Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans smoke at much higher rates than average, so they suffer more smoking-related death and illness. We are excited to launch a new video to help you raise awareness about the impact smoking has on the LGBT community and also promote the 50th Anniversary of the first Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health.

New Video Launched

Smoking is the largest preventable cause of disease and death in the United States. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans smoke at much higher rates than average, so they suffer more smoking-related death and illness. In this video, “Smoking Within the LGBT Community,” Dr. Scout, director of the Network for LGBT Health Equity at CenterLink, talks about what smoking does to LGBT communities, including the tobacco industry’s long history of marketing to the LGBT community.

What can I do to help spread the word?

You can help us to highlight this important tobacco-related health information  by using this material in your media, communication and outreach to promote and share SGR50 findings.  

You can also continue to spread the word that free help is available for all who want to quit – they can call 1-800-QUIT-NOW or go to the Tips From Former Smokers Web site.

Here are some sample Tweets and Facebook posts you can consider using for your social media channels.

Sample Tweets

·         Learn how the tobacco industry uses marketing to target the LGBT community. #SGR50 #LGBTPrideMonth  http://youtu.be/qOdT-K66u3o

·         DYK that the LGBT community has higher smoking rates than any other population? #SGR50 #LGBTPRideMonth http://youtu.be/qOdT-K66u3o

·         The truth behind the tobacco industry’s eagerness to support the LGBT community. #LGBTPrideMonth #SGR50 http://youtu.be/qOdT-K66u3o

Sample Facebook Posts

·         Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans smoke at much higher rates than average, so they suffer more smoking-related death and illness. This video explores one of the main culprits of this health disparity. http://youtu.be/qOdT-K66u3o

Help us shed light on the tobacco industry’s deceptive strategies against the LGBT community by sharing this video  http://youtu.be/qOdT-K66u3o

Talk to Your Dr. Webinar Offered by The Ntwork and GLMA

A new feature of the CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign was unveiled this week— “Talk With Your Doctor” (TWYD). The goal of this phase of the campaign is to engage health care providers and encourage them to use Tips as an opportunity to start a dialogue with their patients who smoke about quitting. It is also meant to serve as a reminder for smokers to talk with their healthcare providers about effective methods to help them quit.

As you may remember from our press release about the Tips campaign, "One of the ‘Tips from Former Smokers’ ads features a lesbian who suffers from asthma triggered by working in a smoke filled bar. Recently released data from the CDC shows that LGBT people smoke cigarettes at rates that are nearly 70% higher than the general population." This new phase of the campaign is yet another amazing way to reach out to our communities about this huge disparity!

On Thursday, June 13th, The Network will be teaming up with the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) andCenterLink to bring you a webinar discussing the “Talk With Your Doctor” campaign, and the impact that it will have on the health of LGBT communities.

Join us at 2pm EST by registering HERE!

Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com, posted by The Network.

“Lick It!”

How many licks does it take to quit smoking?

Main Street of New Mexico's largest Gay Pride celebration will be smoke-free for the second year in a row.

Following on its success last year, Fierce Pride (an LGBTQ health advocacy organization) will again make the Pride celebration at Expo NM more convenient to all attendees by making Main Street smoke-free. This year, non-smoking parents, grandparents, and children will be able to participate in the celebration without being exposed to the dangers of secondhand smoke.  Smoking will be allowed in designated areas off of Main Street.

Fierce Pride organizers have worked for several years to rid the family-friendly event of smoking. “Pride is an opportunity for celebration and for community dialogue,” says Fierce Pride Coordinator Rebecca Dakota. “It is a chance for the LGBTQ community to affirm cultural movement towards being healthier, including embracing being tobacco-free.”

The “Lick It!” campaign focuses on supporting tobacco users to quit tobacco by using the www.QuitNowNM.com site or the 1-800-QUIT NOW telephone quit line.  Both are free and provide services in both English and Spanish.  Many smokers require several “quits” before they are completely tobacco-free;  hence the “How many licks does it take?” tag line for the campaign.

A study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that social stress, frequent patronage of bars and clubs, higher rates of alcohol and drug use, and direct targeting of LGBTQ consumers by the tobacco industry may be related to higher prevalence rates of tobacco use among some LGBTQ people.

“Tobacco companies justify their targeting of the LGBTQ community as strategic marketing and LGBTQ people in New Mexico are about twice as likely to smoke as non-LGBTQ adults,” says Dakota. “We know that cigarettes are no solution to the stress of marginalization that LGBTQ people in this country experience.  And with high smoking rates, we also have more disease and death from tobacco-related causes.  So we’re all about reducing that stress and saying ‘no’ to tobacco.”

“Fierce Pride wants to leverage that support for smoke-free environments and really tell these tobacco companies that they have no place on Main Street,” says Dakota. “This is what we know LGBTQ people want for their health and for the general health of New Mexicans. Thanks to the cooperation and vision of Albuquerque Pride there’s a great deal of hope.”
 

Fierce Pride is a community-led project working to reduce health disparities in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, transgender, queer, and questioning communities in New Mexico.  Fierce Pride operates under the auspices of the non-profit Media Literacy Project and can be reached at www.FiercePride.org.

 Hakim Bellamy,

Strategic Communications Director

Reposted at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com

Tobacco-Free Pride Events

The Tobacco Education Clearinghouse of California (TECC) http://www.tobaccofreecatalog.org

stocks a 25-page educational booklet that we produced a few years ago. It’s called the Smoke-Free Outdoor Pride Event Toolkit. As it says on the TECC site, it’s a complete guide for advocates who want to help LGBT Pride events become smoke-free. Includes background information, strategies, step-by-step guidelines, surveys, sample policies and media outreach.

Reposted at keystothecloset.blogspot.com

A New Year: Quitlines, targeted campaigns and the LGBT community

Posted on January 11, 2012 by publichealthnerd
Daniella Matthews-Trigg, Program Associate

Greetings all!
So, here we are at that infamous time when we try especially hard to improve ourselves. And between recovering from holiday indulgences and starting a new year, there can be a lot of work to do.

Quitting smoking is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions and 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of one of the major smoking cessation tools: the first Quitline in North America!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the effectiveness of targeting campaigns toward specific communities. Quitlines are a resource that is available to everyone, but targeted campaigns make sure that every community KNOWS that it is an available resource for THEM.

Quitlines have been shown to be extremely effective in supporting people through their quitting by offering “coaching and counseling, referrals, mailed materials, training to healthcare providers, Web-based services and, in some instances, free medications such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT)”, and often in the process of quitting, what is most needed is SUPPORT.

One excellent campaign, Your Quit Date, is from Project Filter, a program of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Starring local LGBT celebrities as spokesmodels, the fabulous Martini and comedian Matt Bragg, the ads highlight “quit date” goals and the free resources available through the quitline and project filter. It speaks right to the community about the culturally competent support through Quitlines that are available for THEM.


This campaign is fun, relevant and effective and we LOVE it!
At the network, we also have some really useful resources about why it is so important to make Quitlines culturally competent and how to make it happen. Check out this brief policy paper on the reasons for adding sexual orientation and gender identity questions to state tobacco quitlines . A case study titled “Making Minnesota’s Quitlines Accessible to LGBTs” is an brief, informal interview with a leader in an amazing statewide effort to enhance LGBT access to tobacco quitlines. It covers goals, challenges, and a lesson learned and is an excellent inspiration for other organizations and states doing similar work. Additionally, download and print a few copies of our targeted national quitline poster to put up! (Do you have anything that we should add to our list of resources? We love knowing about the work that is done, so click here or email us at lgbthealthequity@gmail.com!)

Rates of smoking in the LGBT community are higher than in the general population, so it only makes sense that these communities be especially focused on for smoking interventions. We know that LGB and T communities are often stigmatized and discriminated against and therefore, reasonably, are more hesitant to access services. Creating campaigns that target the LGBT community is a way to successfully reach this vulnerable population.

Additionally, many LGBT people live in rural areas and are socio-economically disenfranchised and as a result may face even more difficulties when accessing care. Quitlines are FREE and accessible to everyone who has access to a phone. They are toll free and can even be called from a payphone. Because of the proven success and accessibility of Quitlines, they should be a focus of anti-smoking interventions in the LGBT community.

At this time of year when people are working on their resolutions to quit smoking, we need to make an extra effort to make sure that resources are culturally competent and that people in our community know about all of the services that are available. So lets all add “increase and support LGBT cultural competency and targeting in Quitlines and anti-smoking campaigns!” to our list of resolutions this year…and hopefully it’ll last longer than the one about going to the gym.
Posted at http://lgbthealthequity.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/a-new-year-quitlines-targeted-campaigns-and-the-lgbt-community/
Reposted at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com

Tobacco Cessation Offered by DC's Mautner Project

Mautner Project will be offering smoking cessation classes beginning October 5. This seven week course will be offered free of charge to DC residents 18 years of age and older with funding from the District Department of Health. For more information and to register, contact Riana or go to Mautner Project's tobacco page.

Want more information about how tobacco effects the LGBT community? Become an individual member of the SmokeLess LGBT DC coalition. Contact Riana!

Posted at keystothecloset.blogspot.com

National LGBTIQ Health Week 2011

In honor of National LGBTIQ health week (March 27-April 1, 2011) I would like to introduce you to some leaders in the community who are making a difference.

Gay and Lesbian Quitters of Steel

Brief description: Gay and Lesbians interested in Kicking Butts Foever thru forming a United Force.  68 members.  They can be found at “Become an X: Re-learn Life without Cigarettes Group page.”

http://community.becomeanex.org/pg/groups/647878/gaylesbian-quitters-of-steel/?annoff=20

"This group is dedicated to gay men and women (and their supporters) who are truly dedicated to kicking the butts forever.  I mean, how the hell are we going to be strong enough to fight for the freedoms we deserve if we're killing ourselves by inches by smoking?  See what I'm saying?  So, if you're interested in getting support and understanding from others who know exactly what you're going through, join the group.  Lets keep working together to eliminate as many ills as we possibly can."

Reposted at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com/