ABSTRACT
Researchers and public health advocates have long recognized the importance of demographic characteristics such as sex, race, ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status in their efforts to understand and control the use of tobacco among population groups. Targeting prevention and cessation efforts based upon such characteristics has consistently been demonstrated to be both efficient and effective. In recent years, attention has modestly turned to how two additional demographic variables, sexual orientation and gender identity, can add to our understanding of how to reduce tobacco use. Research of tobacco industry papers has clearly documented targeted media campaigns to encourage smoking among lesbians and gays in the marketplace. The tobacco industry has long understood the role that sexual orientation can play in the uptake of smoking and the targeted marketing of brands. Those concerned with tobacco use prevention and cessation research have consequently responded to address tobacco use by lesbians and gays, and bisexuals and transgender people as well, but even more can be done. This article reviews what is known about smoking in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations and then reviews recommendations from four panels created to examine this topic. In conclusion, we recommend that sexual orientation and gender identity be considered for inclusion as variables in all major research and epidemiological studies of tobacco use. Just as such studies, without hesitation, measure sex, race, ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status, they need to also include questions assessing sexual orientation and gender identity. Although these new variables need not be the primary focus of these studies, at a minimum, considering their use as controlling variables should be explored. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people can benefit from being openly included in the work researchers conduct to inform the design of tobacco control programs and policies.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the hundreds of experts and staff members that helped produce the four sets for recommendations related to research and tobacco use in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered populations that are included in this article. More specifically, the authors would like to thank everyone who participated in the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Forum on Tobacco Control held in November, 2000 in Atlanta, Georgia (CitationAmerican Legacy Foundation & Experts, 2001); everyone who helped produce the Healthy People 2010 Companion Document for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Health (CitationGay & Lesbian Medical Association et al., 2001); the experts who contributed to the meeting on Tobacco Surveillance Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Communities; and, finally, everyone who participated in the Tobacco Action Plan Working Meeting and who helped produce The National LGBT Communities Tobacco Action Plan: Research, Prevention, and Cessation (CitationTobacco Technical Assistance Consortium & Experts, 2004).