Archive for the ‘New Orleans’ Category
The response from NOWHC
New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic has allowed me to post their response to my query about health care and their policy of excluding trans women. It’s pretty depressing reading all round – they’re not able to sustain care because of the difficult of finding non prejudiced doctors here, not only with trans women but women of color, women with disabilities, and GLBTI etc. This raises serious questions with me about the possibility of finding more than the odd good doctor on trans health care anywhere.
They’re currently evaluating the possibility of providing any health care at all. I have offered to work with them to educate any doctors on trans women specific care, and to work on fundraising to help achieve that, however we’ll have to see if that pans out.
ETA: NOWHC have requested I post the entire exchange, in the name of transparency. Because of privacy concerns, I have removed my email address from the exchange.
The email exchange in full:
Queen Emily —-
Hi y’all.
I’m a young trans woman moving to the area and I’m looking for good, safe health care (something that is almost an impossibility in many areas). Your website says you do not provide services for (“male” assigned) transgendered women. I’m wondering:
1. Is this still the case? (sometimes people can be slow on the website updating)
2. If so, why is this the case? I don’t understand how providing hormones (or the contraceptive pill to post GRS women) is any different from caring for menopausal cis women. This seems especially arbitrary given that you state you care for female assigned people with DSD who may have had similar operations.
and 3. If so, do you have any referrals for trans women friendly clinics?
Regards,
Emily.
NOWHC —-
Emily,
Thanks for emailing us your request. We apologize for the delay in getting back to you. We receive hundreds of emails a week about services, volunteer and internship opportunities, and tons of junk mail unfortunately. As a result, and due to our capacity, we have about a week-turn-around rate with email responses.
Currently, we are not providing medical services, as these services have been suspended since late last Fall. We are in transition as we seek a new Medical Director, while continuing all of our other programs. Unfortunately, we have not had an opportunity to update our website detailing all of our programs and our current list of services.
As you have accurately noted, few health care resources exist for trans women in general, and this is particularly true in New Orleans, despite the fact that New Orleans had the largest Black queer population in the country pre-Katrina, with trans women of color, almost exclusively working class and low-income New Orleans natives, struggling to get decent affordable health care in the city for decades. The destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina took a terrible toll on our health care system and it has been very difficult for us to not be in a position to provide trans affirming medical services to women in our community who need them, despite our local efforts.
The following resources may be of some help to you as relocate to the area:
The Drop-in-Center Clinic ? located at 428 N. Rampart Street. The Drop-in-Center provides trans-affirming care. The Center provides medical and social services to youth between the ages of 13 and 24 years-old. Services at the Center are geared toward homeless, at-risk, and queer youth. They can be reached at 504-897-948-6701.
Planned Parenthood of Louisiana ? located at 4018 Magazine Street. Their number is 504-897-9200.
You may also consider contacting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of New Orleans, which is located at 212 Decatur Street in the French Quarter. The Center?s number is 504-945-1103. The St. Thomas Community Health Clinic is also a local resource to contact. St. Thomas is located Uptown in the Lower Garden District at 1020 St. Andrew Street, and they can be reached at 504-529-5558.
We agree that the questions and concerns you raise are very important. The priorities we hold in providing safe, accessible, and unbiased care to women regardless of their race, income, sexuality, gender identity, body type, citizenship status, work sector, legal history, ability, age, language, and family size and status are often regarded as a “risk” and “liability” by many medical professionals. This reality has delayed our efforts to hire a new Medical Director and created many barriers for many members of our community, including you, in seeking safe, quality, and respectful services.
In making the statements “we are currently not able to provide care to trans people who were male assigned at birth or who have had genital sex reassignment surgery. Please call for referrals,” we were referencing the lack of experience and training that our former medical staff had in providing trans affirmative care to all women regardless of their body types, and gender identities and expressions. We recognize that the current language on our website marginalizes trans women in particular, even though it says elsewhere that we provide services to “all women.” Although “services” provided at the Clinic are not restricted to our medical programs, we recognize that the way it is written implies that we offer no services at all to trans women, which is marginalizing and confusing. It would be more accurate to say that our goal is to provide medical services to all women, though we are having a difficult time reaching it. We take responsibility for this inaccurate representation, and for the ways in which the language is disrespectful, and we sincerely apologize.
Collectively and organizationally, we are committed to creating institutions and environments that challenge gender-policing and trans and homophobia by dismantling racist, heterosexist, patriarchal, classist, and xenophobic ideologies of exclusion, discrimination, hatred, and violence, which creates barriers for many members of our community, particularly those persons who are women of color, poor, LGBTQ, immigrant, differently-abled, homeless, heads of households, disabled, sex workers, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, young, and living in racially and economically segregated communities. Our website doesn’t reflect this politic effectively and we are currently in the process of modifying it.
Besides language, we share the concern about the core issue of offering safe, quality, and respectful services to all women. Since our founding, we have struggled to hire medical staff who don?t pathologize, demonize, and criminalize the bodies of undocumented women, women with disabilities, l/b/t/q/i women, women of color, low-income women, homeless women, and women working in the sex industry because of our sexuality, reproductive decisions, and gender expressions. Currently, we are evaluating if we can realistically find medical staff that meet this expectation, particularly given the current conditions of the city.
We hope the resources we have shared are helpful. If not, please contact us at 504-524-8255 or via email again and we will work with you and do our best to find the resources that you need.
New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic
1406 Esplanade Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70116
504-524-8255 (Office)
504-524-8285 (Fax)
www.nowhc.org
Queen Emily —
Hi, thanks for that. That’ll be very helpful.
I’m sorry to hear about the lack of medical services. I may have inadvertedly started a blog firestorm when I posted a rant on my blog (questioningtransphobia.wordpress.com) about it. I’m sorry about that, I should have waited for a response. Do you think I could let people online know about the situation? I don’t want to break confidentiality, but obviously there’s a lot of people online interested, and a good many trans women and/or women of color feeling hurt and angry about the policy.
About the situation, is there anything I can do to help? If medical services are to return (which I really hope that they do), I’d be happy to lend my time to educating medical personnel on trans women specific needs.
The second is, if there’s a need for more funds to pay doctors and nurses, I’d be happy to use my contacts in the trans and radical women of color blogospheres and organise through social media to conduct a fund-raising drive directing people to your website to donate. I’ve seen people raise thousands of dollars with just a little Paypal button, so that’s one option.
Regards,
Emily.
Queen Emily —
Oh, just to clarify, the fundraising drive offer is conditional on trans women inclusion if/when the medical services become available. No trans woman is likely to get behind that, otherwise.
NOWHC —
Emily,
Thank you for reaching out. There is a lot going on right now as we determine whether or not we can sustain the kind of clinic we want, so we will have to follow up with you about your offer of support in the future. In the meantime, it would be alright with us if you posted this entire e-mail exchange on your blog.
Queen Emily —
Ok. I hope you can work out something sustainable, and once again do keep me in mind for later.
Regards,
Emily.
NOWHC —
Emily,
Thank you for posting our email response to you on your blog. We also appreciate your apology and taking responsibility for not allowing us the opportunity to follow up with you before you posted your original blog post. Because of the nature of this matter and all of the blog posts that have circulated, we feel that it is important to communicate not just our response, but the entire email exchange as we confirmed below. We want to have an open process about this and we think it’s important to be transparent about all of the communication between us.
Queen Emily —
Oh ok, no problems. I’ll post the rest up now.
Update on trans women friendly health-care in NOLA
Just wanted to let y’all to know that New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic have gotten back to me. I’m not sure what I can really make public right now (an email is not a press release yeah?), but we are talking. Some alternatives for possibly trans friendly health care in NOLA that they’ve given me are:
The Drop-in-Center Clinic: located at 428 N. Rampart Street. The Drop-in-Center provides trans-affirming care. The Center provides medical and social services to youth between the ages of 13 and 24 years-old. Services at the Center are geared toward homeless, at-risk, and queer youth. They can be reached at 504-897-948-6701.
Planned Parenthood of Louisiana: located at 4018 Magazine Street. Their number is 504-897-9200.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of New Orleans, which is located at 212 Decatur Street in the French Quarter. The Center’s number is 504-945-1103.
The St. Thomas Community Health Clinic, located Uptown in the Lower Garden District at 1020 St. Andrew Street, and they can be reached at 504-529-5558.
Hurricane Gustav Links
Copied from Sylvia:
How to Help During Hurricane Gustav
Urgent Community Action Needed in the Gulf in the Face of Gustav
Gustav destroys Cuba — The Straits Times
New Orleans Craigslist: General Community Posts — many offers from around the U.S. to house evacuees
New Orleans Craigslist: Rideshares — ignore the creepy one about BBW needing help evacuating, eww
New Orleans Craigslist: Volunteers — offers for family help and help with caring for pets
Hurricane Expected to Hit at Category 5
Getting Involved in Gustav Online Volunteer Efforts
On Twitter: GustavAlerts
On Twitter: #gustav
Received via e-mail:
ICE has put out statements that it will not arrest anyone at any checkpoints and that the undocumented should evacuate along with everyone else. And it’s not just NOLA, but the entire region. Some Spanish language media is sending the ICE message out. Let’s hope people hear and believe it.
Many thanks to bfp, Andy Carvin, KM (via e-mail), robvato (via e-mail) and Prof BW for links.
Hurricane Gustav Update: Evacuation
One million flee as Hurricane Gustav revs up:
Spooked by predictions that Hurricane Gustav could grow into a Category 5 monster, an estimated 1 million people fled the Gulf Coast Saturday…
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Spooked by predictions that Hurricane Gustav could grow into a Category 5 monster, an estimated 1 million people fled the Gulf Coast Saturday, even before the official order came for New Orleans residents to get out of the way of a storm taking dead aim at Louisiana.
Mayor Ray Nagin gave the mandatory order late Saturday, but all day residents took to buses, trains, planes and cars, clogging roads leading away from New Orleans, still reeling three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed about 1,600 across the region.
The evacuation of New Orleans becomes mandatory at 8 a.m. today along the west bank of the Mississippi River and at noon on the east bank. Nagin called Gustav the “mother of all storms” and told residents to “get out of town. This is not the one to play with.”
Complete article linked above.
I hope everyone comes through this okay.
New Orleans Again
I hope any of you who read here who are (or were) in New Olreans are and remain safe.
Tulip, this means you. Stay safe.
Hurricane Gustav Strengthens, Heads for Cuba, Gulf (Update1)
By Patrick Donahue and Robin Stringer
Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) — Hurricane Gustav strengthened and picked up speed as it headed toward western Cuba and the U.S. Gulf Coast cities ravaged by Katrina and Rita in 2005, after lashing the Cayman Islands with torrential rain.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center declared Gustav a Category 3 hurricane today, with winds of almost 120 miles (195 kilometers) per hour, and said the storm could become Category 4 before making landfall in Cuba. It may reach central Louisiana on Sept. 2 before moving northwest into parts of Texas.
“Gustav is expected to pass over western Cuba as a major hurricane,” the Hurricane Center said in a bulletin at 8 a.m. local time, locating the eye of the storm about 225 miles east- southeast of the western tip of Cuba.
President George W. Bush yesterday declared a state of emergency for Louisiana, three years to the day after Katrina left more than 80 percent of New Orleans under water and caused more than $81 billion in damage. That hurricane was followed three weeks later by Rita, which ravaged central Louisiana and parts of eastern Texas, the same areas now threatened by Gustav.
“A land strike to the west of New Orleans will place this great city within the most dangerous part of the storm,” said Jim Rouiller, a senior energy meteorologist with Planalytics Inc., a forecaster based in Wayne, Pennsylvania. “Gustav has the potential to generate much more damage than Katrina did.”
…
To contact the reporter on this story: Robin Stringer in New York at rstringer@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 30, 2008 09:10 EDT
New Orleans eyes new storm on Katrina anniversary
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) — Exactly three years after deadly Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans, authorities on Friday began bussing people out of the city ahead of the possible landfall of Gustav, forecast to hit the area early Tuesday as a powerful Category Three hurricane.
Residents of the Big Easy were fearing the worst as Gustav regained hurricane strength on its deadly rampage through the Caribbean, where it has killed at least 78 in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
President George W. Bush on Friday declared a state of emergency in Louisiana and Texas, empowering federal authorities to lead disaster relief efforts in the two states, the White House said.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans on August 29, 2005 as a Category Three hurricane and smashed poorly-built levees surrounding the city. The subsequent flooding destroyed tens of thousands of homes and killed nearly 1,500 people.
Bush’s approval ratings at the time plummeted amid widespread criticism that he paid too little attention to Katrina.
Louisiana and Mississippi state authorities have already declared emergencies, and several oil companies evacuated workers from their installations in the Gulf of Mexico, where a quarter of US crude oil is produced, as Gustav loomed.
The United States could tap its strategic oil reserve if Gustav damages oil installations in the Gulf, a Department of Energy spokeswoman said Friday.
State and city officials have vowed to avoid repeating the mistakes of 2005.
Officials in Saint Charles parish, in western New Orleans, on Friday began bussing out residents who want to leave the city.
While the evacuations were voluntary, authorities in all six New Orleans parishes were planning mandatory evacuations starting noon Saturday if Gustav remains on the same path.
Saint Charles officials “are extremely concerned about storm surge flooding” that Gustav would cause, read a statement from the office of Parish President V.J. St. Pierre.
“The entire parish remains at risk,” St. Pierre wrote. “All residents should be taking steps to secure their homes and prepare for evacuation NOW.”
Separately, the Red Cross announced it is preparing to assist residents in the storm’s path with evacuation shelters, food, and other services.
Hurricane Gustav is forecast to make landfall early Tuesday just west of New Orleans, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.
There is “a very distinct possibility” that it will strike the area as a powerful Category Three hurricane, Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen told AFP.
Category Three hurricanes pack wind speeds of up to 130 miles (209 kilometers) per hour and nine to 12-foot (2.7-3.7-meter) storm surges.
Many New Orleans residents are preparing for the worst.
“This is driving me nuts,” said Liese Dettmer. “It’s like double down or get out.”
A musician and club booking agent, Dettmer lost everything in Katrina, and was set to mark the third anniversary by moving into her new home in the Musicians Village, a community designed for displaced musicians to help restore the jazz city’s culture.
But because of delays she and 28 other families must wait until September 5 to move in — provided Gustav spares New Orleans.
Dettmer was one of many New Orleanians who evacuated at the last moment before Katrina hit on August 29, 2005.
She rented a car and drove to her parents home in Tennessee at 2:00 am on Sunday August 28, barely 24 hours before Katrina’s outer edge reached the city.
Dettmer’s mid-city apartment of 12 years was flooded. The roof was ripped off by high winds and she lost everything.
“I am in a complete state of panic,” said Mary Clancy, a professor of biology who lost a subzero freezer full of enzymes when power went out for months after Katrina. “I still can’t bring myself to throw out those tubes.”
Clancy’s laboratory building still isn’t ready for another major storm. It was slated to get a rooftop generator to protect against loss of research materials due to power failure. It hasn’t been installed.
“We’re supposed to get a temporary generator before the weekend,” Clancy said. “It’s not here yet,” she said, sighing. “This (storm) can’t happen.”
Mayor Ray Nagin said Wednesday that nobody would be allowed to stay in New Orleans should Gustav achieve its forecasted strength and path. “Everyone will be getting out,” he said on CNN.
Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu told Fox Business Network that state and city authorities have been holding emergency meetings “for the last three or four days.
“The state police, the national guard, everybody is ready to go,” he said.
Flooding in Mexico, Housing in New Orleans
Brownfemipower is blogging regularly about the flooding in Mexico. This is truly awful – 80% of the province flooded, one million Mexicans displaced, so many dead, hardly airplay in the US media.
Read bfp’s posts, read her links. If you want to donate to help the victims, Catholic Relief Services is a better choice than the Red Cross.
Bint Alshamsa posted about the impending destruction of public housing in New Orleans and what this means for those with a low-income:
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
A major human rights crisis exists in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. It is a crisis that denies the basic rights to life, equality under the law, and social equity to Black, Indigenous, migrant, and working class communities in the region. While this crisis was in existence long before Hurricane Katrina, the policies and actions of the US government and finance capital (i.e. banking, credit, insurance, and development industries) following the Hurricane have seriously exacerbated the crisis.
One of the clearest examples of this crisis is the denial of the right to housing in New Orleans, particularly in the public housing sector. Since the Hurricane, the US government through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has denied the vast majority of the residents of public housing the right to return to their homes. Unlike the vast majority of the housing stock in New Orleans, the majority of the public housing units received little to no flood or wind damage from the Hurricane. Yet, as of October 2007 only ¼ of the public housing units have been reopened and reoccupied. The Bush government refuses to reopen the public housing units in New Orleans because it appears intent on destroying the public housing system, demolishing the existing structures, and turning over the properties to private real-estate developers to make profits.
Based on the discriminatory Federal Court ruling issued on Monday, September 10th, all of the major public housing units in New Orleans are now subject to immediate demolition (the latest report from Monday, November 5th is that HUD will attempt to start the demolition on Monday, November 19th. However, this is being challenged by various legal advocates and will be delayed until at least Wednesday, November 28th pending a Federal court hearing). The first site on the schedule for demolition is the Lafitte housing project. Lafitte therefore, is the line in the sand that must be drawn by all peoples in support of the human right to housing.
“I Pledge”
I believe in the fundamental human right to housing, and I will not be a witness to the denial of this right to the peoples of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. I therefore pledge myself to resist the denial of this right by all civil and humanitarian means available, including civil disobedience. I pledge to stand ready to take action against this imminent threat and to put myself on the line, either directly in New Orleans or in strategic locales throughout the US, in support of the demands and leadership of the peoples of New Orleans and their organizations in the struggle for housing and human rights.
We ask that all those interested in coming to New Orleans to contact us before making the journey. We need to ensure that everyone coming is registered, properly orientated and trained in order to partake in this act of resistance in the manner determined by the local leaders and residents. Please contact us via email at action@peopleshurricane.org, with the word “registration” in the subject line. Also, please include the following information:
Name:
Affinity Group/Organization (if applicable):
Phone:
Email:
Have you ever received any training in civil disobedience?
What skills/resources are you able to bring to New Orleans?All making this pledge must be advised of the following:
1. As of now we do not know exactly when the demolition orders will be given. We hope to have this information within at least 48 hours of the scheduled demolition to contact you and give you sufficient time to act (including travel for residents and allies coming in from out of town).
2. Given the limited timeframe and resources of the various organizations spearheading this fight back, access to the following will be limited:Legal counsel and aid. All effort is and will be made to provide adequate legal support, but the reality is that it is limited at present.
Lodging and food. Again, given the uncertain timeline and limited resources, housing venues are presently limited, but all effort will be made to support all those making this bold pledge.For more information, please contact the Peoples’ Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) at 504.301.0215 or info@peopleshurricane.org or Survivors Village at 504.239.2907 or survivorsvillage@gmail.com.
Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win!
If you are coming to New Orleans:
Please think about forming an affinity group before you get here. Different roles in an affinity group can be:
* legal support person/people for members of your group
* medics
* photo/videographer
(for documentation of events and indymedia coverage in your own area)
*police liasion
*arrestees
etc, etc.if your group has some of its own logistical needs taken care of, this will help local organizers coordinate on a broader level. For example, if each affinity group has a legal support person, they can coordinate with the local legal team to make sure everyone’s legal needs are taken care of.
The Homecoming Center | 1222 Dorgenois | New Orleans | LA | 70112
While this website is specifically about transphobia, I don’t really envision it as restricted to that. If there’s a major crisis, a situation that needs attending, people in trouble, I will post about it. Bint Alshamsa, brownfemipower, and other women of color have been amazing allies to trans people in the past, and by not posting about Tabasco as soon as I knew about it, I failed as an ally in return. I apologize for that.
