Cigarette Companies Target Gays and Lesbians , increasing LGBT Cancer risk
According to the Centers for Disease Control ( CDC ) , cigarette companies need to find replacements for the 1,200 dead consumers and 3,500 who quit each year. As a result, tobacco companies have focused their advertising efforts on minority groups, including, most notably, the gay community. Kristen Torres of the Bitch to Quit lesbian cessation program ( of the Lesbian Community Care Project ) finds it hard not to notice issues behind gays smoking. The correlation is hard to miss, Torres points out, with data stating that the LGBT community smokes at a rate of 40 percent, as compared to the general population’s 20 percent.
In Illinois, the gay population of smokers goes up, since a 2004 CDC survey on smoking prevalence revealed 22.2 percent of men and women in Illinois smoke, as compared to California’s rate of 14.8 percent. Chicago’s Howard Brown Health Center reports that 17 percent of the overall male population smokes while 27 percent of gay men smoke do.
Not only do 80 to 90 percent of smokers take their first drag before age 20, but the National Lesbian Survey points out that lesbians smoke more as they age, whereas the general populace of women smoke less as it becomes older. And with tobacco’s new stratagem of selective advertising techniques that promote gay-friendly events and venues, underage smoking is occurring in greater numbers.
Bob Gordon of San Francisco’s Last Drag program cannot help but notice the correlation between smoking and the problems gays face self-identifying. The largest percentage problem, and possibly the problem itself, involves self-identifying 18-24-year-olds perpetuating their outcast image. Torres hypothesized, “when you’re a gay youth, you already feel like an outsider. … Smoking makes you look and feel tough, but also reaffirms the idea of being an outsider .” http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=17069
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