Gay couples are
taking in other gays. Indian tribes are offering new
homes on nearby reservations. And the NAACP has sent
thousands of relief workers into black communities to
help survivors of Hurricane Katrina. After the storm
hit and even before, ethnic, social, and religious
communities--from Greek-Americans to the National
Association of the Deaf--scrambled to help their own.
With so many black families displaced, the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People sprang into action, mobilizing more than
500,000 members and volunteers across the nation, primarily
focusing on the needs of impoverished black families
who might have trouble being reached by relief
workers. NAACP spokesman John C. White said the
organization has been involved in disasters in the past, but
primarily when those disasters affected black communities.
In Houston, Michael-Chase Creasy and his friends
who had fled New Orleans walked into the first gay bar
they could find after settling into a hotel. The
bartender gave them his number and said to call when they
needed help. A few days later, when it became obvious they
weren't going home and hotel bills were racking up,
they called that bartender. "He said, 'Well, darling,
what took you so long? We've got people all over the
gay and lesbian community who want to provide our people
from New Orleans with rooms to stay,"' recalled
Creasy, who is now staying with two friends in a
lesbian couple's home in suburban Houston.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Eureka Springs, Ark.,
posted "a special invitation to all gay, lesbian, bi,
transgendered" storm victims on an online bulletin
board, offering "a safe, nondiscriminating town in
which to help evacuees rebuild their lives." "This seems to
be a somewhat forgotten group, especially throughout
the South," said Mayor Kathy Harrison.
Representatives of almost all faiths have been
fund-raising and volunteering for general relief
efforts--from Catholic Charities USA, which has
launched a massive relief effort, to about 2,000 Muslim
volunteers, who marked the fourth anniversary of the
9/11 terrorist attacks Sunday by working at
Houston's convention center.
Barbara Raynor,
spokeswoman for Houston's Jewish Federation, estimates
that about half of New Orleans's 12,000-member Jewish
community is in Houston now. The Jewish High Holy Days
are approaching, and Raynor said Houston synagogues
have offered free membership and free enrollment in
religious schools to the displaced families.
In Jackson, Miss., where about 100 Jewish
evacuees have been welcomed into Jewish homes, Rabbi
Valerie Cohen of Jackson's Beth Israel Congregation
told The Jewish Week newspaper that her
congregants want to do more. "There's also a lot of guilt
that you're not doing enough, no matter how much you're
doing," she said. (AP)
