While local online news sites burn pounds of ink on an increasingly tepid KUSF story, a real closure that could cause real tragedy might flare up this week, and no one in the media seems to care. Lyon-Martin Health Services (1748 Market Street), which has operated for over thirty years and was founded by legendary local lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, is rumored to be shuttering this week due to financial troubles. Queer blogger Michael Petrelis heard the news that Thursday could be the clinic's last day, and he puts this troubling news "in the larger context of gay inc here in SF," where the LGBT-serving New Leaf mental health agency closed last year, and where the LGBT Center was rumored to be having budget issues -- though those rumors turned out to be somewhat quashed, after they got a loan from the City to help renegotiate their mortgage.

It seems like now would be an excellent time for Lyon-Martin Health Services to see the same overaggressive media attention, protests, Facebook wankery, and near-constant Tweeting that said college radio station was lucky enough to receive. How unfortunate, unsurprising.

The Appeal spoke to District 8 Supervisor Scott Weiner, who said he believed the rumor about the Thursday closure of Lyon-Martin may be true, "But I hope it's not true." The clinic served a total of 2500 mostly unemployed and uninsured patients in 2009.

(Jay Barmann & Brock Keeling)