The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is taking heavy criticism for its massive failures in response to Hurricane Helene, but it appears the agency was spending a lot of time worrying over LGBTQ issues and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies during the Biden era.
As FEMA takes wave after wave of criticism, video of some of the agency’s training sessions and policy discussions have begun filtering onto social media.
In one such video, FEMA’s Director of Education/Training of the agency’s “Pride Federal Employee Resource Group,” Reilly Hirst, is seen celebrating the agency’s efforts to have “conversations with migrant trans women.”
Hirst noted that FEMA was working to make sure “migrant trans women” would be able to “trust” the shelters that FEMA was providing for migrants. Hirst added that FEMA needed to continue making sure shelters don’t “misgender” migrant trans women and that they have access to the bathrooms and bedrooms that they want to use.
In another video of a disaster preparedness meeting, FEMA managers are seeing talking about how they should focus on “LGBTQIA people” and that the agency needs to ensure there is “disaster equity” in its efforts.
Another FEMA video highlights that in 2023 the agency signed a pledge with the NAACP to “instill equity in disaster relief.”
The pledge was signed on September 20, 2023. NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson and Chairman of the Board of Directors Leon W. Russell joined FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell to “address the longstanding disparities disproportionately affecting our communities before, during and after disaster.”
The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was created to serve “as a global example of a shared vision of inclusive and effective disaster management that prioritizes the empowerment of Black communities.”
Indeed, FEMA dove headfirst into DEI and climate change issues almost as soon as Biden became president. In December of 2021, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell proudly pushed out a policy memo that focus not only on “equity,” but also on “climate change.”
Criswell insisted that FEMA would focus on “increasing equity in our programs and policies” and “leading resilience in a changing climate” in the agency’s disaster response.
In the memo, Criswell noted that FEMA would “Instill Equity as a Foundation of Emergency Management,” and “Lead Whole of Community in Climate Resilience.”
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