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DESCRIPTION:15th Anniversary San Francisco Dyke March! \n\nThis year's march takes 
 place on Saturday, June 23rd \n\nStarting from Dolores Park, at 18th and 
 Dolores \nRally and Stage Begins @ 3:00 p.m. \nMarch Takes Off @ 7:00 p.m. 
 \n\nThe San Francisco Dyke March demands Health Care for All – and by 
 all, we mean \nALL DYKES as well as all people who are shut out, shunted 
 aside, and shit on \nwhen they need health care. Except for the very 
 wealthy, everyone in the world \nneeds better health care, and we need it 
 today. \n\nYou know who we’re talking about: it’s you! \n\nAnd 
 definitely it’s someone you love. \n\nDykes in the Bay Area probably have 
 it as good as anywhere in the U.S. – if \nwe’re lucky enough to have 
 coverage, connected enough to know where to go when \nsomething’s wrong, 
 brave enough to speak up for ourselves, have friends and \nlovers to help 
 with medical expenses. \n\nBut even in the Bay Area, health care delivery 
 is too often inhumane – everyone \nhas experienced waiting for hours to 
 see a harried doctor for ten minutes, who, \nway too frequently, dispenses 
 drugs with no thought of the side-effects. \nDoctors, too, report being 
 chewed up and spit out of “the system.” The system is \nbroken. \n\nWe 
 all know how the criminals in the government have limited access to health 
 \ncare in order to boost profits for their campaign contributors; we’ve 
 gone \nthrough decades of people warning us that a universal health care 
 system would \nbring about the evils of “socialized medicine.” \n\nAnd 
 we know that’s a lie. We know, in fact, almost everything that’s told 
 to us \nabout our health and our health care is a lie. \n\nWhat we don’t 
 know is the truth: because women’s needs are understudied, \nunderserved, 
 under-reasearched, under-funded. Because the particular health \nchallenges 
 of women of color are mostly ignored. Because hardly anyone pays 
 \nattention to dykes. And if you’re working class or poor you are 
 completely \ninvisible. \n\nWe are sick from invisibility. We need national 
 health care now, for everyone. \nWe need much more focus on all women. We 
 need medical personal to be re-trained \nto recognize that dykes exist, 
 have different concerns than heterosexuals, and \nthat no one who comes 
 into a medical office should ever be shamed, for any reason. \n\nAll people 
 need what dykes need: respect and options appropriate to our specific 
 \nhealth issues. This means access to non-western treatments for everyone, 
 \nregardless of class. It means dignified, self-directed end-of-life care. 
 If we \nhad universal coverage we could not to be forced into staying at a 
 particular \njob or in a particular area only because we need the health 
 insurance. We need \nhealth care that includes mental health treatment – 
 for when we decide we need \nit. We must never be coerced into treatments 
 or drugs we don’t want. We need \nhonest health education – not 
 fear-based distractions like the media manipulated \n“war on obesity”; 
 in fact, we need the language of war taken out of medicine \ncompletely! We 
 need health care for people, not for profit – flexible health \ncare that 
 recognizes everybody has a different body and all bodies are equally 
 \nprecious. \n\nAll women need what dykes need: an end to the misogyny 
 around abortion and \nforced sterilization. In recognition that women are 
 75% of the caregivers in \nfamilies, we need systemic re-evaluation and 
 re-valuing of this crucial work, \nwhich women are often pressed into doing 
 on top of their other employment or \nfamily responsibilities. You dykes 
 whose siblings have decided you’re the one to \ntake care of your aging 
 parents because you’re “unmarried” know what we’re \ntalking about. 
 Because women fill more of the service sector and part time work \nforce 
 jobs, we are more likely to be un- or under-insured, as well as paid less 
 \nto start with. Women need equal, complete health care coverage no matter 
 how \nmany hours a week they have “traditional” employment. And the 
 pharmaceutical \ncompanies need to stop using women as experimental guinea 
 pigs for their drugs. \n\nAnd Dykes need what we have always needed: full 
 recognition of our designated \npartners in all aspects of the health care 
 system – from the ways medical forms \nmake us invisible to the tragedies 
 of our partners being forced out of the \ndecision making process during 
 life-threatening situations. We need support for \nour choices around 
 children – whether we want them or do not. We need \nsympathetic, 
 educated providers around issues of domestic abuse, alcoholism, and \nany 
 other stresses that our social positions make us vulnerable to. We need 
 \nresearch into the long-term effects of testosterone use and 
 acknowledgement of \nthe problems of its abuse. We need to be treated with 
 dignity no matter what our \ngender presentation is. We need a national 
 registry of health-givers who are \ntrained to deal with queers, that any 
 queer or dyke can access. \n\nHealth care in the United States is a 
 scandal. The money that should be going to \nour medical needs, our 
 schools, our infrastructure, is instead being siphoned \noff in wars of 
 empire. The U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the \nworld, 
 yet it ranks 22nd in infant mortality between Taiwan and Croatia, 46th in 
 \nlife expectancy between Saint Helena and Cyprus, and 37th in health 
 system \nperformance between Costa Rica and Slovenia. Canada, most of 
 Europe, much of \nSouth and Central America, as well as parts of Africa, 
 the Middle East and \nAustralia – all have universal health care. \n\nAnd 
 even where health care is “universal,” we support world-wide organizing 
 that \nconstantly seeks better delivery and support. The outrageous pricing 
 of AIDS \ndrugs in South America and Africa is among hundreds of examples 
 where corporate \ninterests have subverted humane care. \n\nWe need to 
 change our country’s priorities – and we need to do it now. Bring the 
 \ntroops home, dismantle the war machine. Re-envision what a healthy life 
 means \n–we need clean air, drinkable water, universal health care with 
 dignity and \nrespect.\n\n\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/06/21/18429260.php
SUMMARY:San Francisco Dyke March: Healthcare for All
LOCATION:Starting from Dolores Park, at 18th and Dolores \nRally and Stage Begins @ 
 3:00 p.m. \nMarch Takes Off @ 7:00 p.m. 
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/06/21/18429260.php
DTSTART:20070623T220000Z
DTEND:20070624T030000Z
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