The Mautner Project

The mission of the Mautner Project for Lesbians with Cancer is to provide direct services to lesbians with cancer, and their partners and caregivers; educate and inform the lesbian community about cancer; educate the health care community about the special concerns of lesbians with cancer and their families; and advocate for lesbian health issues in national and local arenas.

Founded in 1990 and named for Mary-Helen Mautner, a lesbian who died of breast cancer in 1989, the Mautner Project is the only national organization dedicated to lesbians with cancer, their partners and caregivers. During her illness Mary-Helen was fortunate to have a support network and, realizing that other lesbians were not so fortunate, she left behind a page of notes laying the groundwork for the organization that would later bear her name.

The Mautner Project provides a number of programs to serve its constituency. It coordinates individualized peer and family assistance programs that provide emotional and practical support; operates support groups, a resource center, and outreach and education programs for lesbians and health care providers; provides referrals to lesbian-friendly health care professionals and other services; and advocates for breast cancer issues that affect lesbians and non-lesbians alike.

Partnership Activities

CDC has recently funded the Mautner Project for a five-year period to support the Mautner Project's Spirit Health Education Circle (SHE-Circle) Program that provides comprehensive cancer education that addresses all aspects of prevention, including behavioral risk factors and screening, in a setting that encourages cancer prevention as part of a healthy lifestyle. The target population for the SHE-Circle Program is African-American lesbian women, whose race and sexual orientation combined are a powerful barrier to care.

The Mautner Project
1707 L Street, NW, Suite 230
Washington, DC 20036
Telephone: (202) 332-5536
Fax: (202) 332-0662
www.mautnerproject.org*

*Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.