“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

Report on Hate Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender,

Ohio remains one of top reporting states National Report
shows highest murder rate ever recorded

To download the full Report please visit NCAVP. Reposted at http:www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com

Ohio — 2011 marks the twenty-second year that BRAVO and NCAVP have documented hate violence statistics in Ohio. There was a 37% decrease in the total number of reports taken in 2011 from 260 reports to 111. This is in part due to changes in the way anti-violence work is funded, allowing more individual assistance and support to clients, and also assisting them with criminal justice and recovery services. Because of the redistribution of funds, BRAVO has less money available for outreach, marketing, and travel — resulting in a net drop in reports though the level of service delivery to those who did report increased.

Despite the drop in reports of violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the region, the demographic breakdowns for victims remain consistent. The victims of these incidents remain largely young (43%) under the age of 29 (48 survivors and victims), majority white (over 60%, 68 survivors and victims), while the gender of victims is predominantly men (57 or 51%) and women (47 or 42%) and 14% transgender. 2011 remains consistent with the last several years, showing an increase in the number of incidents reported against transgender individuals by 14%, from 7 to 8 cases.

Long-term incidents trends remain consistent, with assaults and menacing complaints remaining relatively stable. Vandalism and property damage remain a problem in Ohio, with 5 reports of vandalism and 1 report of property damage reported in 2011. Threats and intimidation-related offenses continue to be a pervasive problem in Ohio with 66 reports of threats in 2011 consisting of 24% of total hate violence reports. Verbal harassment increased by 51% between 2010 and 2011, from 47 to 71 reported cases, and reports of discrimination increased by 15%, from 27 to 31 reported cases. There is a particularly concerning increase (4%) in cyber harassment and telephone harassment. As electronic media and social networking become more popular in society and in the LGBTQ community, the abuse and harassment of individuals through these means has also increased. Physical violence is increasing, a dangerous trend that has unfolded for the last 4 years. In 2011 24 victims (22% of cases) reported injury and 18 of them (16%) were injured severely enough to require medical attention. Sexual assault within the context of a hate incident continues to be of concern. Eight such sexual assault incidents (3% of cases) were reported in 2011.

According to BRAVO President Emerita, Chris Cozad “Unfortunately, there is still a lot of hate out there in the world. LGBTQ people are still targeted regularly, the sad reality is that as society gets more violent, and so do these attacks. The fact that we are still not safe in our homes and work places drives home the point that LGBTQ people are still perceived as second-class citizens. We are often subject to attack, and in many places there are no protections under local/state law. In the State of Ohio LGBTQ people are subjected to legal discrimination every day of our lives.”

Depressed? Please seek affirming Support

LGBTIQ individuals are less likely to seek and less likely to receive culturally appropriate, patient centered support for depression and other mental health conditions. If you are experiencing depression or anxiety please seek help. On this website are resourses to refer you to affirming on-line or in person support across the country.

I lost my best friend in graduate school to suicide, because he did not have affirming support. It was devestating to lose a brilliant young man with such promise, because of sexual orientation issues. I think of him everyday.

If your friend expresses thoughts of suicide seek immediate assistance.
This is part of a Scottish National Campaign on mental health issues.  This segment is targetinging the LGBTIQ community. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSKZNYHoW1I&feature=youtu.be

One in the series of short films that 'see me' has produced to raise awareness of mental health and the stigma still too often associated with mental health problems. This film explores mental health issues, sexual orientation and gender identity.

LGBT Community Survey

Over 45,000 LGBT consumers from 100+ countries responded to Community Marketing’s 4th Annual LGBT Community Survey, making it the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind, by far.
We have made our 5th Annual LGBT Community Survey report available in it’s entirety. Click here to download. Click here to download CMI’s Approach to Market Research. Click here to download a profile of CMI’s 60,000+ LGBT Consumer research panel. To receive research announcements and updates, please be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

STAR Center Webinar: “Recovery, Wellness and Transgender Equality: Issues, Discussion and Resources for Increasing Multicultural Competence and Effective Practices for Real Lives”

Date:         June 14, 2012

Time:        3 p.m. Eastern Time

                  2 p.m. Central Time

                  1 p.m. Mountain Time

                   Noon Pacific Time 

 Join the STAR Center for this 90-minute webinar as we:

·         Discover and discuss recovery, wellness, and equality issues with, for, and about Transgender Persons

·         Deepen the understanding of some of the personal, social, societal and other complex and significant factors involved in empowerment by, with, and for Transgender Individuals

·         Expand knowledge of and access to resources, activities, tools and networks for increasing multicultural competence, sensitivity and effective services and program outcomes in healthcare, mental health services, and other arenas

·         Clarify that while a transgender identity can lead to mental health challenges because of societal structures, it is not a mental illness in itself. Furthermore, many transgender individuals are required to be diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder in order to begin the transition process – taking hormones and undergoing sexual reassignment surgery.

Register online here for the June 14 webinar.  Immediately after you complete the registration you will receive an email confirmation from annies@nami.org. The email will include a link entitled “Join the Meeting”. On the day of the webinar you will need to click on that link to bring you to the visual portion of the webinar. The confirmation email will also include the call-in information you will need to hear and participate in the webinar. One day in advance of the webinar, you will receive an automatic reminder from LiveMeeting about the webinar with the log-in information.

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

Missed the Trans Health webinar Last Week? It’s okay, we’ve got you covered.

Posted on May 16, 2012 by publichealthnerd

The Network for LGBT health Equity.  An insider’s view of informative info…

Reporting on HHS’s Transgender Health Webinar. Reposted at

 

 In the interest of keeping you in the loop, we wanted to provide some updates and resources about something GROUNDBREAKING- Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hosted a first-of-it’s-kind webinar, called “A Healthy People 2020 Spotlight on LGBT Health: Transgender Health”!

Managed by HHS and launched in December 2010, Healthy people 2020 is a set of 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. One of the overarching goals of Healthy People 2020 is to “Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve the health of all groups”, andddddd Healthy People 2020 is way cooler than in past decades because it includes a section on LGBT Health!

“During the past 2 decades, 1 of Healthy People’s overarching goals has focused on disparities. In Healthy People 2000, it was to reduce health disparities among Americans. In Healthy People 2010, it was to eliminate, not just reduce, health disparities. In Healthy People 2020, that goal was expanded even further: to achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve the health of all groups.” (read more HERE)

As you can see above, this decade’s Healthy People is kind of our jam. And good news! If you missed the webinar (or if you would like to relive the experience), you can listen to a recording HERE! It comes highly recommended, not only because it was informative and relevant, but because it was also momentous and full of some seriously inspirational names in Transgender Health!

Posted at https://lgbthealthequity.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/missed-the-trans-health-webinar-last-week-its-okay-weve-got-you-covered/

New Study Finds “Coming Out” Can have Health Benefits

According to an April 11, 2012, Huffington Post article, a new study in the Journal of Homosexuality finds that parental support and acceptance when coming out provides long-term health benefits to LGB adults. Study co-author, Emily Rothman, PhD, noted, "Given the high rates of suicide and self-harm among lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) youth–and the high costs of treating mental-health and substance-abuse disorders—it’s critical that we understand what we can do to promote better health for LGB kids. The way that parents treat their LGB children when they come out is an important public health topic that has received too little attention to date."

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