ABC News is reporting that the transgender community in Los Angeles was the “hardest hit” by the recent deadly wildfires, because of “the destruction of a safe space, built with love and care to support their healing.”
The claim is that because three “transitional” homes burned down, transgender residents suffered more than other residents, after thousands of homes, churches, libraries, grocery stores, community centers, and businesses were lost.
The “transitional” homes were not even unique to transgender residents; they were also halfway houses for people recently released from prison, and for homeless people whom L.A. is trying to move off the streets.
ABC reported:
Among the hardest hit were transgender and nonbinary residents in transitional housing programs, who lost more than just their belongings.
For them, the fires brought the destruction of a safe space, built with love and care to support their healing.
…
The three homes damaged in the fire provided essential recovery services, including substance use treatment, mental health support, and gender-affirming care for individuals recently released from jail or prison and those experiencing homelessness.
The Advocate, an LGBTQ+-themed publication, reported last month that the transgender community was also affected by the loss of a restaurant in Altadena that hosted “Trans Pizza Party” events.
But the ABC story goes further than a story about how a particular community was affected, and tries to make transgender individuals the only authentic victims of the fire, above other people who lost everything — including, in some cases, their lives.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.