Fundies go after American Academy of Family Physicians for article on lesbian health

This is the f*cking living end. Now the bible beating medical professionals of the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) is on the warpath over an article published in the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) journal American Family Physician, on "Primary Care for Lesbians and Bisexual Women."

The author suggests that doctors' hesitancy to ask questions about women's sexual orientation and lesbian and bisexual patients' hesitancy to disclose such information can pose potential barriers to optimal healthcare. She says physicians can improve primary care for these patients by acknowledging this and "working to create a therapeutic physician-patient relationship."

..."I think the concern about the article is the fact that, first of all, it seeks to normalize and seeks to glorify and promote a homosexual lifestyle," [CMDA Executive Director Dr. David] Stevens observes. He says the article does this while "at the same time admitting some of the significant healthcare problems that occur because of that lifestyle."

How about the main problem is that lesbian and bisexual women are reluctant to seek out medical care because they are afraid of being judged or proselytized to by holy rolling doctors? The CMDA devotes a whole page on its views of homosexuality on its web site, including statements like:

* Homosexual behavior can be changed. There is valid evidence that many individuals who desired to abstain from homosexual acts have been able to do so.

* Some homosexual acts are physically harmful because they disregard normal human anatomy and function. These acts are associated with increased risks of tissue injury, organ malfunction, and infectious diseases. These and other factors result in a significantly shortened life expectancy.

After reading that, why pray tell would a woman want to play Russian roulette and have to guess as to whether they are going to get a fundie gynecologist? Does she have to worry that when the doctor goes to look in her hoo-hah and has to say there's no chance of being pregnant -- because no pee-pees are involved -- that she's going to get a hellfire lecture?

What about the Florida woman who was given literature condemning homosexuality as "sinful and sexually impure" after a routine appointment? She also received photocopied pages, including Bible verses, that asserted God could "help her change."


From the National Center for Lesbian Rights

That sounds like a fundie agenda, no? But for the CDMA, it's all about The Homosexual Agenda^TM in this article:

The Christian physician says he feels the AAFP has been hijacked by a small segment of its membership who lobby to endorse and promote homosexuality as a normal expression of human sexuality. The American Family Physician article on medical care for lesbian and bisexual women starts out benignly enough, he contends, but then it takes a turn into activism.

...The CMDA spokesman says the article also discussed issues like insurance for lesbian partners and their children, and inheritance laws as they affect lesbian couples. He believes the AAFP, in publishing this sort of material, is bowing to the desires of the homosexual agenda.

Personally I want these folks to put a Jeebus fish on the door or indicate CMDA membership in the Blue Cross medical provider handbook when I'm picking out a primary care provider so I can avoid them.