How LGBTQ+ Survivors get left out of Disaster Planning

LGBTQ+ communities comprise 16 million individuals in the United States, yet this population is often overlooked during disaster recovery and response. Bias in federal disaster programs, lack of recognition of LGBTQ+ families, and unfamiliarity with LGBTQ+ issues in shelters together heighten the risks that LGBTQ+ individuals may face during or after a disaster.

Intersections with immigration status, ethnicity, ability, and many others also heighten these issues.

Please join the FEMA Pride ERG as we present the authors of “Queer and Present Danger,” who discuss how these communities intersect and are impacted by natural disasters. Joining these authors are LGBTQ+ survivor(s) and other experts on the connection between climate, disaster preparedness, and queer and immigrant inclusion in emergency response.

Our featured speakers include:

• Leo Goldsmith (he/him): Leo Goldsmith is a recent graduate of the Yale School of the Environment. His research focuses on how climate change disproportionately impacts the health of the LGBTQ+ population, primarily those with intersecting marginalized identities. His interests stem from his own personal identities as a queer, transgender Latino and his passion for intersectional climate justice. Leo joined the Bell research group in early 2020 as a research assistant and starting May joined as an Environmental Justice and Health Strategic Initiative Fellow. Outside of research, Leo is an integral member of the Wildland Firefighter Rights Initiative, connecting existing health impacts of being a wildland firefighter to increased risk of contracting COVID-19.
• Vanessa Raditz (they/them): Vanessa Raditz is the Qready Project Director for OUT for Sustainability. Vanessa’s research explores the cultural geographies of queer ecojustice movements. Using collaborative documentary film and other critical visual methodologies, Raditz address the contextual vulnerability of multiply-marginalized queer, trans, and two-spirit communities to climate change disasters, as well as the lessons for the climate justice movement that come from our communities' resilience and histories of struggle for liberation. Vanessa Raditz states: “I believe this work must be done in collaboration and accompaniment with other queer, trans, and two-spirit people on the frontline of disaster and the forefronts of change.”
• Michael Méndez (he/him): Dr. Méndez's new research focuses on climate-induced disasters and social vulnerability. He most recently served as the inaugural James and Mary Pinchot Faculty Fellow in Sustainability Studies and Associate Research Scientist at the Yale School of the Environment.  As a youth, in Pacoima, Sylmar, and Lakeview Terrace, Michael was surrounded by people resisting environmental racism. This has focused his work on what the conceptualization of environmental justice and climate change has meant to activists, policymakers, experts, and scholars alike. Check out Dr. Méndez’s award-winning book, Climate Change from the Streets published by Yale University Press here.
• Lindsey Bell-Kerr (they/them): Rev. Lindsey Bell-Kerr (they/them) is an ordained United Methodist elder and has worked extensively as an organizer with the immigrant and the unsheltered communities in Sonoma County.  https://www.umclead.net/lead-2020-speaker-lindsey-bell-kerr/
• Dan Dodgen (he/him): Daniel Dodgen, Ph.D., directs the office of Operational Policy and Strategic Planning for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This encompasses mental health, community resilience, national health security, health system policy, and at-risk individuals. He is also a licensed clinical psychologist in Washington, DC.  https://iaapsy.org/site/assets/files/1628/dodgen_bio.pdf

• Moderator Moira Kenney (she/her): Moira Kenney is the Regional Network Director - West Coast at Unite Us, a technology company that partners with organizations to build and power coordinated care networks of health and social service providers. Prior to joining Unite Us in 2020, Moira led efforts to build early childhood systems in California, most recently as the Executive Director of the First 5 Association of California, the public advocacy organization for the 58 county First 5 agencies.   During her tenure as the Executive Director of the First 5 Association, she developed new partnerships to address the health, social care, and educational needs of young children and their families, addressing critical areas of need, including home visiting, early intervention, and early care quality standards. Previously she served as the Executive Director at First 5 San Francisco, where  she led the integration of the county’s First 5 into a broad array of policy and programmatic expansions, including the implementation of the county's Preschool For All program. In addition to her work at First 5, Moira has a deep background in community development and the history of social activism, with a PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA and a BA from Harvard College. She is the author of Mapping Gay LA: The Intersection of Place and Politics (Temple, 2001)
• Host Reilly Hirst (Any pronouns): Reilly Hirst is a poet, philosopher and activist. Reilly has been published in the Advocate, HIV+ Magazine, ImageOutWrite, The Empty Closet, Le Mot Juste, and upcoming in 2023 in Sinister Wisdom among others. Reilly has a Masters of Public Policy from Mills College and Bachelors in Archetypal Archaeology from UC Berkeley.  Currently Reilly works for FEMA in Mitigation in Region 9; is on the PRIDE Board, and is the Director of Education/Training for the FERG.  Reilly in spare time writes poetry, and gets out, like a lot.

To see the KQED piece that prompted this panel, please go here. 

To see the journal article from Leo Goldsmith, Vanessa Raditz, and Michael Mendez, you can find it here.

HOW TO JOIN:

FEMA Pride ERG is inviting you to How LGBTQ+ Survivors Get Left Out of Disaster Planning.

The event is open to all!   Feel free to forward.

Join ZoomGov Meeting

https://fema.zoomgov.com/j/1613940616

Meeting ID: 161 394 0616
Passcode: 015536

Dial In:
        +1 669 254 5252 US (San Jose)
        +1 646 828 7666 US (New York)
        +1 551 285 1373 US
        +1 669 216 1590 US (San Jose)

The FEMA Pride event does not have registration on our site, this event complements FAA Pride starting at 4PM Eastern Time on the same day.