The state of California is in a massive budget crisis – so big that even the millions of dollars that gay marriage tourism would have brought into the state wouldn’t have solved it.

In the middle of the panic, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has used a line-item veto to cut more than $52 million in HIV programs from the State budget – cuts beyond the agreement with the state legislature.

The California AIDS Clearinghouse had to abruptly shut its doors last week after receiving word that its funding – all of it – had been eliminated.

The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center ran the California AIDS Clearinghouse for 15 years, working with hundreds of nonprofit organizations to help provide education, testing, counseling, medical services, and condom distribution.

Perhaps most important in a state where nearly 40 percent of the residents speak a language other than English at home, the California AIDS Clearinghouse specialized in “culturally competent” care.

As I learned when I worked for a nonprofit HMO a couple of years ago, you can’t just put up a health poster and assume everyone will react to it in the same way. In cultures where talking about sex is less acceptable, it’s important to broach the subject carefully, and to make sure that your audience will be receptive.

When I talked with Susan Cohen of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, the sudden disappearance of culturally targeted educational materials was one of her main concerns:

“These are difficult topics to talk about,” she explained, “In some cultures, you can’t just walk in and launch right into the topic – it’s offensive. It requires trained people to talk to audiences in a way that they can hear. The Clearinghouse didn’t function with a one-size-fits-all mentality.”

The Clearinghouse was innovative in its approach to HIV and AIDS education. Its advisory council was carefully made up to mirror the state’s demographics, and, as Cohen pointed out, “No material was made for a community without being test-marketed by people within the community.”

Without the funding, the Clearinghouse’s carefully crafted, phenomenally useful educational materials will simply disappear.

“As they have been, [our educational materials] get into clinics, HIV testing sites – right into the hands of people who need them. That’s not going to happen now,” said Cohen, “When money disappears, people aren’t being taught the life skills to make healthy decisions.”

Cohen also noted that this is a particularly awful time to lose funding, as California is facing “twin epidemics” of HIV and crystal meth use: “We need money to do true prevention.”

The Governor’s cuts are particularly maddening in light of the recent information from the Centers for Disease Control about what happened to teen STD (and pregnancy) rates during the Bush-era emphasis on abstinence-only sex education.

In a nutshell, it turns out that if you take away the funding and the practical information, the STD rates go up. Duh.

HUGE duh!

It’s common sense backed up by hard data, and yet for some reason our Governor thinks that short-term budget cuts won’t lead to a massive – and surely expensive – health crisis within a few years.

Cohen underscored that point: “I think it’s critical for your readers to know that we’ve made so much progress in the past decade and the thought of turning the clock back is horrifying.”

Does Schwarzenegger not know how to connect the dots, or does he just figure he’ll be out in time and the massive suffering will be someone else’s problem?

Cohen emphasized that we shouldn’t give up the fight yet. Lawsuits have already been filed against the Governor’s blue-pencil cuts, and Californians can still contact their state legislators to demand they override the cuts.

Cohen also pointed out that funding is crucial right now – social services all over the state have been cut, so if you have deep pockets and a warm heart, now is the time to donate.

And it probably can’t hurt to give the Governor a piece of your mind, either.