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Getting queer heolth issues mentioned in an important government
blueprint is no easy task by B ob R o e h r
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( 0 R S U FFE R th e
People 2010, queer concerns were mentioned in
federal Department of Health
20 different places in the document.
and Human Services has taken a
Patricia D unn, GLM A’s policy director, was
major step backward from includ
optimistic th at the third version, released Jan.
ing gay men and lesbians in the
25, would be even better.
JL.
government blueprint for health
But D unn was shocked when she finally
services over the next decade.
plodded
through the three-volume tome. The
Healthy People 2010 is the blueprints name.
20 references had been pared to just four.
Gay men and lesbians were virtually ignored in
“We never dreamed that they would take
the initial draft of the massive 800-plus-page
things out,” she says.
document when it came out in December 1998.
“W e’ve tried to talk to everyone that we
The word gay was used twice, while lesbian
and transgender did not appear at all, accord- _
I i
ing to an analysis by the Gay and Lesbian ¡jj
i\
Medical Association, a San Francisco-based «
organization of 2,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual >
and trans physicians and medical students.
o
Founded in 1981, GLMA works to com- §
bat homophobia within the medical profes
sion and in society at large and to promote
quality health care for sexual minority
I
patients.
GLMA and its allies bombarded H HS
v' ;
m
with more than 400 suggestions for changes
«
during the public comment period, and the
effort prompted a unit of HHS, the Health
Resources and Services Administration, to
commission a report from GLM A and
Columbia University’s Center for Lesbian,
G LM A Policy D irector Patricia D unn
Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health.
“This report is not just about what we know,” could, and we’ve heard very different things by
way of an explanation, she adds. Some argued
said Dr. Darren Carter, a GLMA board member,
when the document— titled Lesbian, Gay, Bisex that it was simply an editorial abridgment of the
ual and Transgender Health: Findings and Con massive docum ent.
“In a few of the places where they took out
cerns— was released in January. “Because LGBT
the references, they took out all references to
issues are rarely researched and frequently not
included in the training of medical profession special populations,” D unn concedes. “But in
most of them it goes into all of the ethnic and
als, the report discusses what we don’t, but
racial breakdowns, and nothing about sexual
absolutely should, know.”
The paper outlines how “stigma and preju orientation.”
Dunn says Marsha M artin, H HS Secretary
dice are powerful forces that adversely impact"
Donna Shalala’s liaison to the sexual minorities
the health of sexual minorities.
community, told her: “It is not a big deal.
“As is the case for many minorities, there are
GLM A’s board of directors met in San Fran
health-related challenges facing lesbians. There
cisco in early February and said restoring an
are another set of challenges for gay men, still
increased queer presence in Healthy People 2010
others for bisexuals, and even more for trans
gender people,” Carter added. “However, many
is its No. 1 policy priority over the next few
mainstream health care providers have no idea
months.
what specific health concerns there might be
There still may be time to add more inclusive
relative to these populations. Often they do not
language before the final version of the blue
know what questions to ask or how to ask
print is published this summer.
them.”
The lobbying effort by GLMA and others
■ B ob R oehr is a free-lance reporter based m
paid off when, in the second draft of Healthy
Washington, D .C .
unmu
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