Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education

Smoking prevalence in the LGBT community exceeds that in nearly all other demographic groups. In 2001, we undertook a four-year research project to study tobacco industry targeting of the lesbian and gay community. We researched formerly-secret tobacco industry internal documents, analyzed tobacco content in the gay press, interviewed leaders of LGBT organizations, and conducted focus groups with LGBT smokers and nonsmokers.

We found that in the early 90s, tobacco companies began to advertise in the gay press and to sponsor community organizations. Many LGBTs viewed this attention as a sign that the community was becoming visible and more acceptable, and did not consider tobacco a "gay issue".

The queer press normalized smoking. Images of tobacco, most conveying positive or neutral messages, were common. We found that many ads for products other than cigarettes glamorized smoking, and many articles having nothing to do with smoking were illustrated with tobacco use images. Very few LGBT publications had policies against accepting tobacco ads.

We recommend activities that promote a community dialogue about the real costs of accepting tobacco industry advertising and funding. Understanding how alcohol and other drugs became seen as gay-specific community concerns could be helpful. Finding ways to challenge the views of some young gay people—that most queers smoke—might make it easier to help them remain smokefree. Perhaps a greater understanding of the coming out process—in which one's authentic self challenges societal norms—could help arm young people with the strength to resist tobacco. Finally, one of the lessons of the larger LGBT movement itself—the importance of holding institutions accountable for the harm they cause—might help the community stop thinking of smoking as a personal issue, and think of it instead as a systemic issue, with a culpable industry at the heart of the problem.