While still a young man living in Dayton, Ohio, Dr. J. Michael Heider (“Jay” to his friends) was impressed by the big difference he saw his hometown dentist making in the lives of people in his community. Although only one man, that dental practitioner had a positive impact on many people— including the future Dr. Heider, who earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree at Ohio State University in Columbus, and completed his general practice residency at Miami Children’s Hospital.

“I really loved South Florida, so I decided to stay here and begin my practice,” recalls Heider. “This was not too long after the Gay and Lesbian Community Center (GLCC) [now the Pride Center at Equality Park] opened.

I read an article about the GLCC, and decided to check it out. I showed up one day, looked at the services, and decided to volunteer.”

Heider had been introduced to the future Pride Center during a difficult time. “Unfortunately, I volunteered at one of the Center’s darkest periods,” he relates. “I continued to volunteer, because I believed in the Mission Statement of the Center.” Heider explains: “At that point, there was lots of internal politics involved [in the organization]. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the person who was Executive Director. I was asked to serve on the Board of Directors.”

As Heider, who became president of the non-for-profit’s board, recalls, “During this dark time, local businessman Ed Nicholas took the reigns as the GLCC’s executive director, and donated his time to clean up and begin aggressive fundraising efforts to get the Center back in the black. It worked. During that year, money began to flow in, and the board tried to get Nicholas to stay on. He said, ‘No, I’ve given it a year and helped to turn it around.’ So we began the search for a new executive director. The Board interviewed several candidates—and then enter Paul Hyman. It was a great decision,” Heider adds.

Dr. J. Michael Heider (“Jay” to his friends)

With a professional executive director to take the reins, Heider says that as president, “My personal mission was to keep it up and going, and continue its vital services to the community.” The GLCC would soon experience major changes. “In 2007, Tarragon Development purchased the property on which the Center was located, to build a large complex, so the Center had to move. We occupied a couple of locations while we continued the search for a permanent site,” Heider remembers.

The Pride Center at Equality Park on North Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors was the ultimate fruit of those labors of love and hard work.

In recognition of those contributions, the Pride Center at Equality Park (under its new executive director, longtime community activist Robert Boo), will honor Dr. Heider and other board members, past and present, at an event on September 30.

Heider, who is celebrating 28 years with his partner, realtor Thom Carr, says he is glad to have been a part of the Pride Center’s past and present accomplishments, and anticipates a bright future for it, and the community it serves. “I am honored that the Pride Center has seen fit to recognize me.

The time I donated came from my heart, and there is such a need for the services it provides,” he adds. We might say the same about him.

I get asked a lot if I am sure I am from England. When I ask why, I get a few different answers but I’d say one of the top three is always, ‘Well you have nice teeth; people in Britain don’t.’ Now I can say this confidently: I know A LOT of British people with very good teeth. I also have seen bad teeth there, too.

Since I have been coming to the US, I have admired the Million Dollar smiles you see on TV. Lately, however, I have seen more One Dollar smiles here, though I hadn’t given it a huge amount of thought until this weekend.

Picture the scene: Late Friday night, I had just gotten home from a wonderful dinner at Chez Max by my condo. I was getting ready for bed when suddenly I felt something crack, a sharp pain and my mouth was filled with what felt like grit. As I ran my tongue around, I realized I had broken a back tooth. I could feel the hole – it felt just like the Grand Canyon!

At nearly midnight, I called a friend who warned me going to the emergency dentist would cost a fortune. So, I waited till Saturday instead. I found a dentist and had a fairly painful crown and pin added (the tooth was fortunately not decayed, but the previous crown had collapsed). This was all fine and dandy until I was presented the bill. I had no choice but to ask if I was putting the deposit down on the lease of a Mercedes!

It was astronomical and I was sure I had been ripped off (how else could daylight robbery of that magnitude be accepted?). I paid the bill and left, feeling quite simply violated. After calling around to various people – and at one point being told ‘you got off lucky’ – I started to wonder how on earth are people expected to be able to remotely afford dental – or medical care, for that matter – without extortionate and multiple health insurance policies?

Over the last few weeks, a lot of people have written in with well-founded concerns and outrage regarding crippling medical costs of treatments and vaccines, which I understand; however, to have a relatively simple dental procedure cost so much really brought home to me the huge issue facing so many right here in the community.

I am now even more convinced there needs to be a lot more fight against the idea that only wealthy people should have access to decent medical care.

This not a new argument, and one that has very much shown America to be extremely different and, in many ways, inferior to vast parts of the globe, but nothing seems to have changed.

It is mind boggling that if you are unable to plonk down a couple of grand for something as remotely simple as a crown or you don’t have dental insurance, you can’t have it. This is not even getting into the potential short- and long-term costs for more serious medical treatments and procedures for cancer, which is more likely to affect gay men, HIV, HPV, kidney disease, coronary and respiratory diseases and a whole host of other medical concerns that, without a fully comprehensive medical policy, you simply won’t get access to the necessary and life-saving treatment immediately.

To be fair, the US has always had a private healthcare mentality; in the UK it is a luxury, not a necessity. Everyone knows this, so people should always save and have medical insurance. It should be a priority. It’s foolish not to, but as in any community and society there are people who simply can’t afford to. In that case there needs to be a real and serious commitment on a state-wideand local scale to help those in need.

Funding cuts to programs for the community is obviously not the answer, but it shouldn’t even have been considered an option. It will ultimately end up letting people die. Furthermore, in the case of dentists, people with teeth they can’t afford to fix will undoubtedly lose them. When that happens, they will be even less employable! It is just a fact: People look at teeth in the same way they look at nails as a benchmark for hygiene and personal maintenance. A winning smile wins you the job and many other things!

In the UK, the way dentists often work is their practices offer both private  and National Health Service dentistry. Getting your teeth worked on within the NHS is not free, but very inexpensive. The dentist is then reimbursed by the government up to what he would charge a private patient. This ensures pretty much no one loses.

In a community where there is, unfortunately, a great need for medical insurance and treatment, we need to be louder in our voices. We need to speak to our representatives and really stand strong. Everyone, no matter their sexual orientation, ethnicity or, most importantly, income level, must have medical and dental care.

That said, responsibility also lies at your door. If you have spare money, don’t spend it all living a hedonistic lifestyle, put it into a medical plan. No matter how well you live your life or how careful you are, cancer, heart attack, diabetes, strokes and so many more diseases do not discriminate and one day you may very well need an operation or treatment, and you need to have that safety net. That’s the extreme, it could be as simple as you might just come home one night and have a broken tooth … can you afford to get nailed?

Alex Vaughn is the Editor-in-Chief of the Florida Agenda. He can be reached at editor@FloridaAgenda.com