Concerns rise on handling of LGBT evacuees

[thanos]

Concerns rise on handling of LGBT evacuees
by Eric Johnston
PlanetOut Network

Arpollo Vicks barely escaped with her life by swimming to safety when Hurricane Katrina floodwaters engulfed her New Orleans home. Then slept on a highway for two days before she and her two teenage nieces were bused to a shelter in Bryan, Texas, about 100 miles north of Houston.

That's when Vicks endured yet another ordeal. The transgender woman was tossed in jail for six days and separated from her family for taking a shower.

Her treatment has prompted advocacy groups to mobilize around the legal needs -- in addition to humanitarian needs -- of LGBT citizens who are suffering in the aftermath of Katrina.

Vicks, a transgender woman who goes by the name Sharlie, had used the women's shower at the Texas A&M University-run evacuee shelter. When another woman complained to authorities that it made her "uncomfortable," university police arrested Vicks for trespassing, according to Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE).

"They took a person and put her into basically solitary confinement for a week after she had just lost everything," Keisling told the PlanetOut Network. "And I am just aghast that that kind of thing happens in America."

NCTE has begun distributing a document to shelters, entitled "Making Shelters Safe for Transgender Evacuees."

On Monday, Lambda Legal announced plans for outreach to LGBT survivors of Hurricane Katrina who may experience discrimination in services provided by relief agencies because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status.

"Tragedy does not discriminate, and neither should relief agencies," said Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal.

AIDS organizations also warned that people in the disaster zone who are living with HIV/AIDS are now at risk of serious illness caused by interruptions in their medical treatments as well as by exposure to water-borne pathogens.

The National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) noted that AIDS service organizations were making "valiant efforts" to serve people from hotel rooms and makeshift offices. But despite the strong local response, NAPWA said the federal Department of Health and Human Services has yet to announce a plan to guarantee HIV-positive evacuees access to antiretroviral medication and medical care.

Meanwhile, Keisling said things were looking up for Vicks, who was released from jail, with the charges dropped, after pressure from numerous individuals and organizations, including the Montrose Counseling Center of Houston. The Red Cross has since moved Vicks to a hotel in Houston, where she has been reunited with her nieces and her mother.

But Keisling said she still worries about others whose rights may be trampled during the crisis.

Posted September 12, 2005

[Dina Delicious]

wow how disturbing
im so sad for everyone down there
this story is something i wondered about
thank you for the post
Dina

[Dkg]

I can't believe in this day and age people are still treating transgendereds like this.

[Ecstatic]

I, along with a great many others, sent an email to the mayor of the city where the university is located. He responded that it was not his jurisdiction (but at least he responded), and I suspect that those emails, along with the other advocacy efforts, helped influence her release. Six days in jail--for what? She felt far more uncomfortable about using the men's facilities--and think how some guys might've reacted. Society has got to mature!

[Fraise]

George bush doesn't care about shemales

[NYCe]

George bush doesn't care about shemales

LOL