LGBT Smoking Report Cause for Concern

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the country, accounting for 393,000 deaths a year. A new report on LGBT smoking has been released that shows that LGBT people suffer more from this deadly addiction. Researchers combed through more than 40 separate analyses to determine that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are more likely to use tobacco than straight people. A dozen or so states have collected sexual orientation information on routine health surveys. However, only 6 states have published reports on tobacco use by sexual orientation: Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Oregon and Washington together. All 6 of these states found significantly elevated smoking rates in the LGBT community.

The statistics are alarming. Gay men are nearly two and a half times more likely to develop a smoking habit than straight men. Lesbians are twice as likely compared to straight women, and people who are bisexual appear to have the highest risk of all - all of the state surveys that collected data on bisexuals found smoking rates higher than 30 percent, and ranging up to a high of 39.1 percent. At 30.7 percent, the transgender smoking prevalence was very close to the overall LGBT rate of 30.4 percent.

LGBT youth are a vulnerable population. Bisexual youth seem to be at highest risk compared with both heterosexual and homosexual youth. Researchers found that bisexual boys were twice as likely to smoke regularly as either gay or straight boys. Compared to heterosexuals, “mostly heterosexual” girls were 2.5 times more likely, and lesbian/bisexual girls were an alarming 9.7 times more likely to smoke at least weekly. Boys identified as “mostly heterosexual” were 2.5 times more likely than heterosexual boys to smoke at least weekly, but gay/bisexual boys were no more likely to smoke than heterosexual boys.

The report analyzed reasons for the smoking rate disparity. One reason is the stress of discrimination. Actual or even perceived stigma causes stress, and research has shown that smoking rates, as well as other negative health behaviors and outcomes, are higher in groups that experience high levels of stress. The bar culture might also be to blame. Because there is a biological and behavioral link between drinking and smoking, it is likely that the bar culture would have contributed to elevated smoking rates. Access to healthcare is another issue. LGBT people have less access to health care and the smoking cessation tools often necessary to kick the habit. Another reason is tobacco company targetting of the LGBT community. The tobacco industry was one of the first to develop marketing materials specifically targeting the LGBT community, and it has over time cynically reaped the benefits of the attention paid to a group that had been largely ignored by mainstream advertisers. Finally, some of our community leaders have ignored the problem. Despite the impact of tobacco use on the health and well-being of the LGBT community, many LGBT organizations do not seem to view tobacco control as a relevant issue and some noted in studies that combating smoking could be bad for an organization’s bank account. There are so many reasons for LGBT smoking disparities. The issue is very complex.

The study is a good look at current knowledge of LGBT smoking. We should all be very concerned with the elevated rates of smoking and take the figures as a call to action. We need to tackle the driving forces of smoking in the community. One day perhaps we can look at smoking in the LGBT community as an unfortunate but limited chapter in our group history.

Stay in Touch!

Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).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.

World No Tobacco Day

World No Tobacco Day happened Monday. The World Health Organization (WHO) organized the day. Its theme for the global anti-smoking day was "gender and tobacco" and the harmful effects of tobacco marketing and smoking on women and girls. Countries in the developing world are seeing a rise in women smoking as women become more affluent and have more disposable income to spend on cigarettes. Tobacco companies are beginning to target this increasingly empowered segment of the population. This trend of increased female smoking is mirrored in the LGBT community in California where lesbians and bisexual women smoke nearly three times as much as heterosexual women. The trend worldwide is very troubling.

Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world, currently responsible for the death of one in 10 adults worldwide, or about 5 million deaths each year, said the WHO. Women make up about 20 percent of the world's 1 billion smokers, but if current tobacco usage continues smoking will kill 8 million people a year by 2030 -- 2.5 million will be women.

Even more alarming is the incidence of smoking among youth. It is estimated that more than 8 percent of girls between 13 and 15, or around 4.7 million girls, are using tobacco products in the Asia-Pacific region, said the WHO. Compare that to LGBT youth smoking in California where 43.7% of LGBT youth smoke!

We have to protect our young people worldwide from the ravages of smoking.

A YouTube video of an Indonesian two-year-old boy, who reportedly smokes two packs of cigarettes a day, angered anti-smoking groups around the world last week. The video has been removed by YouTube.

"The tobacco industry is thriving and if we look at our society, even children have started to smoke," Krida Wacana Christian University (Ukrida) student Stefano Leatemia told The Jakarta Post newspaper on Monday.

WHO is calling for comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship to protect women and girls from images that portray smoking as glamorous or fashionable. Only half of the nations in the Asia-Pacific have bans on tobacco advertising.

We need more than a No Tobacco Day. We need a No Tobacco Life. With activism and personal encouragement we can help keep all of us, including our most vulnerable citizens, from becoming slaves to the noxious product.

Stay in Touch!

Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).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.

Massachusetts Makes the Tobacco Fight Graphic

You know how a lung is supposed to look: Plump and pink all over, gleaming with health. Picture me now holding the lung slice at last year's Butt Out booth for SF Pride. Cropped within two clear panes of plexiglass was a sliver of diseased lung. The lung matter was grey with black marks here and there. The slice had craters in it and red pocks where blood vessels had blown up. Imagine me with the biggest grimacing look that you can imagine on a person. Someone actually had that lung! That lung slice belonged to a long-time smoker who died of a smoking related disease. Let me tell you, that lung slice validated the decision not to smoke for me and everyone passing by the booth that day. Nothing said DO NOT SMOKE better than a slice of human flesh that looked like it had been left out in the sun for days.

Massachusetts is getting graphic too. Pending approval of the Public Health Council, the state will require its 9,000 convenience stores, pharmacies, and gas stations to show posters of the physical harm caused by smoking by tobacco racks and cash registers. Consumers will have to look at pictures of degenerated lung mass and decayed teeth before making their tobacco purchases. The hope is that some of those consumers will rethink their choice. Massachusetts will be the first state to mandate anti-smoking posters at retailers and will follow New York City's lead, which has been successfully waging its own campaign (check out the pictures). Retailers will suffer $200-$300 fines if they don't put up the posters.

San Francisco should create a similar program. San Francisco already has some momentum for change with the second-hand smoking ordinance. The City should run with it. Money should not be a concern either. Massachusetts has accessed $316,000 in federal stimulus money from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to do the posters. Local workers get jobs making the posters. Maybe the City can get similar funds. Let's do it!

I always recoil when I think about the lung slice that I saw while tabling. I don't smoke and seeing the lung slice makes me not want to smoke even more. Let's hope Massachusetts succeeds in deterring people with its poster program. Why can't we do the same here?

Stay in Touch

Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).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.

The Misinformation is Out There

Sorry, I’ve been missing in action for awhile. I’ll do a new blog post next week. This week I’m posting a letter to the editor that will hopefully be printed in the BAR soon. The letter, written by Butt Out’s Brian Davis, is a response to a recent “Guest Opinion” piece in the BAR which suggests that the new secondhand smoke law is unnecessary:

http://ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=guest_op&id=268.

This piece, written by a member of the LGBT community, is filled with misinformation and misguided conclusions based on incomplete information, that I feel ultimately serves to encourage smokers to continue smoking rather than inspiring them to quit. Here’s Brian’s letter. See you next week!

“I am writing in response to the guest opinion article: “New smoking ban is not needed.” The article suggests that secondhand smoke is not a serious health concern, when in fact 53,000 people a year in the U.S. die because of it, and the Surgeon General has determined that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

It’s true that smoking rates in general have gone down, but the LGBT community in California is still smoking at very high rates: 30.4% overall -- twice as much as everyone else. It’s ironic that the article suggests we should spend more money educating “marginalized populations at most risk of smoking” without mentioning that the LGBT community is among the most at risk, and without realizing that the new law will help inspire the 70% of LGBT smokers who want to quit to break free from their addiction.

It is not true that there was a parade of children in front of the Supervisors talking about how smoking on bar patios affects their asthma. The youngest to testify were a few high school students, and they didn’t talk about smoking in bars.

Also, it is inaccurate to suggest that taking these practical measures to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke in bar environments will be harmful to business. Many other cities have similar laws and their bars have continued to thrive, often drawing additional customers who enjoy breathing air free of smoke drawn in from open doorways to the street or outdoor patios, and who enjoy being outdoors at a bar without having to inhale toxic fumes.

And yes, the air in outdoor smoking patios is toxic. A recent Stanford study demonstrated that exposure to tobacco smoke outside can be just as hazardous as indoor levels, increasing non-smoker’s risk of heart disease, asthma, and many other diseases caused by smoking.

Finally, the name of the group that advocated for the new law is the San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition, not the “Anti-Smoking Coalition” as the article claims. We are working for the health of this city by helping protect people of all ages from exposure to secondhand smoke and helping the vast majority of smokers who want to quit get the help they need to break free from tobacco.

Brian Davis
Project Coordinator

BUTT OUT! Ending Tobacco Industry Exploitation of the LGBT Community
On behalf of the San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition”

Stay in Touch

Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).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.

FDA Champions Youth In New Rule

Both of my parents smoke. Their brand of choice is Marlboro. Back in the day in the 1980s my parents took advantage of the "Marlboro Mile" program to accumulate free knick-knacks with the Marlboro logo on it. My parents spent so much money on cigarettes and we were poor. Why not fill the house with free Marlboro mugs and other accoutrements? We had every conceivable item, including Marlboro logoed camping tents that we pitched in the living room. Every day I had an added reminder that cigarettes existed. I was given the message that smoking and heavy smoking won you cool stuff.

I didn't pick up smoking, but my other siblings did. Only one of my siblings has broken free of the habit.

My family's experience is not an isolated one. Big Tobacco has its hooks in our youth, particularly our LGBT youth. Every day nearly 4,000 kids under 18 try their first cigarette and 1,000 kids under 18 become daily smokers. National youth smoking rates range from 28% to 35% for adolescents. The numbers are even bleaker for LGBT youth in California. Fully 43.7% of them smoke! LGBT youth smoke for so many reasons, principally out of a sense of alienation at being gay in an antigay world. The tobacco companies have pounced on LGBT youth insecurity and vulnerability in their marketing efforts at youth generally. It is a moral horror.

Enter the feds in white hats. Recently the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule banning numerous Big Tobacco practices impacting our youth. The rule is a creative and comprehensive effort to protect our youth that will save many LGBT youth as well from picking up the deadly tobacco habit.

Most of the rule reinstates a 1996 rule that was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. The Supreme Court stated that the FDA overstepped its powers because they did not have the authority to regulate tobacco. Congress licked that problem in 2009 with passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

The FDA bans a good number of practices. They ban tobacco sales to minors, sales of cigarettes in less than 20-pack size, sample giveaways, and tobacco sponsorship of sports, music and other events. Those provisions were in the old 1996 rule and were in part adopted by the tobacco companies in the Master Settlement Agreement. The rule bans other things including sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in vending machines and self-service displays, music and sound effects in audio tobacco ads, and sale or distribution of items like hats and t-shirts with tobacco brands or logos. A controversial part of the rule is the mandate that most tobacco advertising and labeling be displayed only in black text on a white background. The tobacco companies have rushed to sue over this provision. Stay tuned.

Let's hope the FDA's action will be but one step in the fight against Big Tobacco's targeting of our youth. Then we can send that Marlboro camping tent and the bag of "goodies" inside of it to the wilderness.

Stay in Touch

Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).

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.

Iowa Hate Group Claims Same-Sex Marriage is Worse than Smoking

You read that right. An anti-gay organization in Iowa called the Iowa Family Policy Center is saying that same-sex marriage is worse than smoking. This claim not only comes from left field but is appalling in the face of statistics on smoking showing the deadly toll of smoking on the population. As mentioned before in this blog, smoking kills more people than murder, suicide, traffic accidents, drugs and alcohol combined!

The lack of sensitivity and understanding is incredible. Just listen to what the president of the group, Chuck Hurley, has to say:

“The Iowa Legislature outlawed smoking in an effort to improve health and reduce the medical costs that are often passed on to the state. The secondhand impacts of certain homosexual acts are arguably more destructive, and potentially more costly to society than smoking.”

The "secondhand impacts" that Hurley refers to deals with a U.S. Centers for Disease Control report that showed gay men have higher rates of HIV and syphilis. Hurley claims that giving same-sex couples the right to marry will increase the rates of HIV and syphilis in Iowa.

Penalizing gay people and withholding their rights stigmatizes people. Many new transmissions of HIV and syphilis happen to people who do not know their status. People in loving married couples can draw on family and community support to empower themselves and seek the knowledge and services necessary to remain HIV negative or to seek treatment if they become HIV positive. Witholding civil rights like marriage exacerbates the rate of infection.

The comment about smoking calls for special attention. Smoking kills people on a massive scale. I learned recently that one third of the world's population smokes. Smoking causes disease in about half of smokers. Tobacco is the only product marketed that kills its users when used as directed. One cannot ignore the terrible swath of destruction that smoking has blazed in our lives.

Compare that to same-sex marriage or to marriage in general. Marriage solidifies the love and commitment of two people. Their lives are intertwined and strengthened by the union. Our society strongly sanctions marriage. Everyone from our immediate families to the IRS gives support to married couples. Marriage is a stabilizing force in people's lives that positively impacts gay lives as well as straight lives. The comparison to smoking completely falls flat in the face of the benefits of same-sex marriage in the lives of LGBT people and in the community at large. Just listen to Butt Out coordinator Brian Davis describing his marriage with his husband Ted and the comparison to smoking:

"My 22 years with Ted has invigorated my life. Smoking destroys life. Getting married brought me and Ted closer together. Tobacco tears families apart forever through death and disability. There is no comparing same-sex marriage and smoking."

Let's tell the haters in Iowa to get their facts and their values straight. Same-sex marriage is a bond that shines. Smoking casts a heavy pall on all of us.

Stay in Touch

Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).

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.

Brian Davis Goes 'Out in the Bay'

Last Thursday Butt Out's Brian Davis had an exciting interview on "Out in the Bay," an LGBT themed show on KALW 91.7 FM. You can listen to the show on www.kalw.org. He talked about the problem of LGBT smoking, how the tobacco companies target the LGBT community, the special impact of smoking on LGBT youth and the work that Butt Out is doing to fight the tobacco companies in the community.

Brian entered the interview with a lot of passion. Brian is personally motivated to do anti-tobacco advocacy. He has asthma and chafed as a child at having to inhale the smoke from his father's cigarettes. He was also pained to see his father try over and over again to quit his two pack a day habit. Brian had a lot to offer on the interview that came from a personal place.

Brian highlighted a number of powerful considerations in the fight against big tobacco.

Smoking is a Highly Prevalent Killer in the LGBT Community

LGBT people smoke more than straight people - two times more. Gay men smoke 50% more than straight men in California. Lesbians smoke three times more than straight women. LGBT people also start smoking younger than straight people, at ages 14 or 15. Some research indicates that it is significantly harder to quit smoking if a person starts smoking before age 18. The smoking rates are hard to hear considering that tobacco kills more people than murder, suicide, traffic accidents, drugs and alcohol combined! LGBT people are disproportionately counted in the 400,000 tobacco deaths every year in the United States.

Smoking Hits LGBT Youth Hard

Brian discussed the troubling problem of LGBT youth smoking. Fully 43.7% of LGBT youth smoke in California - nearly half of the LGBT youth population! A 2006 University of Minnesota study highlighted some of the reasons why. Many youth suffered trauma, abuse and ostracism from their homes and communities for being gay. Smoking is a way to escape the pain and make friends. "Do you have a light" is a conversation starter for the young LGBT person searching for community. Brian emphasized that the the community needs to take steps to change its face with respect to smoking so that LGBT youth have different models to emulate in their behavior. Brian pointed to Butt Out's Grim Reaper event as an example of the community coming together against tobacco. The Grim Reaper event was a bit of street theater in the Castro where the tobacco "Grim Reaper" was chased out of the neighborhood. The LGBT community needs to do more to steer LGBT youth down the right path.

The Tobacco Companies Target the LGBT Community

While still reticent to embrace a highly stigmatized community, tobacco companies have targeted the LGBT community in an effort to turn our community's fierce brand loyalty into equally fierce addiction. The tobacco companies have used advertising as a weapon in their arsenal. Genre magazine in 1992 published the first pro-gay tobacco ad. Since then the tobacco companies have put out ads purporting to support gay rights even as they push cigarettes on gay people. One recent ad in fact equated the freedom to marry with the freedom to inhale tobacco smoke. Brian expressed his shock at the demeaning of our struggle for equality as well as at the hypocrisy of an industry that supports conservative politicians as well as LGBT organizations.

Butt Out Works with LGBT Organizations to Combat Big Tobacco

Brian pointed out that tobacco companies try to garner support in the community by giving money to LGBT organizations. They try to leverage the good will of the organizations to make themselves look good. The support is inch deep - they spend more money advertising the fact that they support LGBT organizations than actually funding LGBT organizations.

Butt Out is inoculating the LGBT community against tobacco company machinations by getting organizations to spurn tobacco funding and adopt tobacco-free funding policies. The work is hard to do in these difficult funding times. Brian pointed out that companies can see the justice of Butt Out's position by considering whether they would take money from a company whose product gave AIDS to half its consumers. An organization should consider taking tobacco money as unconscionable as taking money from the hypothetical company.

Butt Out can point to some successes in its work. 20 Bay Area based LGBT organizations have tobacco-free policies, including the National Center for Lesbian Rights and San Francisco Pride. All LGBT politicians in the Bay Area such as Mark Leno have pledged not to accept campaign donations from tobacco companies. Butt Out continues to raise consciousness in community organizations and add to the community of groups rejecting tobacco funding.

Stay in Touch!

Stay tuned to this blog for more news of Butt Out community activism, interviews and events.

Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).

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.

BUTT OUT! On KALW 91.7 FM Tonight!

Why do gay teenagers smoke more than their non-gay peers? How are tobacco companies targeting the LGBT community, and what are we doing to fight back? Tune in to the Out in the Bay radio program tonight at 7pm on KALW 91.7 FM or www.kalw.org. Brian Davis of BUTT OUT! will discuss these and other questions important to our community’s health.

A prominent topic of discussion will be the problem of LGBTQ youth smoking. Smoking is a pervasive problem among LGBTQ youths. Existing research indicates the rate of smoking among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) youths exceeds the general population’s. LGBTQ young adults (18-24 years old) smoke at a 43.7% rate compared to 16.6% of all young adults. LGBTQ high school youth in the San Francisco Unified School District smoke at a 22% rate compared to a 7% rate for non-LGBTQ youth.

There are a number of reasons for the increased rate in smoking including stress, habitual substance abuse, socializing in smoky venues, and tobacco marketing.

A 16 year-old Caucasian/African American lesbian interviewed in a recent study described some of the tensions involved in being queer and in picking up smoking:

Something about being gay or questioning—it
messes with your head. … And the next thing you know, you
are just looking for something to get your mind
off it—even if it is just for a minute…. Maybe I’ll
just smoke a cigarette. Especially when you start
it, you get a buzz; and it is just something to keep
your mind off everything for a little while.

There is a need for culturally specific approaches to prevention and cessation. Highlighting the positive attributes of nonsmokers and nonsmoking might prove useful in prevention campaigns.

Listen in tonight and learn more about the problem and possible solutions!

LGBTQ and 18-24 Years Old? Youth Tobacco Survey Needs Your Help!

Queer and 18-24 with a view about LGBT smoking? Take the NYAC tobacco survey before its too late to win a gift card! The National Youth Advocacy Coalition wants to know about LGBTQ youth experiences and feelings about tobacco. Participation in the survey enters the participant in a drawing for an American Express Gift Card: 10 cards worth $50, 5 cards worth $100 and 1 card worth $150. Visit www.tobaccosurvey.nyacyouth.org for more details, to fill out the survey, and to enter to win the big prizes! Hurry now – the survey ends February 28.
Keep track of the work Butt Out is doing by going to our website (www.butt-out.org/), friending us on Facebook (butt-outsanfrancisco) or by connecting with us on Twitter (twitter.com/buttoutsf).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.

Starting the Habit and Lesbian Sexuality

“I started when I was just a kid. I saw Marlene Dietrich on the big screen sensuously sucking on a long necked cigarette and I knew I wanted to be like her. I wanted to be cool and sexy. Smoking became a part of my identity as a dyke and a lesbian.”
-Mickey*

Lesbians, like gay people in general, can wrap up their sexuality with smoking. Smoking to the young lesbian is a statement of sexiness and rebellion – part of being cool as a gay person. Other reasons for starting smoking include the social stress of being gay, direct targeting by the tobacco companies, higher incidence of drug and alcohol abuse and centralizing community around bars and clubs. Given all of that, it is no surprise that lesbians in California smoke three times more than other women.

It is one thing to hear about statistics. The problem becomes real when you hear about women’s experiences directly. I went out into the community to hear from lesbians who smoked or had smoked. I wanted to get a sense of why they started smoking.

Look at Amber. She started smoking at a relatively young age:

“I started smoking at the same time I came out and started frequenting gay bars here in San Francisco. That was forty years ago and I smoked up until about twenty years ago and finally quit for good. I started smoking actually because it was the only way I could tolerate hanging out in smoky bars and because, back then, it was considered "cool" and sophisticated to do so.”

Amber quit smoking when her longtime partner got cancer from smoking and died from the illness. Amber is now very sensitive to cigarette smoke and has compromised lung function. She is very happy to be free of smoking in her life.

Amber’s story is an interesting one. She started smoking to fit in with the other women in the bars. The lesbian community seems to gravitate around the bars. Drinking and smoking goes together. It is such a shame that lesbians in San Francisco lack community spaces that don’t encourage addictive behaviors.

Tracy is another woman who shared her story with me. She had her first smoke when she was 16. She visited a beach town with some friends of hers. She was tormented about being gay and made a last-ditch attempt at playing straight. She made out with a guy one night and woke up feeling terrible. The next morning she went to a gas station and saw some girls.

“I saw these two girls, super pretty, super light and carefree, seemingly comfortable in their own skin, around my age. I assumed they were straight. They were buying cigs from some old guy who was getting a kick out of them and surely knew they were underage. Anyways, for some reason, something clicked in me and I was like, I want to be those (presumably straight) girls. I bought a pack and forced myself to smoke one after another. I got sick! But, I still kept smoking.”

Tracy smoked for 12 more years and tried everything to break herself of the habit, including running marathons and backpacking. She couldn’t quit even with severe asthma! She finally broke free three years ago when her partner told her she would stop breathing periodically while sleeping. Tracy did not want to die because of her smoking.

Tracy’s smoking reverberates with a lot of people. Internalized homophobia gnaws at the insides of a lot of gay people. Lesbians who hate their budding identities can easily get sucked into self-destructive behaviors like smoking. Hopefully smoking will become less appealing to young lesbians as societal acceptance of homosexuality increases.

Lesbians pick up smoking for a myriad reasons, often related to their sexual identity. The stories above represent just a few of the many experiences other women have had with smoking. With time, it is this writer’s dream that lesbians can come of age loving themselves and detesting cigarettes as a way to express who they are.

Do you have a story you’d like to share about starting smoking? Did your smoking habit have something to do with your sexuality? Share your experiences by making a comment!

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.

Visit Butt-Out online at http://www.butt-out.org/

*The names of the women who shared their stories have been changed to preserve their privacy.