Is Tobacco the Number One Cause of Death Among Gays and Lesbians?

categories: LGBT Education, LGBT Health Care

Published July 25, 2009 @ 04:35PM PT

Cigarette Smoking

Rumors have been there for a while now that smoking rates among LGBT people were phenomenally higher than smoking rates among straight people. There's now evidence to back this theory up.

A study coming out in the August 2009 issue of Tobacco Control shows that gay men and lesbians are radically more apt to light up a cigarette than heterosexual men and women. The folks behind the study are researchers with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and they have one conclusive sentence to sum up their work: "Smoking is a significant health inequality for sexual minorities."

Here are some bullet points about their study:

Upwards of 37 percent of lesbian women in the United States smoke cigarettes, which compares to only 18 percent of straight women;

For gay men it's upwards of 33 percent, whereas approximately only 24 percent of straight men light up; and

Researchers used more than 20 years of studies and research on the issue of LGBT smoking to inform their findings

Higher smoking rates for gay men and lesbians could be having a disastrous impact on public health for LGBT Americans. Joseph Lee, one of the lead researchers of the report, had this to say:

Likely explanations include the success of tobacco industry’s targeted marketing to gays and lesbians, as well as time spent in smoky social venues and stress from discrimination.

These aren't new phenomena. Groups like the National LGBT Tobacco Control Network have formed to try and put a dent in the rates of smoking among LGBT populations, and to point out concerning marketing techniques to get queer people - especially younger LGBT people - to smoke. Groups like these are important to curbing high rates of smoking. Because as well all know, prolonged smoking causes a torrent of diseases, and that torrent of diseases often results in death.

That's not a fact lost on the researchers. Here's Lee again:

Tobacco is likely the number one cause of death among gays and lesbians.

The American Cancer Society estimates that at least 30,000 LGBT people die each year from smoking-related illnesses. And that's a conservative estimate.

Much more information on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study can be found online at Tobacco Journal's Web site. While the results can be a little upsetting to read, they're meant to help inform folks about the health consequences unique to LGBT folks from smoking. And while studies like this are grim, they do help in spreading a culture of public health in LGBT circles.

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Comments (11)

Michael,

I think this statistic will change over time as younger generations of LGBTs grow up in a more tolerant world. When I was a teenager, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs etc. (in some areas more than others) were the only outlets that we really had. Although I have been a smoker for over 20 years now, I can say that I just quit last weekend (FINALLY) and am feeling better already! :)

The reason I said I think it will change over the next few generations is that many schools have GSAs, and those teen LGBTs have outlets, their schools have non-discrimination policies (although these policies aren't always effective - but they are getting better.)

Posted by Dave Hershey on 07/25/2009 @ 06:41PM PT
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Congratulations mr. hershey.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 07/26/2009 @ 12:45AM PT
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Im curious as to how exactly the tobacco companies were able to target the homosexual community ?

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 07/26/2009 @ 12:44AM PT
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The tobacco industry targets LGBT folks and organizations in a couple of ways: 1) targeted marketing (google Project SCUM, which was a RJ Reynolds's plan to market to gay men and homeless men/women in San Francisco) and 2) sponsoring our organizations to generate goodwill.

Posted by Joseph Lee on 07/26/2009 @ 06:24AM PT
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As I said if the buy their lies that is their problem because they know they are lying because they watch TV as well and they know what smoking does to their body and it is never good.

People are always willing to blame other people and companies for their problem why don't they just look in the mirror and see who is smoking and they would be amazed who is looking back at them.

The blame came is getting really old and that is a fact.

Posted by Carol Hill on 07/26/2009 @ 08:27AM PT
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I don't know whether that is true or not but if they decide to pick up a cigarette that is their choice they are adults and they know what happens when you smoke and that is a fact.

My father smoked up to the time of death and he had a stroke from smoking but he just never stopped and he wasn't gay but he didn't care. He not only killed himself he killed my mother as well because she had to take care of him. When she died the doctor found one of her lungs were blackened by secondary smoke. I became deaf from my father's and ex-husband's secondary smoke and he is far being gay so I don't buy it at all.

It is up to the gays to stop smoking if they chose to stop if they don't they will cause their friends and family to die from secondary smoke.

Posted by Carol Hill on 07/26/2009 @ 08:21AM PT
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What is this suppose to promote , that everyone that smokes are gay and lesbian... I'm sorry but Im neither, and the induendo os total crap.

Posted by Joe Wilson on 07/26/2009 @ 10:45AM PT
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The article is definitely not trying to suggest that everyone who smokes is either gay or lesbian. What it's saying, at least in how it summarizes the study from UNC, is that gays and lesbians smoke more (at least percentage wise) than straight people are apt to do.

@Dave. Congratulations! Best wishes to you, and glad that you're feeling better already :)

Posted by Michael Jones on 07/26/2009 @ 03:03PM PT
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The research gives prove that LGBT people have higher smoking rates than heterosexual people and one thing that should occur because of the research is to decrease those higher smoking rates. Although the explanations for the higher smoking rates among LGBT people aren't concrete because of many factors, the National LGBT Tobacco Control Network is doing good. Hopefully, smoking among the LGBT community will decrease

Posted by Edwin Bonilla on 07/26/2009 @ 02:06PM PT
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Glad to see this report, although I'm so confused by some of the comments. I believe GLBTQ's as a collective of communities, must begin to care more about health. Too often we think only about AIDS as a predominant killer within our communities and fail to see the the dangers of smoking or the losses caused by it.

Posted by Thomas Waters on 07/26/2009 @ 04:13PM PT
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I still say if you know what cigarttes do to your body and everyone else around you just don't pick up the poison and that is a fact that is not lost on anyone male or female.

Posted by Carol Hill on 07/27/2009 @ 05:47AM PT
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Author

Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.