Maine, Maryland, & Washington

As the executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association just emailed out “Today, GLMA joins with supporters of equality from across the country to celebrate yesterday’s historic election results, which set the stage for a new era in the quest for LGBT equality.” On one hand I’m glad that 3 more states passed “marriage equality” yesterday.  Between these 3 states, Minnesota’s voting down on marriage discrimination, Tammy Baldwin’s win, and the re-election of Obama, yesterday was a big victory for queer rights. 

On the other hand, I am beyond angry and hurt.  How is it a victory when we are still letting other people vote on MY RIGHT to get married and have a family?!  How is that not, in it’s very essence, discrimination?  And while these amendments are being billed as “marriage equality”, we are still far from equal, even in states where gay marriage is legal. 

If I am to fall in love with someone overseas and get married in a country where it is legal, I have no rights to get them citizenship or protection in the US.  If I fight in the US military and live in a state where I’m legally married, I still cannot offer military partner benefits to my wife.  Even if I file my taxes as a married couple on the state level, my federal taxes will still be filled as single, creating a huge f*ing mess.   This isn’t even separate but equal… this is straight up inequality!

 

I think these state measures are a Band-Aid.  They are hiding the real problem and leading the general public to believe that the LGBT community is finally gaining equality.  But we are not!  As long as the public gets to vote on my personal rights, I am very much not equal and I will not be satisfied by placation of a few new state amendments.   I still have no national recognition of my love.  I still don’t have the ability to adopt my (theoretical) children if born to my (theoretical) wife in many states in this country.  Hell, I can still be fired from my job or openly discriminated against for my sexual orientation in some states.

The Supreme Court needs to finally rule on prop 8 (this mess has been going on for 4 years now).  DOMA needs to be overturned.  We need to stop letting the public vote on the rights of minority groups.  We need to expand anti-discrimination policies and regulations.  We need to give queer kids hope for their future… Come on people, we can do so much better.  

What a difference 4 years makes

Election night 2008 is a vivid night in my memory.  I arrived back at my house around 6 or 7pm from 2 long days of medical school interviews to find a house full of friends watching the TV and an envelope from a school I had recently interviewed at.  I opened my first acceptance letter surrounded by the love of my community and with the optimism of change in the air.  The night was spent intensely watching returns, having both light hearted & deep conversations, coloring in maps, and day dreaming about what the future would hold.  I went to sleep with the certainty of Obama’s victory and my long awaited admissions ticket to medical school in the fall. 

[However, learning about the prop 8 results when I woke the next morning was heartbreaking and felt like a personal attack.  And now, 4 years later, we’re still trying to untangle the mess it created.  Hopefully, tonight’s vote on marriage have an opposite outcome as prop 8 did.]

4 years later, I am wrapping up medical school.  I would be on the interview trail again right now had I not elected to take this year for research.  I am anxiously awaiting the news tonight will bring in a new city with a new community.  I am uncertain about my future – about what our healthcare system will look like tomorrow and how it will affect my career.  While the economy is likely to continue to improve (assuming we don’t start another war), healthcare, women’s reproductive rights, and queer communities in the United States are resting on a precarious ledge. I pray that I go to bed tonight with the same optimism and certainty that I did 4 years ago. 

Health care blues

We had a discussion yesterday on the Affordable Care Act and how it affects women's health care, especially contraception.  I left the talk totally depressed.  This was further amplified by watching the 3rd presidential debate last night. 

I recognize that the ACA is not perfect, but it is a HUGE step towards affordable and comprehensive health care in this country. I believe that health care is a right, not a privilege.  I also know that we can not continue to afford the rising cost of health care as we can't even currently afford it.  I'm sickened by the fact that politicians play political chess with people's health.  I can not understand that level of disregard for another humans welfare; but I guess that is why they are politicians and I'm a (future) health care provider.

In the discussion yesterday, we were shown a slide from the New England Journal of Medicine article "A watershed election for health care (2012)".  The chart dives up the likely results to the ACA depending on the election outcomes.  It is no shock that Romney winning would be a very large step back for health care in the US (a long with LGBT rights, abortion rights, and so many other things), but what did give me pause was what happens if Obama is reelected with a republican house and senate.  "Maintenance of near pre-ACA levels of uninsured Americans; no substantial growth in levels.  Less aggressive implementation of ACA health system provisions".  Shit.  So basically more political chess with people's lives at stake.  Nothing will be accomplished, will still be stuck in the middle of nowhere.  Lovely.

Needless to say, I'm very worried about this election.

I am also so grateful to be an insured American with unlimited access to quality care. This year off from medical school has been full of many more doctors' visits than I would have imagined. After the horrible car accident with trip to the emergency room this summer, I'm now dealing with a whiplash, a pinched nerve (upper trunk of my brachial plexus), and radiculopathy. Weekly chiropractor appointments in attempts to fix that. I'm also finally address my chronic anemia, fatigue, and constant general yuckyness by figuring out the trigger. A round of visits to a GI and a abdominal CT have ruled out my celiac as the culprit. [Even if I did read my CT as having a "speckled colon and a titled uterus" - thankfully a radiologist who actually knew what he was reading righted my incorrect paranoid diagnosis.] Good to know that I'm not being accidentally glutened. The GI's answer to this was that I'm probably allergic to something (or many somethings) and so I should take a low level steroid to blunt my immune system. Um, no thanks. I'd rather just figure out what the cause is so that I can avoid it. So, today I am finally getting much need allergy testing. Thank G!d that my comprehensive trusty health care insurance is along for the ride.

Voting for Big Bird

Last night's presidential debate was awful.  Romney was totally charismatic in an absolutely condescending way.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to hug him, or slap him.  I also kept imagining a thought bubble of loose associations over Obama's head.  I am not sure where he was but he clearly was not present at the podium. 

There were nonsensical sentences.  There were long run on thoughts that led in a circular manner towards nowhere. There were lies and empty promises followed by more lies.  The discussion was harder to follow than those of my floridly manic patients when I was on my psych clerkship!

There was one sentence in particular that sat very poorly with me though: "I would like to take the Medicaid dollars that go to states and say to a state, you're going to get what you got last year, plus inflation, plus 1 percent, and then you're going to manage your care for your poor in the way you think best."  Let us just quickly look at two case examples.  Alabama wants to take care of their poor by using medicaid as the sacrificial lamb for their budget issues.  Louisiana took care of their poor by cutting $329 million from their state healthcare, and by closing one of the state's 3 psych hospitals, likely adding more strain to the hospital and jail structure.   Two shinning examples of how one should take care of valued citizens.  I totally feel confident that allowing states to have sole decision making power on the nations healthcare will solve all our finical issues and improve the health of ever individual American... Not.

I'm voting for Big Bird.  I'm voting for ObamaCare.  While not perfect, it is a start.  I have to believe in something.