Jump to full article: Gay.com/Planet Out, 2008-11-10
Author: [item undated] Benjamin Ryan
Intro: Here's a trick question: What's the most dangerous health problem facing gay men?
No, it's not HIV/AIDS -- it's smoking. Diseases related to tobacco use kill more gays than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murder and street drugs combined. We're talking about more than 30,000 gays and lesbians a year, according to the American Cancer Society. This estimate is actually highly conservative, because it supposes that gays smoke in amounts equal to members of the general population.
Well, they don't. A recent study found that 36 percent of LGBT adults smoke. That's compared with 25 percent of all adults. This stark difference exists notwithstanding the fact that gays are significantly more likely than straights to believe smoking increases their risk of lung cancer and heart disease, and that it is likely to shorten their lifespan. . . .
The typical answers are that the tobacco industry is to blame for marketing to gays, that gays spend a lot of time in smoky bars where they use cigarettes as a way to meet one another ("Got a light?"), and that they smoke to alleviate depression and feelings of alienation related to their sexuality.
There is truth to all of these assertions, even if they don't make up the full picture. . . .
In his genius pop-psychology work, "The Tipping Point," New Yorker writer Malcom Gladwell writes about the addictive nature of smoking and provides some complex answers that apply quite neatly to the gay community.
Gladwell compares smoking to a kind of speech. By virtue of smoking, one man gives another the tacit approval to commit his own act of suicide. The other man follows suit because he wants to be cool. Because, Gladwell writes, "Smoking was never cool. Smokers are cool."
Need I say more about the gay community's desperate desire to be cool? . . .
OK, so now that we've gone though the reasons why gays smoke and realized how impossible it is to pick all of them apart and prevent smoking altogether, the power to quit, of course, remains in the hands of each smoker.
Without sounding too preachy (too late, I know), don't just throw in the towel on your life. Even if you quit smoking in middle age, you can still cut in half your risk of an early death. For more information on quitting smoking, visit www.smokefree.gov.
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