Helping hands.

Craig Bowman remembers the difficulties gay and lesbian survivors faced after the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City. Gay parents and partners struggled to receive some forms of aid because they could not prove legal relationships. "We want to make sure that doesn't happen again," Bowman said shortly after his group, the National Youth Advocacy Coalition, partnered with several other gay organizations to launch the Hurricane Katrina LGBT Relief Fund in early September. "We don't want people to have difficulty receiving relief funds because they're LGBT."

The fund is part of a growing effort by gay groups to help survivors of the devastating hurricane that ravaged the Gulf Coast. In Houston support groups for gay evacuees have been meeting at the Montrose Counseling Center, which also has been placing them in a network of "safe houses"--gay-friendly homes in the region. "We want to get them out of the public] shelters as soon as we can," said Montrose executive director Ann Robinson, who heard of some gay evacuees being harassed by other shelter residents. "We don't think it's safe."

The predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Churches denomination was among the first groups to start a gay-focused relief fund, raising $40,000 in its first four days, said executive director Reverend Cindi Love. In Baton Rouge the local MCC congregation is providing services to members of its counterpart in New Orleans, whose building was destroyed. The Baton Rouge church has set up some beds for refugees, and local members have been taking people into their homes, said the Reverend Stephen Moore. "A lot of the folks that have been coming are in the GLBT community," Moore said. "But some are not."

In Dallas the group AIDS Arms has been posting fliers and running newspaper ads, offering free anti-HIV medications to HIV-positive evacuees. Fearing retribution, they may be hesitant to speak up at shelters, said executive director Raeline Nobles.