Educating a diverse group of LGBTQ+ community members about the dangers of tobacco use was the topic of a forum held at the California Endowment Center Wednesday.
We Breathe, a program through the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network that advocates for tobacco cessation throughout the state, organized the event to better educate and address the health risks of smoking within LGBTQ+ communities.
“A lot of people who do public health work, unfortunately, just don’t know how to interact with our community. And I think a lot of our work is just trying to prepare people who might not be part of the LGBTQ+ community but are wanting to work with us,” said Ryan Oda, Program Coordinator of We Breathe.
The California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network is funded through the California Tobacco Prevention Program, which directs tobacco sales taxes toward education and tobacco prevention.
Oda said that one of the biggest challenges with educating young and queer people about the dangers of smoking tobacco is getting them to care about it in the first place.
“I’m not going to lie; tobacco is not exactly considered the most pressing issue for our community. Especially right now with a lot of transphobic and homophobic policies that are getting passed, even here in California,” Oda explained.
Oda said a method that’s proven successful in advocacy is to intersect tobacco education and the dangers it poses by combining it with public health education that is relevant to LGBTQ+ communities. Tobacco products combined with estrogen therapy, for example, can increase the risk of heart attack. Studies also show that it can weaken users’ immune systems, something that can be dangerous for people living with HIV.
The Latino Equality Alliance (LEA), a Boyle Heights-based non-profit, works to support LGBTQ+ youth and minorities across the Eastside. They supported the event and collaborated with We Breathe to produce educational materials for their youth outreach and education.
Jesus Suatan, Programs Coordinator with LEA, said We Breathe’s programming aligns with his organization’s health-focused campaigns.
“Our mission is to educate people about the negative effects of tobacco use as a way of reducing harm in our community and really just empowering our folks so that they don’t fall victim to tobacco,” Suatan said.
Suatan cites the history of pro-tobacco campaigns like Project SCUM, a tobacco industry-funded marketing agenda aimed to market cigarettes to low-income communities and minorities, and considered it another way the industry suppressed communities of color.
Oda noted that on the Eastside, in particular, the tobacco industry has historically offered more coupons and discounts to communities of color to motivate them to buy more packs than they might’ve purchased otherwise, leading to higher chances of addiction.
“Communities that might have more lower-income people, unfortunately, might be less likely to have health insurance. So if you’ve gone decades using tobacco and, let’s just say you develop a health issue such as lung cancer, you might not have as much access to get that treated,” Oda said.
Although the presentation at the forum spoke about the harms tobacco has on youth communities, some young people across Los Angeles still experiment with tobacco products or actively struggle with tobacco addiction despite usage trending downward over several decades.
A 17-year-old tobacco user based in South Central said, unlike her preference for cigarettes, many of her friends prefer smoking THC products because of the longer-lasting high tobacco doesn’t offer. She was not at the event on Wednesday but identifies as bisexual.
“They’re looking for something that’ll give them some sort of feeling that lasts. Tobacco doesn’t really give you that. It gives you a buzz, but it doesn’t really last,” she said.
The teenager, who preferred to stay anonymous, also said the mountain of research and studies on the health impacts of tobacco use might also be the reason younger people tend to avoid smoking tobacco.
“[Cigarettes] have a really bad reputation,” she said. “People thought they were safe to begin with, but then a bunch of things came out about how they’re giving people lung cancer and how they’re really bad.”
Suatan noted that through education, people can be better equipped to take control of their health and not give in to unhealthy habits.
“Big tobacco is an oppressor to our community. And we must empower ourselves so that we can find positive coping mechanisms so that we can find alternative methods of dealing with life that doesn’t entail the use of tobacco,” Suatan said.
Youth reporter Ethan Fernandez contributed to the reporting of this article.
