Cheers everyone! I am cheery today for two reasons. For starters, it is my birthday. At 12:12pm I officially inaugurated my 34th year. I plan to enjoy my special day with family tonight at Chow on Church Street.
The second reason why I am cheery today is because I am starting this blog for Butt Out.
I am committed to Butt Out for deeply personal reasons. Everyone in my family smokes. I grew up in a house hazy with cigarette smoke and had to suffer pent up in cars filled with the noxious fumes. It is bad enough that my parents smoke. Each of my four siblings smoke as well. I dread the thought of losing any of them early to a tobacco related disease. The statistics aren't great. Tobacco kills more people than murder, suicide, traffic accidents, drugs and alcohol combined! What compounds my fear is my frustration in talking to them about tobacco. They won't hear what I have to say. They tell me that I don't have any right to tell them about quitting smoking because I did not smoke myself. They tell me they will quit when they are ready to quit. Hopefully they will quit at the right time.
I became so flabbergasted in dealing with my family that I looked outside for an opportunity to strike out against Big Tobacco. I found Butt Out. Butt Out uses advocates to interact with LGBT community organizations and work with them to adopt anti-tobacco funding policies. By getting organizations to adopt policies, the community is telling the tobacco companies that they cannot buy good will with our good names. They can't pay to look like good guys in our community and to our youth especially. Consider this - fully 43% of our LGBT youth smoke. That is almost half of them! We need to help our youth fight back against the evil influences of Big Tobacco. I feel empowered in my work with Butt Out and look forward to volunteering with them for a long time.
Butt Out is a project of Breathe California, funded by the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, which works to get tobacco money out of LGBT community organizations in San Francisco. We also educate the public about the hazards of smoking and about smoking cessation. This blog will come out every Wednesday. I will talk about the work that Butt Out is doing, about my personal experiences and perspectives on smoking, about interesting things happening in the fight against Big Tobacco and about tobacco and its impact on the LGBT and larger community. Hopefully you will find this blog chock full of passion, insight, up-to-date information and useful knowledge. Maybe you'll even be motivated to join forces with Butt Out! We are always looking for supporters.
I hope you tune into this blog and feel as passionate about fighting tobacco as I do. Watch this page every Wednesday and keep in touch with your comments. Have a great day!
The second reason why I am cheery today is because I am starting this blog for Butt Out.
I am committed to Butt Out for deeply personal reasons. Everyone in my family smokes. I grew up in a house hazy with cigarette smoke and had to suffer pent up in cars filled with the noxious fumes. It is bad enough that my parents smoke. Each of my four siblings smoke as well. I dread the thought of losing any of them early to a tobacco related disease. The statistics aren't great. Tobacco kills more people than murder, suicide, traffic accidents, drugs and alcohol combined! What compounds my fear is my frustration in talking to them about tobacco. They won't hear what I have to say. They tell me that I don't have any right to tell them about quitting smoking because I did not smoke myself. They tell me they will quit when they are ready to quit. Hopefully they will quit at the right time.
I became so flabbergasted in dealing with my family that I looked outside for an opportunity to strike out against Big Tobacco. I found Butt Out. Butt Out uses advocates to interact with LGBT community organizations and work with them to adopt anti-tobacco funding policies. By getting organizations to adopt policies, the community is telling the tobacco companies that they cannot buy good will with our good names. They can't pay to look like good guys in our community and to our youth especially. Consider this - fully 43% of our LGBT youth smoke. That is almost half of them! We need to help our youth fight back against the evil influences of Big Tobacco. I feel empowered in my work with Butt Out and look forward to volunteering with them for a long time.
Butt Out is a project of Breathe California, funded by the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, which works to get tobacco money out of LGBT community organizations in San Francisco. We also educate the public about the hazards of smoking and about smoking cessation. This blog will come out every Wednesday. I will talk about the work that Butt Out is doing, about my personal experiences and perspectives on smoking, about interesting things happening in the fight against Big Tobacco and about tobacco and its impact on the LGBT and larger community. Hopefully you will find this blog chock full of passion, insight, up-to-date information and useful knowledge. Maybe you'll even be motivated to join forces with Butt Out! We are always looking for supporters.
I hope you tune into this blog and feel as passionate about fighting tobacco as I do. Watch this page every Wednesday and keep in touch with your comments. Have a great day!
Visit Butt-Out online at http://www.butt-out.org/
Congratulations! Happy birthday! You have the exact same birthday (day and year) as my older brother (he is only 14 months older..)! So that makes you pretty cool, I think! Also for fighting Big Tobacco!
ReplyDeleteI am actually a scientist currently researching chronic lung disease that's primarily caused by smoking. I have always hated cigarrettes and smoke. If everyone saw lung samples taken from cigarrette smokers they probably wouldn't smoke! It's SOOO disgusting - they're covered in oily black soot! Not to mention that alterations in the cells that grow out of them... Anyway, yes, it is especially egregious that Big Tobacco targets the LGBT community. I can't date anyone who smokes so it really cuts down on the number of potential dates for me!
Thanks for the birthday wishes. I agree that seeing slices of diseased lung really makes you want to avoid smoking. Whenever Butt Out goes to events to educate the public we always bring big slices of soot-covered lung to show people. We get one upturned nose after another! We also have a sizable jar tar that represents how much cigarrette tar a person is exposed to in one year. It is really crazy! The more we educate I think the better we will all be against this grossly destructive product. Keep reading and become a "follower" to your right!
ReplyDeleteGreat job, Jane. Look forward to your future blogs.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the pictures of the "Grim Reaper" street theater event that Butt-Out did. I'm in them! For more information about the event, check out the Butt Out website: http://www.butt-out.org/
ReplyDeleteHey Jane,
ReplyDeleteTerrrie directed me to your blog. Thanks for starting it up and happy birthday.
I quit a month ago, and it has been tortuous at best, but I am hanging in there.
Everyone in my family smoked too.
Again thanks for this.
See you soon,
Robert
I have to apologize to my brother Juan, who lives in Japan and doesn't come out to see me very often. He kicked the tobacco habit a year and a half ago. Yay! I'm so proud of you Indio. Keep up your healthy ways!
ReplyDeleteRobert - thank you for your post. Congratulations on quiting a month ago! I hope this time is the time for you.
ReplyDeleteThere are some resources that can be of service to you. The Last Drag provides LGBT and HIV+ people smoking cessation classes. There is also a smoking cessation group for transgendered people in Oakland. Check out the Last Drag's website for more details: http://www.lastdrag.org/
You should know that Butt-Out is 100% behind people who are trying to quit smoking. We work with LGBT organizations to encourage them to adopt tobacco free funding policies so LGBT people that are trying to quit will know that the community is behind them in their struggle.
I know that you are very active in the community. I hope that you follow Butt Out's work and support it in your endeavors. Hang in there!