out in the mountains

 

IF YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TESTED, OR IF YOU'VE HAD UNPROTECTED SEX OR SHARED A N

Is better to know

    

The poor health indicators
of queer people

cannot be explained

by the lack of gay-friendly
doctors and rainbow-colored
anti-smoking posters.

Tllll GMT GET IIEAITII GARE ANII
TIIEITMEIIT IF Yllll TEST PIISITIVE.

grams that primarily focuses on
HIV prevention, but is slated to
include a greater emphasis on
lesbian and bisexual women’s
health (as soon as funding
becomes available), and work-
ing with the transgender com-
munity on educating health care
providers.

“It’s a brand new posi-
tion, so it can mean a lot of dif-
ferent things,” said Lipensky.
“The majority of the stuff is
going to be HIV prevention,
education, outreach.”

Peggy Luhrs is an
Americorps—VISTA volunteer
who was hired as R.U.l .2?’s
cyber-center coordinator. She is
currently researching program-
ming and funding opportunities

for women’s health initiatives at

the center. Luhrs is the center’s
only paid lesbian staff member.

“I hope at R.U.l .2?
we’ll emulate, to some degree,
what has already been done
here, which is speaking to
providers about being culturally
competent; to do a lesbian on—'
line health digest; to set up sup-
port groups; and do education,”
said Luhrs. “I would like to
focus on wellness’, not just
pathology.”

Lipensky also plans to
focus on wellness.

“I really want to be
able to incorporate other issues
of health and wellness,” said

Lipensky. “I have already been
in contact with a yoga person to
come into the center once or
twice a month for free. I want
to get that up and running. As
the warm weather approaches, I
want to see some more outdoor

_ physical activities. It’s going to

be challenging. I‘don’t know if
there’ll be a lot of interest, but I
hope to generate interest. It can
be used as physical activity and
as a social event as well.”
The focus beyond

pathology and including well-

ness is a step in the right direc— '

tion for R.U.1.2?. Health pro-

gramming in Vermont has large-
ly been limited to responding to
particular issues such as HIV or
domestic violence. The effect of

‘issue-oriented programming is

that queer people are treated as
vectors for disease transmission

~ or as potential victims.

Wellness programs,
which promote the acquisition
of healthy habits, go a little fur-
ther in acknowledging whole
people, but are often still about
pathology. Physical exercise
becomes heart disease aware-
ness. Nutrition education
becomes obesity prevention.

There is nothing wrong
per se with this approach, but
lacking is a deeper, more funda-
mental cultural change. The
poor health indicators of queer
people cannot be explained by

the lack of "gay-friendly doctors
and rainbow-colored anti-smok-
ing posters.

North American health
educators and activists have
been working for nearly ten
years now to build a queer

I health movement that addresses

not only the lack of public
health infrastructure accessible
to queer people — health depart-
ments that track queer health

- data and funding streams that

address our needs — but also the
individual and social dynamics
of queer people that result in us
having poorer health indicators
than the general population.
The degree to which

R.U.l .2? can embrace the
whole health approach will be
the degree to/which they are
successful building healthier
communities in Vermont.
Recent developments are a step
forward. V

Ric Kasini Kadour is a free-
lance writer and the moderator
of the Gay Men’s Health I
Summit eList, an online discus-
sion of gay men’s health issues.
He lives in Montreal.

For information on HIV testing:
- call 1;o11—free from in Vermont

800-882-AIDS (800-882-2437)’?

- for hearing impaired TTY access
800-319-3141*

I or visit us on-line at_
http://wwwhealthyvermonters.info

* The Vermont AIDS Hotline is open weekdays, 8:30-4:30.
(For information 2.4/7,call the National AIDS Hotline
800-342-2437. )

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

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179 Ma. Street 5 Derby Vermont 05329 * V
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