FEBRUARY 24, 1995 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 9
SPEAK OUT
There's no denying it: Lesbians are at risk for AIDS
by Tiffany Goodchild
Since the early 1980s AIDS has infected more than 1 million Americans. Women are becoming the fastest-growing group infected with HIV. It has long been thought in medical and social circles that female-to-female sex was the safest sex possible. Today, we are slowly beginning to realize that absolutely no one group is immune. Yet, it seems that few in the medical profession are concerned. Research, education, and prevention are desperately needed in the lesbian, medical, and research communities to prevent AIDS from becoming an even more widespread epidemic.
In the early 1980s AIDS was primarily thought of as just a gay man's disease. A. Giudici, one of the writers of The Truth About AIDS: Evolution of an Epidemic, written in 1985 said, "As gay women are not involved in the sexual practices or diseases experienced by gay men, and only those who use IV drugs have contracted AIDS... makes gay women among the healthiest people in the country." One doctor went as far as saying lesbian blood was "the cleanest possible blood."
In December of 1986 the first case of lesbian transmission of HIV was reported. Science News, in an article published in 1987 said, "Michael Marmor of the New York University Medical Center and his colleagues describe a case in which a lesbian who has denied drug use and had never received a blood transfusion evidently got AIDS from her drug-using female partner." Center for Disease Control epidemiologist Harold W. Jaffe responded, "With only a single case report, lesbian-transmitted AIDS isn't a prime concern, but it raises an interesting possibility."
A 1993 study of 515 lesbians and bisexual women from Berkeley and San Francisco, California found that HIV was three times more prevalent among lesbians than among heterosexual women. A CDC study in 1993 of 356,275 women with AIDS showed that 21,656 were IV drug users, 15,385 were heterosexuals, and in 4,719 cases there was no identified risk.
A report written by ACT-UP New York said, "However, this should not be taken as an accurate account. First, the CDC compiles its data from the reports of physicians across the country. It is very likely that most women will never even be asked if they have had sex with
other women. In fact, the case reporting forms are often illegible or incomplete. The CDC found it impossible to categorize nearly 700 out of 5,000 women because they couldn't determine their sexual behaviors from the report forms."
The need for more research and better ways to compile facts and figures becomes obvious. Gay Men's Health Crisis executive director Tim Sweeney and board president Joy Tomchin refer to the new lesbian crisis as "how 1981 was for gay men," when a "small number of cases foreshadowed an epidemic in the [gay male] community.”
Women need to be included in the research to find out how AIDS affects the human body. Kathleen Brockel, executive director of the National Association of People With AIDS said, "The CDC is not interested in facing the reality of what AIDS is doing to women...the narrow definition of AIDS is keeping the numbers artificially low and preventing the country from recognizing the severity of the epidemic. The reality is that the definition has an impact on people's lives, and the CDC must take responsibility for it.'
S. Toole and E. Scharf said in an article in the Feminist Review: "this definition includes no conditions that are specific to women. And medical practitioners are not noticing indicators of HIV infection in women." The startling fact is that 48 percent of AIDS-infected women die before they are even given an AIDS diagnosis.
Women with HIV have higher rates of cervical cancer, recurrent and drug resistant yeast infections, abnormal Pap smears, pelvic inflammatory disease, and irregular periods. Yet, as indicated in AIDS: Education and Prevention, none of these symptoms or conditions appear on the Revised CDC Surveillance Case Definition.
Rebekka Armstrong, a former Playboyplaymate and an HIV-positive lesbian said, "There's so much they don't know about me. I'll go to the hospital with one thing or another and they always wind up telling me they don't think it's HIV-related. There have been times I've gone into the hospital and complained about thingsthe same things my gay male friends were complaining about and getting treatment forand the doctor's have just looked at me like I was retarded. They said I was just experiencing anxiety. They said it was all in my head."
COMMUNITY FORUM
Continued from previous page
mean Howard Metzenbaum," which of course might have just as easily happened, since, as Mr. Armey later explained, he "has a problem with alliteration." Alliteration? Please! But aside from a few comments in the press there was no calling to account or rebuke by Mr. Armey's fellow Republicans. Nor was there, even more disheartening, any outcry from the gay community demanding an apology to that community and to one of its greatest representatives.
It is a strange and outrageous thing in a nation such as ours where a surgeon general can lose her job from speaking ingenuously to the American public about condoms and masturbation, but the number one majority party member in that nation's highest legislative body can pass off as a mere faux pas his poorly-disguised contempt for a significant number of American citizens.
Yes, Mr. Armey, the lesbians and gays of this country did hear you loud and clear. And not all of us thought it amusing.
G.D. Wymer, President Stonewall Akron
The other version
The following was sent to Judith Rainbrook of the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center in response to her February 10 letter about violence against women in the song "What'll You Do About Me."
Dear Judith:
You will be pleased to know that the day
prior to receiving your letter I learned that BNA Records had produced an alternate version of the Doug Supernaw song in question, and that we requested it, and it replaced the original the following day.
You are correct in knowing that we are sensitive regarding the content of everything we do on WGAR, and I am happy we were able to continue playing this popular song without its potentially offensive lyrical con-
tent.
We appreciate your comments, and want you to be assured that our commitment to doing what is right has not changed.
Denny Nugent, Program Director WGAR-FM, Cleveland
Community Forum
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Still, very little research is being done on AIDS and its effects on women. The only significant study that the government has done on women about AIDS didn't look at women at all but at how women transmit the disease to their fetuses. Drug trials for AZT included only 13 women out of 282 people. Amber Hollibaugh, director of Lesbian AIDS Project in New York City said, "I know of hundreds of lesbians who have AIDS, yet groups like the Center for Disease Control don't even look at sexual contact between two women."
C. Guly wrote in the September 6 edition of the Advocate, "The problem is that a lot of lesbians deny they're at risk for AIDS." Since lesbians can and do get AIDS, the need to educate lesbians, doctors, and the general public on lesbian safe sex techniques are becoming increasingly more important.
Jean Carlomusto, an activist with the Gay Men's Health Crisis, talked about why there is a need for lesbian safer sex videos such as Current Flow. "Lesbian identified sex-positive imagery is scarce. This is both oppressive and dangerous, because in order to educate lesbians about safer sex we have to establish what safer sex for lesbians is. Saying 'use a dental dam' is not the same as saying 'use a condom' since many women don't even know what a dental dam is. So, we showed how to use a dental dam and latex gloves by having two women graphically demonstrate on my couch. That's what direct action video is all about."
Although doctors are giving advice to heterosexuals about safer sex, few know the facts about lesbian safe sex. In Portrait of a Centerfold, Armstrong says she was met with total dumbfoundedness by her doctor when she approached him about lesbian safer sex.
"I asked about vaginal oral sex, about what could be transmitted that way... the doctor just looked at me. His assumption was that I
was talking about sex with a man. When I said I was talking about sex with a woman, he was totally shocked. He couldn't tell me anything. In fact, he didn't think lesbians could get it from one another. He had so much to tell me when he thought I was talking about heterosexual sex. What makes it so much harder for a lesbian to get it? All you need is blood-toblood contact. And everything women do together could potentially be just as dangerous."
So, if you're going to have sex, here are some items you can use to protect yourself and your partner:
Dental dam: A six-by-six inch square sheet of latex used by dentists. To use: rinse with warm water and then dry (new dams are covered in talc), apply a water-based lube to the side that will touch the vagina. Do not share or re-use dental dams for use during oral sex. If dental dams are not available in your area, Saran Wrap makes a good substitute. Use the same directions as for dental dams. Or cut the tip of a condom off and then cut lengthwise to make a flat square. Condoms should also be used on sex toys. Do not re-use. Latex gloves should be worn for vaginal and anal sex, or finger cots, which are "mini" condoms that fit over just one finger. Be sure to sterilize sex toys with one part bleach and ten parts water before each and every use.
AIDS has affected everyone. As lesbians now faced with the undeniable facts that we are at risk, we have to stand up, be counted, and shout. Let the government, the CDC, doctors, and everyone else know that lesbians will no longer be invisible in the AIDS crisis. We need research on the effects of HIV on women, drug trials, and education of doctors. But, most importantly, we need to stop denying we are at risk and start protecting ourselves.
Tiffany Goodchild is a student at Stark Technical College in Akron.
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