Gays + Lesbians First To Be Allowed Back In To New Orleans
(Houston, Texas) Gays and lesbians will be among the first people from New Orleans to be allowed back into the city. Mayor Ray Nagin announced Thursday that the heavily gay Garden district will reopen next week and the French Quarter the following week.
It is generally believed that about half of New Orleans LGBT community lives within the city.
The rest make their homes in the suburbs. When they will get the all clear to return is not yet known.
The first section to reopen to residents will be Algiers, across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter, on Monday, the mayor said. The city's Uptown section, which includes Tulane University and the Garden District, will be reopened in stages next Wednesday and next Friday, he said. The French Quarter will follow on Sept. 26.
The Quarter, the oldest section of the city, was built on a bend in the Mississippi River and it is on high ground compared to the surrounding landscape, which saved it from the catastrophic flooding.
Katrina did not leave the Quarter's courtyards, mansard roofs and gardens untouched. Slate tiles were torn off, magnolia trees were uprooted, awnings were shredded to pieces and some sections of roofs caved in. Looters also did their part, breaking into some stores.
"The French Quarter is high and dry, and we feel as though it has good electricity capabilities," Nagin said, "but since it's so historic, we want to double- and triple-check before we fire up all electricity in there to make sure that, because every building is so close, that if a fire breaks out, we won't lose a significant amount of what we cherish in this city."
But for business owners a big unknown looms: Will their staffs come back?
"Ninety-nine percent say they'll come back, but whether they do is the question," said Johnny Chisholm, the owner of Oz, a gay nightclub on Bourbon Street.
The reopened areas represent 182,000 residents out of a city of nearly half a million.
"We will have life. We will have commerce. We will have people getting into their normal modes of operations, and the normal rhythm of the city of New Orleans that is so unique," the mayor said. He added: "It's a good day in New Orleans. The sun is shining. .... We're going to bring this city back."
A large segment of New Orleans' population evacuated to Houston where that city's LGBT community mobilized to make them welcome.
But, while hundreds of gays prepare to return home over the next couple of weeks, the rest remain displaced.
"My gut feeling right now is that we'll settle in at 250,000 people over the next three to six months and then we'll start to ramp up over time to the half- million we had before," said Nagin.
Many of those who have been displaced began facing a new scramble to find refuge on Thursday.
The City of Houston said it was closing the emergency shelters at the Astro Dome and George R. Brown Convention Center on Saturday.
"We've had a number of people come in today seeking shelter and asking about our housing database," Sally Huffer of the Montrose Counseling Center told 365Gay.com.
Huffer began setting up the database of people in Houston's gay community willing to share their homes shortly after the evacuation order went out.
She has high praise for the community and the way it responded. "The real heroes here are the individuals who have stepped up to the plate," she said.
The Center has been offering peer counseling and group therapy sessions for people displaced by the hurricane.
But, Huffer hopes there will be some sort of service available for members of the community when they return to New Orleans. "A lot of people will be in shock when they see what has happened to their homes."
For those who will have to remain in Houston there are other problems. "There's often a delayed reaction in a disaster like this," she said. "As time wears on there will be everything from mental fatigue to same-sex partner domestic violence."
Some of those who fled to Houston may well be there until the end of the year.
Activists are urging those people to register to vote.
Voter registration cards are on display at the Montrose Center and other LGBT facilities in Houston. With a proposed constitutional amendment in Texas coming to a vote in November activists are hoping for the support of New Orleans gays still in the city at that time.
http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/09/091605nola.htm
I dont know why but the first thing i thought of when i read this was...
'Best let the queers test the city is safe before we bring the straights back'.
Maybe im just jaded, who knows.
Regards,
Lee
