The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective:

To describe the nature and extent of tobacco industry influence in the LGBT community and how LGBTs regard tobacco-related issues.

Methods:

Focusing on the U.S., we searched tobacco industry documents for evidence of industry outreach to LGBTs; analyzed tobacco-related content in the LGBT press; interviewed leaders of LGBT organizations and publications; and assessed the impact of our findings with focus groups composed of LGBT smokers and non-smokers.

Results:

The tobacco industry has been advertising in the gay press, making donations to LGBT groups and building alliances with LGBT organizations and leaders since the early 1990s. Images of smoking are common in the LGBT press, often illustrating articles unrelated to tobacco, suggesting that tobacco is normalized. Few articles addressed the dangers of smoking and few publications had policies prohibiting tobacco ads. Few LGBT leaders saw smoking as a priority community health issue, focusing on other issues—such as AIDS and cancer—without considering how smoking complicates AIDS or causes cancer. Many focus group participants saw industry attention as validation of the LGBT community. Smoking was often seen as solely a personal choice, entirely independent of industry influence. These findings may help advocates tailor tobacco control programs to this population.