Smoking prevention groups go after tobacco ads targeting gays

The cigarette pitch demands a second look.
Two ripped, rakish men and one lean, pristine hound pause, inexplicably, in the cool shallows of a calm green sea.
“How gay is this ad?” R.E. Szego, a Portland tobacco-prevention specialist, asks when she sees such an image.
It’s a sincere question, not a slam.
Wooed for years by tobacco companies — who lavish free merchandise on their bars and clubs, sponsor their events and advertise heavily in their publications — gays, lesbians and bisexuals remain hooked on cigarettes, even as the general population smokes less.
But public health specialists are optimistic that a new ban on smoking in Oregon bars will cause a decline in the smoking rates of gays and lesbians, who tend to pick up the habit as teens coming to terms with stigma surrounding their sexual identity.
“If you were coming up gay, it used to be the only place you got to meet was in a bar,” says Michael Kaplan, executive director of Cascade AIDS Project and a former pack-a-day smoker. “If you wanted to fit in, you’d smoke.”
About one in three gay, lesbian and bisexual Oregonians smoke, compared to about one in five smokers in the state’s overall population, according to the public health division of the Oregon Department of Human Services. The disparity is worse among gay, lesbian and bisexual teens, who are 2 1/2 times more likely to smoke than their straight peers. What’s more, half of all gay Oregon smokers say they don’t want to quit.
Nationally, tobacco-related illnesses such as cancer and heart disease kill about 30,000 gays, lesbians and bisexuals each year, reports the American Cancer Society. AIDS kills about half as many, straight people included, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. See Smoking prevention groups go after tobacco ads targeting gays
The Oregonian – OregonLive.com -* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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Gay man to be named to top White House post

The days leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama have brought a virtual cascade of LGBT-related political developments: nine new appointments were revealed to be in the works, a gesture was made, and an unexpected skeleton emerged from a completely overlooked archival closet.

Most significant by far, in terms of political importance, are the new appointments, albeit in various stages of being vetted, finalized, and announced.

Openly gay National Zoo Director John Berry is being named to head the Office of Personnel Management. It’s a tad short of the secretary of interior position gay leaders had hoped for but it’s the highest-ranking position ever for an openly gay appointee. The Office of Personnel Management, with more than 5,000 employees and an annual budget of about $1.5 billion, is the hiring agency of the federal government’s 3 million-strong civilian workforce.

See Gay man to be named to top White House post
Bay Area Reporter, CA