As New Orleans struggles to pick up the pieces after Hurricane Katrina, the local LGBT community has fared better than many others. But while most gay businesses suffered minimal damage, some of their employees have not been so fortunate.

"Gay people were the first ones back," said Skye (who uses just one name), from the steps of Hit Parade, a gift and clothing store that sits amid a cluster of gay businesses at the east end of Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. "I didn't leave, and we opened as soon as we could ... as soon as we were allowed back in."

The city remains a patchwork of devastation. Most buildings in the central business district, the French Quarter, and the adjacent Faubourg Marigny – considered the "gay neighborhood" – did not experience deep or prolonged flooding. In contrast, the Gentilly and Bywater neighborhoods to the north and east – which also have considerable LGBT populations – suffered severe damage, while areas near the London Avenue Canal levee breach and large swathes of the Lower Ninth Ward were completely destroyed.

"I'm back in my home," said Skye, who lives in the area west of the French Quarter known as Uptown, "but a couple streets away there are no homes left."

"We had no damage, but they made us close anyway," said co-owner Jack Jones, waiting outside his book and gift emporium, Alternatives, on November 4 hoping to catch a glimpse of Prince Charles and his new wife Camilla as they toured the quarter. Having reopened in early October, Jones said business is nearly back to normal. "Every day it gets better," he told the Bay Area Reporter. Although he estimates that about 80 percent of his regular patrons are no longer living in the area, tourists and relief workers seem to be "making up the difference," and many locals come back on weekends.

Some businesses that were not flooded still sustained damage from wind and rainwater, including Oz, whi

David Kimberger, back to camera, and Freddie Andress spoof FEMA on Halloween in New Orleans. Photo: Liz Highleyman

ch proprietor Tommy Elias described as "New Orleans' number one gay dance club."

"Every other gay bar in town is open, but I don't want to open until we can do it right," Elias told the B.A.R. from atop a ladder as he worked on repairs. "We're taking the opportunity to do a complete remodel." Elias expects to reopen December 1, followed soon thereafter by a big Christmas party.

Worker shortage

Throughout New Orleans, reopening and reconstruction are hampered by a shortage of workers – although many locals have said they would love to come back and help rebuild the city if only they had a place to live.

Bruce Naquin, a cocktail waiter helping Elias with repairs at Oz, lived in one of the most hard-hit areas, Chalmette, a town east of New Orleans where heavy flooding was compounded by an oil spill. Now "living here and there with friends," Naquin is back at work, but doesn't know when – or if – he'll be able to return home.

At Cafe Lafitte in Exile, also on Bourbon Street, bartender Aletha Bryand told the B.A.R. that "business is picking up more and more every day." Bryand, a New Orleans native who has worked at Lafitte's for 23 years, still has her home in the Marigny, but fellow bartender Billy Bayou – who also lived in Chalmette – is temporarily staying in an apartment provided by his employer. All five of the businesses run by the same owner (including the Good Friends and Rawhide 2010 bars) are up and operating.

"We're ready to welcome any and every guest who wants to come see us," said Bayou.

Helping others

Even as they put their own lives back together, members of the LGBT community are doing what they can to help others.

Deany Cheramie, a member of the Cavaliers gay and lesbian motorcycle club, presented a $300 donation to the grassroots Common Ground Clinic from an October fundraiser at Lafitte's. Cheramie, who works as a technician for Minolta/Konica, evacuated to Lafayette (about an hour west) before Katrina, but Hurricane Rita chased her back to New Orleans, where she formed a volunteer cleanup and construction crew.

"There are two attitudes among the New Orleans gay community: this is my home and I'm not going anywhere, or there's no reason to stay and I'm out of here," she told the B.A.R. "The difference depends on what they have left to come back to."

Some organizations are taking creative steps to make up for disruption of their regular fundraising activities. The New Orleans AIDS Task Force is holding a "virtual walk" through December 16 in lieu of its canceled annual AIDS Walk – normally the agency's biggest fundraiser – at a time when money is needed more than ever to repair damaged facilities and get services back up and running. (For more information or to register, visit www.noaidstaskforce.org.)

While this year's Southern Decadence party drew a crowd of mere dozens the week after Katrina hit, by Halloween New Orleans' LGBT community had recovered much of its spirit. Street parties on Bourbon Street and on Frenchmen Street in the Marigny featured numerous spoofs of the federal government's slow and inadequate relief efforts.

David Kimberger and Freddie Andress did their part, sporting military-style blue jumpsuits emblazoned with "FEMA: Free Erotic Male Assistance" as they passed out condoms outside the bars.

Said Andress, "We're doing our best to get New Orleans back up."

Disclosure: B.A.R. reporter Liz Highleyman volunteered at the Common Ground Clinic in New Orleans for two weeks in late October and early November. For more on how LGBT sports groups are faring, see Sports Complex