The National Youth Advocacy Coalition would like to know! And maybe we’ll find out that while it’s still true that it’s gay to smoke, lesbians and bisexual women are no longer the largest group of smokers among young people. Back in 2004, some 40 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls aged 12-17 were smokers, compared to just 6 percent for straight girls that same age.
Keith Kimmel
Obviously, yes. I am probably one of five non-smokers in the entire gay community here.
Keith Kimmel
Also, it should be noted that this did not happen by any accident. Big tobacco – long before it was acceptable to do so – was one of the FIRST industries to court and target the gay demographic. When you think about it, it was a brilliant marketing move. Our community counts a disproportionate number of the trend-setters among us. We set the trends in fashion. We decide whats cool. What we do, everyone else follows whether they’ll admit to it or not.
The folks that sat down and figured this out really were the smartest guys in the room.
Becca
In my experience, I haven’t met really one lesbian that hasn’t trying smoking at least one cig a day. Now, I’ve quit and my girlfriend is just starting to kick the habit, but at the college I’m attending, the campus is littered with butts. Members of our campus’s SAGA [Sexuality and Gender Alliance] can always be seen before meetings smoking in a crowd in front of the building. It seems to be more of a social thing.
Jacqui Smith
Yeah, it’s quite disgusting. The worst part is that most of them don’t seem to have any qualms about it. Some are downright “proud” of it. News flash: you don’t have to be LOUD AND PROUD about everything you do, even your nasty habits.
Keith Kimmel
I’m never one to advocate telling folks what to do with their own lives, but smoking really is killing alot of beautiful little boys and girls in our community.
I am surprised just how little its talked about in our community and for that matter, how little folks seem to even be aware of it. Some people believe that HIV was a virus invented by the government and injected into the gay community to try and kill us homos off. Most people reject the assertion but I wouldn’t put it past them. But its far fetched, yet this gets talked about more than what the tobacco industry admitted that they did.
When you think about it, they knew they had a product that kills people and what did they do with it? They said “Hey, lets get all the fags hooked on this, cause they will help us get everyone else on it, too!”. We’re being used as uncompensated salesmen for a product that kills people. You’d think that with all the smart people in our community, we’d wake up and stop playing the game and realize we’re all being used.
The unwillingness to wake up may have something to do with all the stress gay folks endure. I am told smoking helps with stress. This seems to fit, the people that smoke the most seem to also have the most drama swirling around them. At least in this community.
ggreen
The real question is: Are lesbians more self-destructive than gay men? Living 20 years in the same place I never had problems with any neighbors including two sets of drug dealing tweakers and assorted straight trash bags.
I now have two cigarette smoking booze-swilling dykes as neighbors That cause no end of problems. Constantly screaming and fighting with each other, other neighbors and the police. When they stand out side smoking its like they are trying to pose like fat rednecks from Texas smoking. Smoking doesn’t make you look like a man.
Yuki
I don’t know much about the gay community smoking, but I know a lot of guys I find attractive around my campus smoke. It’s a total turnoff.
hardmannyc
I smoke occasionally. I hardly brag about it, but I don’t think I should have to apologize for it, either.
Mike
It is an open secret that tobacco companies have specifically targeted the gay community with their advertising.
They figured out that we’re “setting trends” and people will follow and imitate.
Not much of a trend-setter myself: I quit smoking about 7 years ago and I’m not looking back.
Kevin_BGFH
In 1994, I wrote a still widely-cited article about the tobacco industry’s targeting of lesbians and gays. But at the time, although the industry was just beginning to target the community, rates of smoking were already 61% higher among LGBTs than the national average.
There were two significant reasons for this.
1) The bar culture traditionally was a much more important socialization venue for LGBTs than the rest of the population. At the time, smoking in bars was completely unrestricted in every state, so nonsmokers in a bar were already being bombarded with smoke. For someone just starting to come out, who’s maybe there by themselves and fidgeting nervously, clutching a drunk or holding a cigarette gives them something to do with their hands and look preoccupied. One survey in Santa Barbara found that 32% of lesbian and gay smokers cited the bar culture as a major factor in why they started and/or continued to smoke.
2) Among the population as a whole, at least at the time (no idea what the stats are now), 50% of smokers began smoking by the age of 14 and 90% by the age of 19. But for LGBT smokers, the window for starting to smoke was much wider, into their 20s. “The pressures that resulted in teenage smoking — self-esteem issues and the need for peer acceptance, the need for rebellion and liberation, the development of style and individuality — are compounded for lesbians, bisexuals, and gay men struggling with their sexuality.” Those issues are often dealt with by straight people in high school, but for LGBTs, it often continues well into college or afterwards when they first start to socialize with other LGBT people.
I’ll put the URL for my paper in another post, as Queerty sometimes puts a hold on it. Or you can Google “lesbians and gays face tobacco targeting.”
Kevin_BGFH
Here’s the study:
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/3/1/65
ricky
almost all the gays i know smoke. now excuse me because i overslept and am a carton and a half behind right now. thank you selma diamond for one of my all time favorite lines.
martin
Mad men made me do it! Just kidding.
Harry
I smoke 3 packs a day but am not gay. I have had sex 12 times. I also have both my arms covered in tattoos. I am 13