by Ric Kasini Kadour

      The third Annual National LGBT Health Awareness Week will take place March 13-19, 2005. Across the country, groups in major cities will organize events and activities to raise public awareness of the unique health concerns of the LGBT community.
      The awareness week is organized by the National Coalition for LGBT Health, a Washington, DC-based advocacy group.
      "LGBT Health Awareness Week is a very visible way to promote a healthy lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community across the nation," said Donald Hitchcock, the Coalition's national field director.
      "LGBT Americans, in addition to having the same basic health needs as the general population, have increased health disparities because of continuing discrimination and ignorance related to sexual orientation or gender identity, a fact confirmed by a growing body of scientific and social research," said Henia Handler, a Coalition co-chair. "Years of stigma and prejudice impact both the health of the LGBT community and the ability of health care providers to improve the wellness of their patients."
     The Coalition hopes to raise awareness of the unique health concerns and health disparities among the LGBT communities by providing community health centers, local organizations, and community representatives with tools to amplify the national campaign at the local level. The LGBT Health Awareness Week Website offers fact sheets, posters, postcards, and advertisements which organizations and community organizations can use free of charge.
      While a number of community organizations, including some in the Northeastern US, are offering events to celebrate LGBT Health Awareness Week, Vermont organizations are not among them.
      In Boston, Massachusetts, GLBT Health Access Project is launching their newest media campaign and Fenway Community Health is offering workshops for lesbians, bisexual women and transgender people on coming out to their doctor.
      In New York City, the Bronx Lesbian and Gay Health Resource Consortium is presenting a series of programs which address heart disease, diabetes, GLBT youth, and tobacco use.
      Chase Brexton Health Services in Baltimore, Maryland is presenting forums on crystal methamphetamine and HIV, understanding disability issues, and healthy living for lesbians.
      Other groups are offering forums on health issues ranging from hepatitis to nutrition, domestic violence to marriage to mental health.
       In Washington, DC, the week coincides with a lobbying effort to provide a framework for the continued inclusion of LGBT issues as part of the national health policy dialogue.
       At press time, no Vermont organizations were planning on participating in LGBT Health Awareness Week
      "I have not heard of it," said Vermont CARES Director of Prevention Peter Jacobsen,. "That doesn't mean we won't [be participating]."
      "We don't have anything specifically planned for that," said Lluvia Mulvaney-Stanak, Outright Vermont Co-Executive Director. "It's actually related to that fabulous HIV funding thing because we don't have a programming staff position anymore. There's nobody to plan that."
     "While R.U.1.2? Community Center is not participating this year, it will likely participate next year," said Executive Director Christopher Kauffman. R.U.1.2? is currently hiring a Health and Wellness Coordinator who will be in charge of such programming.
      SafeSpace is looking into whether or not they may plan an event.
      While Vermont has been a leader on equality for the lgbt communities, it has fallen behind the rest of the country on addressing health disparities and health promotion needs of sexual minorities. The Vermont Department of Health has no dedicated staff addressing the health needs of LGBT communities.
     State organizing "is sort of the next frontier," said the Coalition's Hitchcock. "With [the Bush] administration, we realized a lot of progress can be made on the local level. We encourage organizations to educate themselves and begin the education around LGBT health with their legislatures and getting state health departments and organizations involved in LGBT health issues."
     For more information on National LGBT Health Awareness Week, go to: www.lgbthealth.net

Ric Kadour is a men's health activist who splits his time between Shoreham and Montreal.