Learning Objectives: Identify opportunities to engage the LGBT community in local tobacco control initiatives. Identify opportunities to educate and empower local LGBT-specific businesses and their employees to develop and enforce clean indoor air policies. Assess the challenges unique to the LGBT community for creating and sustaining comprehensive tobacco control prorams.
Abstract: Historically, tobacco use issues among lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people (LGBT) have received scant attention from the public health community even though LGBT individuals have markedly higher rates of use when compared to the general population. However, recent shifts in priorities at local, state, and national levels, have increased the LGBT community’s access to resources. In the fall of 2001, the Gay and Lesbian Community Center (GLCC) of O’ahu became the 1st organization in Hawai’i to garner financial support to address LGBT-specific tobacco-related issues. Throughout the past year, the GLCC has made impressive strides in creating an infrastructure to promote tobacco-use-prevention and control initiatives within the LGBT community. For professionals and volunteers interested in establishing LGBT-specific interventions, this workshop will outline and provide examples of strategies currently being implemented in Hawai’i for establishing and reinforcing grass-roots collaborations for increasing community awareness of the deceptive nature of the tobacco industry; empowering individuals in the LGBT community to speak out in support of tobacco-use-prevention and control public health practices; and, educating local businesses and their employees to develop and enforce clean indoor air policies. Based on lessons learned, participants will receive LGBT-specific resources and technical assistance for writing an effective proposal, establishing and maintaining a coalition, developing and evaluating an awareness campaign and creating surveys for collecting local data.
Back to Hawaii and the LGBT Community: A Rainbow of Opportunities
Back to Increasing Diversity/Eliminating Disparities
Back to The 2002 National Conference on Tobacco or Health