LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Student CAMP: One in Three |
Kristen Minor |
Gay rights activists have noted that sexual orientation is in its own way completely free of prejudice. No religion, race, class, or nationality can be accused of being "the gay ones"there is no profile of a queer that dictates who is more likely to be a member of the club. I find an odd comfort in the idea of an anonymous hand going "eenie meenie minie moe" and sprinkling fairy dust on whomever it may. And then you have those other anonymous hands that are even more pervasive in societythose of disease. There are many. Cancer is the worst, with an astonishing rate of 1 in 3 Americans contracting some form of it in their lifetimes. The word cancer is itself an umbrella term. In the basic mechanisms of a body you have cell division, and there are those times when some cells go into fundamentalist mode and decide that no other cell is as worthy as they are and attempt to replicate themselves in some area of the body. It's variations on a themehere the breast, there the skin, there the liver. There are certain confusing statistics regarding cancer risk in gay men and lesbians. The research simply hasn't been done (particularly among the transgender community), so although it would seem to be the case, no definitive conclusions can be made about risk rates. Perhaps lesbians are more likely to have certain kinds out of a general lack of having children and not using birth control, perhaps not. Likewise for gay men and penile cancer. Certainly, at least among the lesbian community, there is a widespread distrust of doctors and traditional medicine. There are enough horror stories of doctors being fixated on a patient's lesbianism or saying "Oh, then you're a virgin" to the statement "I've never had sex with a man" to make one cringe. Perhaps every med school should have a course in Dealing With Patients Who Aren't Just Like You. Understandable as it is, this "stay away" mentality is deadly in ovarian cancer, for example, an early diagnoses means a 90% survival rate, while later stages plummet down to 25% survival. In other words, just because you don't intend to go forth and people the world doesn't mean that those bits that would aid with said peopling shouldn't be observed now and then. It would be another form of trivial ghettoization to say that this is something that queers should be concerned about because we are queer. It's the human race's fight, and one in three means that everyone's family and everyone's friends will deal with and fight some form of cancer. It's not noble, it's necessary. Genetics and massive industrial pollutants aside, there are various ways of preventing cancer. The simple one is what we've been told for yearsdiet and exercise with less smoking and alcohol. (Rick, forgive me for borrowing your favorite theme.) This is also the way that one can safely and reliably lose weight. Given the current American rate of obesity that is not caused by medical problems, it's safe to say that we are not only living in denial, we are using it for drinking water. It's worth noting that lesbians are at a higher risk of obesity than heterosexual woman. This is casually attributed to a higher level of comfort with body image, despite the fact that "comfortable body image" does not on any level equal "my daily exercise is to walk to the television and the fridge." On the flip side, recent research indicates a higher level of eating disorders (which does include morbid obesity, but is more generally thought of as anorexia and bulemia) in gay men than in heterosexual ones. I'd love to know the rate of eating disorders in queer women just to see if the general rejection of the supermodel body type is in fact accurate. It's doubtful, if only because queer people seem to be at a higher risk for pretty much everything except for accidental pregnancy and obsessive preoccupation with Britney and Justin's relationship. (If I'm at higher risk for that, please kill me now.) A casual perusal of the Healthy People 2010 Companion Document for LGBT Health, a fascinating document available online at http://www.glma.org, indicates that "50 percent or more of cancer can be prevented through smoking cessation and improved dietary habits." Interestingly enough, it also seems that "gay men and lesbians who do not disclose their sexual orientation may be at increased risk...due to a psychogenic suppression of the immune response." I'm waiting for a news report entitled "better physical health through breaking down closet doors." Sometimes stating the obvious cannot be done enough. Try to be healthy and get regular screening for disease. Advocate for those who do not have sufficient insurance to do so; force the medical system to eradicate homophobia. We might be second-class citizens, but at least we'll have our health. Kristen Minor is a member of the class of 2004 at Dartmouth College and would like to note that her mother is one of the strongest and most amazing women on the planet. She can be reached at kristen@youth-guard.org. . |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 12, No. 04, May 3, 2002. |