Does a video clip show a speaker saying, "We should focus our efforts on LGBTQIA people" during a disaster preparedness meeting by the Federal Emergency Management Agency? No, that's not true: This was a 2023 panel event, not a "disaster preparedness meeting." According to transcripts the statement about LGBTQIA focus didn't come up in the clip or in the longer video the clip was taken from.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on October 6, 2024. The post included a clip with a caption that read:
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.'
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 10 19:30:28 2024)
Not only was the clip not taken during a "Disaster Preparedness Meeting," but it also does not include the "quotes" in the post making the claim.
The clip was taken from a longer video titled "Helping LGBTQIA+ Survivors Before Disasters: Preparedness and Mitigation Considerations," posted on YouTube by FEMA's official channel on March 28, 2023 (archived here). Thus, it predates natural disasters that occurred in 2024, such as Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
The key phrase in the video's title is "Before Disasters." Thus, the speakers in the video did not outline a plan that put LGBTQ+ people's needs ahead of people who don't identify as LBGTQ+. Rather, the speakers talked about how LBGTQ+ people can be supported before disasters so that the aftereffects they experience aren't preventably worse than those that others experience. Even the description of the video states that it is a roundtable and not a planning meeting, reading in part:
The DHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Out for Sustainability (Out4S) are co-hosting a roundtable with private nonprofits, emergency managers, local and state governments, faith-based organizations, and other stakeholders that work in disaster preparedness and relief. The first of two roundtables will focus on Preparedness and Mitigation considerations for LGBTQIA+ communities. In April, the second roundtable will focus on Response and Recovery considerations for LGBTQIA+ communities with a report to be published in June.
Lead Stories listened to the video in its entirety and referenced the transcript. Neither of the "quotes" as they appear in the post making the claim were said during the talk. The first "quote" appears to be entirely fabricated in the context of this video. The second "quote" is a misrepresentation of a statement that appears at the 36:35 mark of the video. The speaker was Maggie Jarry (archived here), a senior advisor at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. She made an argument that disaster management needs to continue to think about equity in disaster response, saying:
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 I think with a number of other topics where we have to look at policies and understand to what extent they have disadvantaged communities that had less assets, communities that had pre-existing vulnerabilities in accessing disaster-related recovery supports.
At the 38:06 mark of the video, Jarry reflected on whether policies and aid are biased toward those who have benefited the most from them in the past.
In other words, Jarry argued for thinking through and responding accordingly to disparities faced by groups who are historically discriminated against or underprivileged. She didn't recommend ignoring other groups during disasters, as the post making the claim appeared to suggest.
Other Lead Stories fact checks related to FEMA can be found here.
