Questions

whistlestopgirl said:

Thanks for your reply
Tara,

It is true many questions especially about medical issues can be asked and answered on other discussion boards, but many issues we as gay and lesbians have to deal with can't really be answered there. Issues for example such as dealing with either caregiver or survivor families which are not always understanding of our relationships. Legal issues for states were our uniouns are not recognized. Also not all gay and lesbian people are located in big gay friendly cities so dealing with homophobia which still exits while also fighting cancer is twice as hard. These are just a few issues among many. It isn't that straight people on other lists can't help with information on medical issues and advice, but even the most gay friendly people don't know fully what it is like to walk in our shoes and deal with some of the discrimination we still have to deal with legally and socialy. I wouuld hope this list would help with some of the issues that the gay community must deal with while fighting cancer. I encourage everyone to seek advice for their specific cancers on some of the other lists, but I would hope that they would find this list helpful in dealing with issues unique to our community. I would also hope they could find encouragement and support on this list from other lesbian, gay, and transgendered people. Thanks for reading this and if you are lesbian, gay, or transgendered your imput on this list will be much appreciated or if no one out there cares to put any imput on this board it will continue to limp along and maybe close down eventually from lack of interest by anyone in the glbt community. It is really up to you out there looking at this to keep this board not only alive, but to see it thrive and grow.
Thanks
PS....even though this board says lesbians I think it would be good to include our gay brothers and the transgendered community as well. If anyone has any thoughts on having this board be all inclusive of the whole glbt community please voice your opinion.

whistlestopgirl said:

Hi Rose8535 and Tara
I am glad to see both of your responses and hope others out there will also respond. I would love to see this board be very active and vital. Tara I know you have posted along time and have been one of the good supporters of this board. It is good in Canada where you live that they have an out gay cancer support group. I only wish we had something like that here in the USA. Maybe they do, but if so I am sure it is in one of the major cities and not where alot of us are able to go. For so many of us the internet is what we have since in most cities and towns in this country things still haven't changed that much over the years and so we find ourselves isolated. Rose8535 glad you found this board and just by responding to this list you are helping to keep it going. I hope those suspicous lynph nodes turn out to be nothing to worry about. I am the partner of a two year cancer survivor who has been bravely fighting against ovarian cancer. Many times we have felt isolated in our fight against this disease. However we continue to be our best support system and both take turns keeping each other going when things get tough. I also relate to what you say about ageing. People always think of the gay culture as young and in the bars and partying, but many of us baby boomers are ageing and that does seem to isolate us even in cities where people may be lucky enough to have a thriving gay community. Ageing in the gay community really hasn't been truly addressed except maybe in a few big cities. Rose8535 please feel free to reply to me either on this board or email me if you want. Again for anyone reading this that has looked at this board but hasn't sent a post yet. Please don't be shy and just send a post to help make this a vital and active board just like many of the other boards on this ACS site.
Thanks for listening.

whistlestopgirl said:

Hi Domina
It was nice to see your response to this board. My partner has endemetrial/ovarian cancer. She was dx stage 3a. She has undergone full hysterectomy and radiation and chemo. She had a reoccurance and so underwent another regime of chemo. She is now on an ongoing regime of drugs, but they do appear to be working :-) The first time around she was told it was endometrial cancer, but after the reappearance they felt it really was ovarian. Anyway the important part is she is still here and going strong. I feel you are right when you say most women identify more with the type of cancer than anything else. I am glad that you are getting such good support from the other women on that board. I guess for the one surviving with the cancer the relating with other women with the same cancer is a strong bond. However for the caregiver it is harder finding the bond with straight caregivers since many times our issues are so different from their issues. Also for many glbt caregivers and survivors there is not always the same family or even friend support that many straight caregivers have. However it is nice to see a response to this board even if it is only every once in a while. Thanks for the compliment on my screen name I love fried green tomatoes the movie yes Izzy is quite the bee charmer. Feel free to write me whenever you want either on this board or at my email address.
Take care.

24242 said:

Thanks Whistlestopgirl
I have been posting on this site long before joining in 2001. I guess people feel that questions are addressed on other sites so need for them to come here. I remember during my cancer fight over 14 years ago it was important to me to have contact with lesbians since straight women seemed uncomfortable with hearing about our lives. I did find a support group that was under ground and now is above ground so everyone can find them, the first one of its kind in Canada.
My straight friends all thought that breast cancer is just a woman's issue so why did I feel the need for support from other lesbians when woman suffer from the same thing. I have always known that being a lesbian is very different and my straight friends didn't really want to hear about my problems. I have been accused in the past of hitting on strange straight women when in fact I was just making conversation and being nice so what would it be like to open my soul to them?
I moved away from my home town since it was truly Red Necked to be with people who understood me and my own set of challanges. Having a son it was important for me to be surround with like minded people so he too could be proud of me...
Tara