Awesome Day

Had a successful end of the day event with one of the projects I have been working with in the GLBT community. The community has been doing an assessment of tobacco use and acceptance in their community and today they held a forum to discuss results and future plans.

The forum had a very good turn out and great discussion around how to disseminate the information and to develop/execute appropriate strategies to educate and mobilize the commuity to quit tobacco use.

In case you didn't know, a 1999 study found that 41.5 percent of Gay adults were identified as smokers—almost twice the rate of men in the general population (23.2 percent). Additionally, smoking rates for LGB youth (38 to 59 percent) are found to be significantly higher than youth in the general population (28 to 35 percent). LGBT youth are at higher risk to initiate tobacco use because of stress related to lack of support from family and friends, depression, low self-esteem, and stressful life events related to “coming out”.

We also know that the tobacco industry has and continues to target this community to addict them to tobacco use and eventually kill them. Tobacco industry documents discovered through a historical lawsuit in this country highlight R.J. Reynolds’ Project SCUM (Sub Culture Urban Marketing), a tobacco marketing strategy geared toward Gay males and the homeless community in San Francisco.

The work of this year and a half long project to learn about tobacco use in Minnesota is fantastic. This report will be very helpful to another initiative in the GLBT community that is working on building an initiative to address tobacco-related policies within their community and the broader environment.

Tobacco industry, watch out!!!