The San Francisco Bay Area and women & trans folks everywhere were delivered devastating news Tuesday when plans to close down Lyon Martin Health Services were released. Lyon Martin is a vital women's clinic, which was established in San Francisco in 1979 to serve lesbians who lacked access to nonjudgmental healthcare. Since then, the clinic has expanded to assist even more segments of the population. For more info on Lyon-Martin's history, the work they've been doing and opportunities to assist in efforts to keep Lyon-Martin open, please visit their site.At an emergency community forum, with over 100 attendees pulled together in less than 5 hours, a lot of information was shared about how the clinic reached this state and what the bottom line needs to stay open now are. A SF Bay Times reporter was in attendance and wrote this detailed article, which offers important information.I can personally attest that the service which is provided by Lyon Martin far exceeds any quotable statistics. To have health concerns to begin with can often be terrifying, then add to that the lived reality that seeking assistance for said concern could damage you even further, rather than assist and alleviate. Such is the predicament many lesbians, low-income women, trans-people and HIV positive people face, every time the notion of ?health care? comes up. We?ve had mainstream health care providers treat us with disdain, disgust, and disregard (and all too often, blatant physical, verbal and emotional abuse). For many of us, we had never been treated with respect or honest concern around our health until we walked into Lyon Martin. At Lyon Martin, I?m a valued member of our community whose health and well being matters: not just for the state of my life, but for the state of our community at large. They don?t want anything bad to happen to me, I feel that deeply as a result of my experiences with them, and I definitely don?t want anything bad to happen to them!Community members interested in answering Lyon-Martin?s appeal for emergency funding can take one of the following steps:

• Donate online at www.lyon-martin.org
• Send a donation via check to: 1748 Market Street, Suite 201, San Francisco, CA 94102.
• Make a donation over the phone by calling 415-901-7131
• Attend one of the upcoming Lyon-Martin fund-raising events. A list of upcoming events is available here