Advocacy group
offers grants to gay hurricane victims

A grant program designed to aid gay and lesbian families devastated by Hurricane Katrina has been launched, the nonprofit group Children of Lesbians and Gay Everywhere announced Wednesday. Intended to offer financial assistance to LGBT households with children under the age of 18, the program will award grants of $500 each to eligible families.

The National Youth Advocacy Coalition, a gay youth organization, awarded the funds to COLAGE through their Hurricane Katrina LGBT Relief Fund. "We awarded COLAGE the grant because they had such a strong connection to families in New Orleans," said NYAC executive director Craig Bowman. "We created the fund in order to help the LGBT community, and COLAGE is poised and ready to support the fund's goals."

Grant applications are available at www.colage.org or by calling (415) 861-KIDS and must be received by February 10. A COLAGE committee will award grants to the first 60 eligible families who submit applications. "Our families were hit just as hard by Katrina as other families," said COLAGE executive director Beth Teper. "It is our hope that these grants will help fill some gaps in services that our LGBT families are experiencing as they work to recover from this tragic experience." The New Orleans chapter of COLAGE will also receive a grant to conduct family-oriented programming for LGBT families in the area. (Advocate.com)