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| "Drill, Baby, Drill!" |
I had an abscessed tooth extracted a couple of years ago (it's in the back) and I haven't had an implant put in because my insurance doesn't pay for it and it costs around $5,000 buckolas. My insurance is going to start paying 50% on implants in July so I'm going to spring for it. The dentist who performed the extraction seemed like a nice, easygoing fellow, so I was planning to request him to be my implant surgeon as well. But when I researched his credendentials online and found out he graduated from Brigham Young University.
As a lesbian, I am quite wary of Mormons. I know there are some queer ones and I have nothing against them but their church helped finance the Proposition 8 campaign here in California rescinding our right to marry the person of our choosing. And yes, I don't like fundamentalists of any other religious persuasion either.
I have a gay male friend who assiduously avoids any medical practitioners that are in any way connected to the Mormon persuasion by conducting a self-administered questionnaire before making an appointment. It was too late for that for me, I was not that vigillant. So I had to settle for a little chat with the surgical assistant to the four dentists who work out of that office.
She seemed shocked that I asked her about homophobia at all. I suppose this question has never come up before. This dentist's relationship to Brigham Young was a long time ago, she said and added that she had never to have witnessed anti-gay behaviour coming from that doctor. I explained to her how important it is for non-traditional people to recieve medical or dental care, untainted by personal prejudices.
She either understood what I was saying or wrote me off as a crazy person, but when I called back the other day to make an appointment for an evaluation, I was only offered appointments with the other three doctors. The Mormon had been taken off the list.
Perhaps they were placating me, or maybe I dodged a bullet. The last homophobic practitioner I went to was a male gynecologist who performed a sugical procedure called an endometrial ablation. It wasn't a pleasant experience physically or emotionally. I knew the next time I found myself seeking medical care I didn't want it to be a date with destiny or Josef Mengele!
