The devastation of Hurricane Helene and the anticipation of Hurricane Milton have led to concern that the Federal Emergency Management Agency may face a funding shortage. The White House acknowledged that Congress may need to approve additional money soon.
Milton is forecast to make landfall on Wednesday evening in Florida, which is still reeling from Helene. At least 227 people have been killed across six states after Helene came ashore on September 26.
Amid concerns about FEMA, one viral post shared a video conference hosted by the disaster agency that attempted to sow division regarding its approach to the LGBTQ+ community.
The remnants of a home in Lake Lure, North Carolina, on October 2 destroyed by Hurricane Helene. A video posted online suggested FEMA was prioritizing LGTBQ+ people.
ALLISON JOYCE/AFP via Getty Images
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by user EndWokeness on October 6, viewed 19.4 million times, included a video conference in which a participant, sitting in front of a FEMA screen saver, said, “…sparked a few things in my mind thinking about preparedness and how you said, you know, LGBTQIA people and people who have been disadvantaged already are struggling.
“They already have their things to deal with so you add a disaster on top of that, it’s just compounding on itself and I think that maybe is the ‘why’ of why we’re having these discussions.
“It isn’t being talked about, it isn’t being socialized, we’re not paying attention to this community.”
Another participant said, “There are a couple of things that are intersecting in my mind here. One of them is the culture of emergency management, as an organization, as an industry in the United States specifically, not abroad.
“This has…the shift that we’re seeing right now is a shift in emergency management 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, right? And so this topic is intersecting with a number of other topics where we have to look at policies and understand to what extent they have disadvantaged communities that have less assets, communities that have pre-existing vulnerabilities in accessing disaster-related recovery supports.”
EndWokeness captioned the video: “FEMA Disaster Preparedness Meeting: ‘We should focus our efforts on LGBTQIA people… they struggled before the storm.’ FEMA relief is no longer about getting the greatest good for the greatest amount of people…. It’s about disaster equity.”
The Facts
This post does not state that it’s about Hurricane Helene or Milton. However, amid other misleading social media posts and rumors about the FEMA response, the context of these disasters may create the impression that this meeting is related to or was held amid the current crisis.
That is not the case. The video conference was filmed more than a year ago and was part of a roundtable discussion about how emergency planning should take account of vulnerable communities during disasters.
The meeting, held in March 2023, was called “Helping the LGBTQIA+ Community Before Disasters: Preparedness and Mitigation Considerations.” A recording of it is available on YouTube.
As stated on an event page hosted by FEMA, the roundtable sought to identify how LGBTQ+ considerations could be incorporated into disaster preparedness, among other topics. Research from 2023 based on data from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey found that LGBTQ+ people are twice as likely to be displaced after a disaster than the general population.
The quotes by EndWokeness from the recording and the recording are taken out of context, misquoted, and may make it appear that efforts toward disaster preparation should be shifted wholly toward the LGBTQ+ community.
Newsweek reached out to FEMA via email for comment.
FEMA has had to respond to rumors and misinformation about the hurricanes directly over the past few days. Social media users and influencers have shared false claims that the organization is diverting funds from the disaster response to migrants and that FEMA staff has been confiscating property from storm survivors.
The Ruling
Misleading Material.
The video was taken out of context. It was filmed in March 2023 as part of a roundtable panel on how natural disasters may disadvantage LGBTQ+ communities. The lack of information or context may lead viewers to incorrectly believe it is directly related to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The social media post misquotes the video and suggests FEMA had discussed putting LGBTQ+ people ahead of all other groups during disaster preparation.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team
