Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 06:01:09 -0800 From: jessea@uclink2.berkeley.edu (Jessea NR Greenman) Subject: Women's Medical Care Remains Bastion of Heterosexuality ATTN EDITORS: Contact: Mary Ann Swissler, 3833 Telegraph Ave., #16, Oakland, CA 94609, (510) 597-1803 for payment arrangements. Copyright 1995. [Uploaded at the reporter's request, since she is not on-line to do so herself.] Women's Medical Care Remains Bastion of Heterosexuality, Say Lesbian Health Activists By Mary Ann Swissler There isn't a law that says to gynecologists thou shalt not serve lesbians. But there might as well be. Actually longstanding rules inside federal health departments dictate public funding practices reinforcing heterosexism, according to Marj Plumb, a former Bay Area lesbian and current Director of Gay and Lesbian Health Concerns for the HIV Bureau Services at the New York City Department of Health. Plumb also keeps busy as a Lesbian Health Consultant for The National Lesbian Rights Center. "Family planning is the only money that goes specifically to women's health care. It says that if you serve a woman in a family planning clinic, she must be educated in birth control and she must agree to be on a birth control method." That of course, penalizes lesbians or other women trying to practice the supposedly goal of every Christlike female, chastity. "Being sexually active with women only, is not considered a viable form of birth control even though it's right up there at about 100% (effective)." Plumb went on to say that, besides possibly feeling demeaned by this second-class treatment by doctors, a greater source of concern should be the possibility that gay women may stop seeking of health care altogether. When lesbians are asked if coming out stops them from getting routine medical attention, Plumb said the majority of the times the answer is yes. "I don't think we're ever going to get a public policy change on this. It's possible we may at some point, depending on the next election, we might be able to start negotiations with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services relaxing the rules. "This is the bastion of heterosexuality. It's under the gun anyway because it's connected to abortion, and it's connected to birth control, and it's connected to teenage sex." Already, right wing cousins of Anita Bryant attack the availability of government monies for primary and preventative GYN care each year. Adding dykes into the picture would increase the criticism. They have plans in mind to begin discussions with Planned Parenthoods across the country about incorporating lesbians into their services. "You still have to, as a lesbian, and hold the condom and say, `Wink wink', yes I'll use this. Short of getting a policy change on this, if we can get a reality change, and make sure that other (clinics) know how to get around those rules and that lesbians know how to access Planned Parenthood if they need low cost health care, then we'll do it that way." Planned Parenthood Sacramento lobbyist Kathy Kneer echoed Plumb's belief that choice -- in being "out" or to terminate an unwanted pregnancy -- faces an uphill battle and eliminating outdated rules that alienate lesbians drive up the odds. "Not with the current folks we have. And if they thought that lesbians would go (to publicly funded health clinics) and needed health care, but just throw away the pills," conservatives would have a field day opposing such measures. "Women in general are not respected by these individuals and they don't want us to control our fertility....sex is for procreation," Kneer said. "It's insulting to women," because it says to women your only value is your uterus. "You can have breast cancer, you can have uterine cancer, it doesn't matter," so long as it doesn't affect your fertility, said Kneer. She explained that their agency has to fight off anti-choice and women's health care amendments each year. The most recent was to decrease by 60 percent the entire budget for the Office of Family Planning. If the balance of power tips just slightly in favor of the anti-choice legislators -- which is possible but not likely, she said -- a draconian measure like that could actually pass. Tripping the cognitive triggers of doctors and medical students has been much more successful than the passage of progressive legislation, which in this day and age is an unlikely prospect at best, said Plumb. "I think that we need to be realistic about where we're at right now. Legislatively we're dead. We'll be lucky if we get out of the next two years without any anti-gay legislation, let alone pro-gay legislation." The Health Reform Plan, she said, is an example of a policy that's "really sickening." Nowhere was the word sex used in the 1,000-page document and the only concern shown for women's health concerned fertility. "It reinforced the issue of family planning. They used the terms child bearing age and fertility-related infectious illnesses to determine when a woman could get (federally funded) pap smears." They continue to persevere and Plumb insisted that despite flaws, conditions for lesbians weren't at "an O-my-God" phase. "If we had a different Congress, one of the things we had been considering was adding money to encourage medical schools to include curriculums on gay and lesbian health." Fortunately, she said, medical schools have picked that up anyway. "We are working with federal health departments and their agencies to insure that lesbians are included as target populations, for programs and services as well as target populations for research. Secondly, we help grass-roots organizers work with their local governments and health departments to insure the same level of access at a local level." And it's working, at least inside DHHS Secretary Donna Shelela's office. Plumb described a fruitful meeting with Shelela last January, as part of the DHHS's ongoing outreach to "special populations" of women. "We talked to them about the lack of solid research on lesbians done by the mainstream research community and how important that lesbians be included in studies." Out of that meeting the word lesbians was included and four different researchers were funded for a breast cancer study. Plumb emphasized the importance of current and future research on lesbians underway to change the way legislators vote. "It's absolutely going to blow the lid off the opposition, especially on the local level."