Smoking is gay
Coming Out as Multi-attracted Associated with Increased Risk of Smoking.
For many years, female homosexual, gay, bisexual, and other non-heterosexual (LGB+) folks have been known to be more likely to smoke than their straight counterparts.
But a new, first-of-its-kind Institution of Public Health study paints a more precise picture by looking at LGB+ identities separately and over age, finding that bisexuality is the culture most associated with smoking, especially around the time of coming out.
Published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, the nationally-representative cohort study followed 7, youth and young adults over three years, result that those who came out as bisexual were twice as likely as consistently-heterosexual participants to start smoking. Coming out as sapphic, gay, or another non-heterosexual identity, or having a consistent LG+ identity, was not associated with being more likely to smoke.
The investigate “highlights the importance of moving beyond static measures of sexual identity towards more dynamic measures that capture critical periods of vulnerability,” says Andrew Stokes,
The LGBTQ+ community faces a significant and often overlooked challenge: higher rates of tobacco use compared to their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. According to the Centers for Disease Regulate and Prevention (CDC), about one in six woman loving woman, gay and bisexual adults smoke cigarettes, compared with about one in nine heterosexual/straight adults.1 Cigarette smoking is also higher among transgender adults than cisgender adults.
Tobacco use (including cigarettes, cigars, hookah, chewing tobacco and more) is linked to many types of cancer, including lung, colorectal, breast, throat, cervical, bladder, mouth and esophageal cancers. Smoking accounts for about 30% of all cancer deaths (and cigarette smoking causes about % of lung cancer deaths).
The difficulty of tobacco use in the LGBTQ+ community starts early. Smoking rates among LGBTQ+ youth are more prevalent than non-LGBTQ+ youth. Smoking prevalence is 38%% for LGBTQ+ youth, compared to 28%% for the general youth population, according to the American Lung Association.2
Why is this population smoking more? Bar customs, e
LBGT History Month: Why are smoking rates higher in LGBT communities?
Tobacco use plays a unique role in LGBT history, reflecting in large part the tobacco industry’s long history of targeting the LGBT community.
The LGBT population is among the hardest hit by tobacco in the United States. Overall, sexual minorities are to times more likely to smoke cigarettes than heterosexual individuals, and LGBT smokers are “significantly” more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes: 36 percent of LGBT smokers inform that they usually smoke menthols, which are easier to utilize and harder to quit.
And while the stress associated with social stigmas, discrimination and the coming out process, more prevalent alcohol and drug use, and exposure to bars and clubs all play a role in the tobacco use disparity, predatory marketing practices are critical to understanding the truth about tobacco use and the LGBT community.
“We’re targeted by the tobacco industry, because we’re a very easy population to sell to, and we settle them back in decades, and decades, and decades of handsome profits to
Bartenders and cocktail servers in LGBTQ-oriented nightclubs are disproportionately exposed to secondhand smoke, as are young individual patrons of these venues. And yet results of a national survey disclose that the vast majority of those who identify as LGBTQ prefer smokefree environments. According to an article in The Advocate, published on January 15, , of those in favor, 70% indicated they would pay more to acquire into a smokefree block or nightclub.
The California LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership has advice on how to make a smokefree coalition or campaign more accessible to the LGBT community.
In addition to secondhand smoke exposure, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) stated, &#;Cigarette smoking among LGB individuals in the U.S. is higher than among heterosexual/straight individuals. Nearly 1 in 4 LGB adults smoke cigarettes compared with about 1 in 6 heterosexual/straight adults.&#;
A growing number of events and festivals contain adopted % smokefree and tobacco free policies to combat Big Tobacco’s history of targeting the group. Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center