Día de los Muertos

Día de los Muertos (Day of The Dead): November 1-2, 2012

As many of you probably know, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a Mexican holiday that is celebrated in much of Latin America and in other cultures around the world, is next Thursday-Friday (November 1-2, 2012). The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember loved ones who have died, and traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased and visiting graves with gifts.

 
The Day of the Dead represents a unique opportunity to reflect on the toll of tobacco in our families and our communities, particularly in light of the holiday's growing popularity in the U.S. According to a 2011 article published by the Associated Press, Day of the Dead celebrations have expanded in Latino and non-Latino communities alike in recent years.

If you are involved in a Day of the Dead event or get-together, or if you are simply interested in discussing tobacco-related issues with Spanish-speaking friends in your community this week, we hope that you will consider sharing  this Spanish-language ad containing English subtitles. Produced by the California Department of Health Services, the ad draws on imagery associated with the Day of the Dead to promote quitline services and raise awareness about the harmful impact of tobacco industry practices in our communities.  

Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PswYlIbcnOU
Reposted at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com

The Shame of Pride

Posted on June 25, 2012 by rickyhill  Reposted at http://keystothecloset.blogspot.com, and https://lgbthealthequity.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/the-shame-of-pride/

Written by Ricky Hill, Doctoral student, instructor, dandy

Cross-posted from OK4RJ: Oklahomans for Reproductive Justice

 

It’s the most beautiful time of the year, y’all.

This is the time of year where queers all over this lovely country of ours put on their shortest of shorts, their most glittery of glitter, their most bronze of bronzer, and work on making their hair as high as humanly possible. We primp, we preen, we curate the most fabulous ensembles in hope of catching the eye of that gender fucking Femme who works at the only bookstore in town that carries Curve (that’s still a thing, right? Okay, Original Plumbing, then).This is the time of year that we all wait so patiently for: The time of year where we are allowed to be bold and brash.

The time of year where we put on our rainbows, grab fistfuls of money, and dance in the streets.
That’s right, queermos. You know it, you love it: PRIDE!

It’s Pride Month! The one time of year when we’re allowed to walk down the streets in gold lamé without fear! The one time of year we get to be seen in the daytime! The one time of year when you can assume everyone wants to fuck you without looking like a narcissist! And y’all, you know Pride is good, because it’s one of the seven deadly sins.
But with Pride comes one of my least favorite things in the world: Pride Festivals.

You think I’d love them, because they’re chock full of free shit, gaymo performances, daytime drinking, and sweaty dancing. But you know what? You’re wrong. To me, Pride Festivals have become one of the most hypocritical events to happen to queer communities in recent years.

I know, I know. That’s maybe a controversial opinion to have, but hear me out.

Pride is something positive that originated out of something super shitty. It’s a self-affirming visibility project built up as a response to physical and psychic attacks on queerness. That part I can get behind.

The issue I take with Pride Festivals across the country is the rampant sponsorship put up by addictive and dangerous products. Don’t act like you don’t know.

Let’s look at Oklahoma City Pride as an example.

(This is the part where I make a disclaimer about using Oklahoma City as an example. This is not about blasting OKC’s Pride. I think that the organization has an amazing mission, and the amount of passion and drive it takes to pull something like Pride off is commendable. This is about larger issues related to equity and justice when we’re talking about LGBTQ communities, and is applicable to pretty much ALL Pride celebrations nationwide. Okay? Okay.)

Who pays for Pride? Not like you don’t already know from the mega floats that appear in the parade, or the banners hanging up at every bar. But really, who? Based on what I can tell, it’s almost all booze companies who foot the bill.

Page 29 of Oklahoma City’s Pride Guide lists the festival sponsors who are responsible for making Pride fiscally possible. Who are listed in the top five? Coors Light, Boulevard Brewing Company, Miller Lite, Tecate, and Bud Light.

Yup. Those are all big alcohol companies.

Interesting, especially given the fact that LGBTQ folks have higher addiction rates than the general population. And we’re not talking like, a little bit higher. The Pride Institute estimates that about 45% of our community participates in problem drinking behaviors.

45%!!?? That’s almost half!

(Fun Fact: We smoke like we drink, too.)

So, with epidemic-like numbers like those, don’t you think that we’d be trying to decrease risky behavior rather than encourage it?

I think so. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable to demand that our community’s health and well-being be taken into consideration when putting together this festival. Where are the members of the Oklahoma City Pride Board when these sponsorship decisions are being made? For an organization whose mission statement is “to provide leadership to meet the needs of the LGBT community through awareness, health, and educational services,” I think they need to really be held accountable to that. We’re not doing anyone any good if we’re only paying lip service to mission statements.

So, queers, it’s time. Let’s start pushing back. Let’s celebrate what Pride is really about: Be a movement, not a market!

Ricky would like to wish all of you a very lovely Pride month, and looks forward to dancing with you soon. Follow Ricky on Twitter: @prettyrickyroo

Thank you, Ricky for this important message. Kristen

Taking the Pledge Not to Accept Tobacco Money

This is a message from an email I received.

If you are interested in ways to pursued individuals, legislators and organizations to refuse Big Tobacco donations, here is a link to a power point provided by "The Last Drag," an LGBT anti-tobacco website, which has been successful in California. You may adapt their strategies to your needs.

Remember, it is important to urge all organizations and events with which you are affiliated to make a stated policy not to accept these donations. Below is a list of LGBT elected officials in California who have agreed not to take money from Tobacco Companies thanks to an effort from Naphtali Offen, Research Associate with the LGBT Tobacco Research Project at the University of California, San Francisco.

" Meanwhile, of great concern to me is the unhappy history of AIDS service organizations taking money, often lots of it, from the tobacco industry. San Francisco AIDS Foundation, GMHC, Shanti Project, Gids Love We Deliver, and many others, have been recipients of the industry’s “largesse.” I think that’s no longer true, but I’m not sure. PM especially focused on AIDS food banks. It will be interesting to have definitive data on which kills more gay/bi men, AIDS or tobacco. We have our suspicions that it is the latter, especially now that AIDS mortality has been reduced, but we don’t yet know for sure.

Bottom line is we need AIDS groups AND LGBT groups to join the growing number of groups that have signed statements committing not to accept tobacco industry funding. See http://www.lastdrag.org/cleanmoney.html on the Last Drag website. It’s time for us to urge all our national groups to get onboard with this simple, but important step. Imagine, if a large number of prominent LGBT and AIDS groups took such a stand, how it would help young LGBTs coming out rethink their widely-held believe that being queer means you have to smoke."

Posted at keystothecloset.blogspot.com

LGBTIQ Health Week: Tobacco 1

I will be posting a new site devoted to tobacco-related issues soon. This is an important issue. Happy LGBTIQ Week and be safe!

Posted at keystothecloset.blogspot.com

SMOKING

Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the United States, and it disproportionately affects the LGBT community: LGBT people smoke between 50 and 200 percent more than the general public. On average, gay and bisexual men smoke twice as much as straight men, while lesbian and bisexual women are up to three times more likely to be smokers than straight women. The statistics for tobacco use among LGBTQ young people are even more alarming: approximately 1 in 2 LGBTQ youth between the ages of 18 and 24 smokes.

The high rates of smoking among LGBT people are the result of numerous factors, including peer pressure, the stress of coping with discrimination, socializing oriented around bars and clubs, and aggressive tobacco industry targeting of the LGBT community. Obstacles to effective tobacco cessation treatment for LGBT people, such as a lack of cessation programs tailored to the LGBT community, anti-LGBT discrimination in health care settings, and financial barriers, further magnify the negative impact of tobacco on the LGBT community.

Tobacco is the primary cause of many deadly lung diseases, including lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Smoking also contributes to complications for people living with HIV and increases risk of cardiovascular disease. Sponsoring the tobacco industry by smoking provides free advertising for the industry, even while their profits ruin our community’s health. This LGBT Health Awareness Week, come out for health against Big Tobacco – commit to quit!

Together, we can decrease tobacco’s impact on our community by:

 Creating a smoke-free environment: ask your neighborhood bars, cafes, and restaurants to go smoke-free. Research shows that, after creating a smoke-free environment, most businesses actually see an increase in their number of customers

 Supporting our friends and family members when they are trying to quit

 Avoiding the tobacco industry’s “stop smoking” campaigns: most of the campaigns designed by the tobacco industry are ineffective and may actually increase smoking

 Including evidence-based anti-tobacco campaigns: if your organization offers anti-smoking programs, make sure to include information relevant to the LGBT community

Learn more:

Mautner Project (www.mautnerproject.org)

Network for LGBT Health Equity (www.lgbttobacco.org)

Legacy for Health (www.BecomeAnEX.org)

Partnership for Tobacco Free Maine

American Lung Association

Coming Out About Smoking

Coming Out About Smoking: A Report from the National LGBTQ Young Adult Tobacco Project

Reduction of tobacco use among youth and young adults in the United States is an important public health issue. Emerging data from national probability samples suggests that young adults are smoking at significantly higher rates than their heterosexual counterparts. However, beyond smoking prevalence rates, little else is known about tobacco use among this under-served subpopulation of youth. In the summer of 2009, the National Youth Advocacy Coalition (NYAC) was funded by the American Legacy Foundation’s Small Innovative Grants program to conduct a nation-wide research project focusing on tobacco use in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and intersex community of young adults, ages 18–24.

As a national organization dedicated to serving LGBTQ youth and youth service providers, NYAC was uniquely position to take the lead in conducting one of the first national studies of tobacco use in this population. The overall objectives of the project were to address gaps in the extant literature about tobacco use among LGBTQ youth including characteristics of smokers compared to non-smokers, smoking related behaviors of current smokers, attitudes about tobacco use among smokers and non-smokers and barriers and facilitators to smoking cessation. The project was also aimed at building a network of community-based organizations committed to tobacco control and prevention among LGBTQ young adults. The results of the project have important implications for future research on tobacco use among young adults and the development of culturally appropriate prevention, treatment and public policy initiatives aimed at reducing tobacco use disparities based on sexual and gender identities.

From http://wiki.nyacyouth.org/w/Coming_Out_About_Smoking published on http://keystothecloset.blogspot.com/

Update on National Youth Advocacy Coalition (NYAC)

As the chair of the Board of Directors of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition (NYAC), I’ve seen firsthand the impact our work has on improving the lives of LGBTQ youth. We are the only national LGBTQ youth organization that works directly with inspirational young leaders and the organizations that support them all year long. In 2011, we’ve already accomplished so much:

• Our YouthKICKS! committee convened to begin creating their own social marketing campaign to lessen the impact of smoking in the LGBTQ youth community.
• Over 60 youth from across the country attended our Youth Summit at The National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, and discussed strategies to create more avenues for youth leadership in the LGBTQ movement and other movements for social justice.
• We launched a Spanish-language version of our award winning HIV prevention social marketing campaign, You Know Different, in San Diego, and billboards for We Know Different /Sabemos Que No Es Así took over downtown.
• We have re-launched the NYAC Network, which provides membership opportunities to receive training, technical assistance and resources to youth activists and organizations that support LGBTQ youth.
• We now have 6 youth our Board of Directors, including talented fundraising professionals, Executive Directors and media makers.