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- The GLBT community is approximately 40-70% more likely to smoke than non-
GLBT individuals.1
- Lesbians smoke approximately three times more than straight women. 1
- Approximately 38 - 50% of GLBT youth smoke compared to 28 - 35% of non-
GLBT youth. 2
- Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the United States
causing heart disease, cancers, and strokes. 3
- A 2006 study conducted among nine Designated AIDS Treatment Centers
(DACS) and five adult day healthcare centers found that 59.4% of patients living
with HIV/AIDS also smoked. That’s almost THREE TIMES the rate of the general
population! 4
- More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle
injuries, suicides, and murders combined. 5
- A recent study at the University of Minnesota showed that over 50 percent of the
patients in a transgender health clinic who received hormone therapy were current
or past smokers, and the rate of current smokers was almost double the rate in
the general population. 6
- Estrogen use in women who smoke has demonstrated a relationship to
conditions such as pulmonary embolism, heart disease, stroke and adverse liver
effects. It is likely that these effects are also present in transgender women. 7
- In the mid-1990s, tobacco control professionals discovered documents that
revealed the tobacco industries marketing campaign, Project SCUM (Sub Culture
Urban Marketing). This campaign was an aggressive attempt to increase
smoking and brand loyalty of homeless people and lesbian, gay, and bisexual
adults in San Francisco’s Castro district. 8
References:
1. California Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Tobacco Use Study, 2004.
2. National Youth Advocacy Coalition (2005). FREE: Friends, for Real, Educating and Empowering.
3. American Legacy Foundation.
4. New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute. Light Up Your Life: A Leadership Forum on HIV and
Smoking (2006).
5. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Tobacco Related Mortality
Factsheet. http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/factsheets/Tobacco_Related_Mortality_factsheet.htm.
6. The National LGBT Communities Tobacco Action Plan: Research, Prevention, and Cessation, 2004.
7. Moore, E; Wisniewski, A. (2003). Endocrine Treatment of Transsexual People: A Review of Treatment
Regimens, Outcomes and Adverse Effects. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 88, 3467-
3473.
8. Project SCUM, www.projectscum.org.
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