina — our
neighborhoods were the ones that had
the rainbow over us and were blessed,"
Bagneris said.
But many gay people didn't live in
those gayest neighborhoods — especial
.. Photos by Rex
ly lesbians, blacks and men who don't
frequent gay bars.
"The flooding hit a lot of the commu
nity that is less visible than the bar
crowd," said Randal Beach, co-chair of
the Lesbian and Gay Community
Center of New Orleans. "A lot of the
people whose social activities revolve
around the bar scene live in and around
the French Quarter, and they were for
tunately spared the flooding. But many
others in the community — particularly
the women's and trans[gender] com
munities — lived in areas that were
badly flooded. New Orleans also has a
large black community, and the over
whelming majority those people lived
in neighborhoods that were severely
damaged."
Former city Health -Department
director and well-known French
Quarter figure Dr. Brobson Lutz agreed
that "gay people of color were more
prone to live in areas that were more
susceptible to the flooding."
Lesbians took a harder hit, Bagneris
said, because "more lesbians lived in
[the flooded] Mid-City and Lake view
[areas], and many have kids that have
to go to school."
Most schools have not reopened,
which prevents people with school
aged children from coming home, even
if they have a home to come home to,
which most evacuees do not
The city's lesbian population is likely
to remain depleted for some time, said
Belinda Hernandez, an openly gay
executive producer at WDSU-’^fcaMMMH
"A lot of the lesbian population relo
cated — and we don’t even know where
they are,” she said. "Lakeview is gone.
Much of Mid-City was under water as
well." '
Gay Community Center Threatened
with Collapse
The fact that most evacuees still
haven't been able to come home also
has thrown the Lesbian and Gay
Community Center into dire financial
straits. It may, in fact; have to dose if
help doesn't arrive soon.
'It's devastating," Beach said. "We
have met several times trying to figure
out how to keep the doors open. The
base of our support has always been in
the community itself, we've never had a
lot of corporate support [and] many of
our heavy donors are scattered around
the country. Many we haven't been able
to talk to. We don't even know where
they went
"Also, it's hard to ask people for
money when they don't even nave a
house," he said.
The center has 100 to 150 core donors
but has been able to contact "no more
than half a dozen of them," Beach said.
The all-volunteer facility, located in
the unflooded Faubourg Marigny
neighborhood, operates on $30,000 to
$50,000 a year. If 2,500 people from the
gay community around the country
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