it thatmeans for my future health is i or livewithin 30 miles of a nuclear ? ‘ not alleviated bythe s_tainlessi.'steei._ I painful-but-necessary-_ process of A V . social Hearth Q oth of my parentsdied young ’ of cancer: my father in his ’ 40s,-my mother at 61 ., What t unclear. bl don't work at a nuclear . « submarine base asrny, mother did, _ power plant. And _it’s been 25 years: . since" I’ smoked the cigarettesthat __ killed my father, although I spent 17 a years as a nicotine addict, starting : when I was 7 years old. i Right there are two of many health issues not unique to our com- munities, but that certainly have as major impect: tobacco and cancer. I ’ know half a dozen lesbians who’ve had breastcancer the past 5 years, and that’s the merest chip off an iceberg of breastcancer in this by ‘ country. Ratesfor women in A‘ Vermont are among the highest in the nation, and no one really knows why.*That‘ fear’ of finding a lump in . _ your breast or in your lover's breast , is a shadow) lesbians live with that is ’ . T having a mammogram (guysfthink? of having a precious and sensitive appendage flattened in a two-jton_j§_ , vise). Lesléa Newmansstory , T is P “Keeping A Breast,"from which she _ has allowed us to print“an‘excerpt_,t' e t paints an all-too-realisticpicture; s .: ] What con‘stitutes“‘health" is-f . different for each ofius.‘-l live twitha couple, of manageable chronic ill- j i . _ nesses. My health is not perfect; and it could be better. I need to. . 3 exercise more, butl consider myself » 7 basically healthy.“ . * . . -‘lf “health” isga 'slippery.con-A t cept for us as individuals, how much t harder it is when we're talking about ' an entire community! A Vermont is relatively at T socially healthy place for gays and _f_ » ‘lesbians: few of usare being beaten" ’ or killed_ becausetof our perceived or actualsexuality. At leastsome of our , transgender folksare makings suc-‘V " _cessful'transi_tions within their. works‘ places and getting :identity,_'docu-‘P’ V . ments that match‘ their new gender. ." It’s not ‘perfect: as last‘ nfionth’s stu- to‘lool)