3. PLANET OUT: MELISSA, YES, SHE IS

by Kathleen DeBold
February 17, 2005

The phone was ringing when I walked into my house. I had barely said
hello
when the voice started screaming.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Are you watching this?"

"Watching what?"

"The TV! Oh my God, don't you have it on?"

Visions of 9/11 exploded in my head as I scrambled for the
remote. "Hurry
up, hurry up," the voice implored. "Channel 9!" My fumbling fingers
punched
in the number. And there was Melissa Etheridge -- bald, beautiful and
singing the hell out of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart."
Despite my best efforts to butch it out, my eyes filled up as the
rock
icon
shared her vulnerability and strength with all lesbians who, like
her,
are
living with cancer. But these weren't just tears of joy for one
woman's
selfless act. The day before, I had been to a memorial service for yet
another dear friend who had died from cancer. I cried for her and her
partner of 25 years -- and for all those we have lost to this
devastating
disease.

Melissa Etheridge's appearance at the 2005 Grammy Awards was a
revolutionary
moment in lesbian health. In the flash of a paparazzo's camera,
Melissa
and
her partner, Tammy Lynn Michaels, accomplished what lesbian health
activists
have been trying to do for decades: get the mainstream media to say
the
words "lesbian" and "cancer" in the same sentence, and get lesbians
to
focus
on an issue of tremendous importance to their health and well being.

What little research there is shows that lesbians may be at a higher
risk
for certain types of cancer. Lesbians also face serious barriers to
receiving cancer screening and care because of real and perceived
discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender
expression.
These
barriers include less access to health insurance (lesbians can't get
married, and very few workplaces offer domestic-partnership
benefits),
lack
of lesbian-focused health education programs and
heterosexism/homophobia
among health care providers and their staffs. As a result, lesbians
often
don't get diagnosed until their cancer is more advanced. Melissa
Etheridge
is helping to change all that.

Since the Grammy Awards, my e-mail box has been filled with messages
from
women for whom, as one wrote, "Melissa just opened a huge closet
door"
in
their lives. The comments ranged from deeply poignant ("I just wish
Linda
could have been here to see it with me. She loved Melissa so much") to
fiercely empowered ("I'm not wearing my wig to work today -- bald is
beautiful!") Even more wonderful was the number of calls and e-mail
messages
asking for information about cancer, or asking for referrals to
lesbian-friendly doctors or asking how they could help lesbians with
cancer.
All because Melissa Etheridge had the courage to say, "Yes, I am."
Yes,
she
is a lesbian. And, yes, she is a lesbian with cancer.

What words can describe someone who has impacted lesbian health as
much
as
Melissa has? "Hero"? "Role model"? "Inspiration"? Yes, she is.

Kathleen DeBold is the executive director of the Mautner Project, the
national lesbian health organization.
The Mautner Project improves the health of lesbians and their families
through advocacy, education, research and direct service. We envision
a
health care system that is guided by social justice and responsive to
the
needs of all people.