Federal Relief Workers Say FEMA Is Moving Away From Helping Greatest Number of People
Chris Nesi, New York Post, October 7, 2024
In FEMA’s alphabet, DEI comes first.
A startling 2023 FEMA webinar features federal health and disaster personnel trumpeting the urgent need to move away from policies that benefit the greatest number of people and instead turn focus toward “disaster equity” where aid is distributed based on innate characteristics like sexual orientation and gender identity.
The roundtable discussion, recorded in March of last year, was entitled “Helping LGBTQIA+ Survivors Before Disasters,” included panelists like Maggie Jarry of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and was moderated by Tyler Atkins, an Emergency Management Specialist at FEMA who uses he/they pronouns.
The panelists covered a range of topics around the notion that disaster services are short-changing marginalized groups when it comes to relief efforts.
“LGBTQIA people, and people who have been disadvantaged already, are struggling. They already have their own things to deal with. So when you add a disaster on top of that it’s just compounding on itself,” Atkins mused to the group.
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As the remaining panelists nodded in enthusiastic agreement, Jarry made a startling revelation that federal agencies ostensibly tasked with saving as many lives as possible in a disaster should be focusing their attention elsewhere.
“The shift we’re seeing right now is a shift in emergency services from utilitarian principles — where everything is designed for the greatest good for the greatest amount of people — to disaster equity. But we have to do more,” she urged.
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The initiatives raised at the panel discussion echo many of those on FEMA’s own website, which proudly proclaims instilling “equity as a foundation of emergency management” as goal 1.
“Underserved communities, as well as specific identity groups, often suffer disproportionately from disasters. As a result, disasters worsen inequities already present in society,” the declaration reads in part.
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