Learning Objectives: Identify strategies for working with GLBTQI youth around reducing, avoiding, or quitting tobacco and changing the social constructs that reinforce tobacco use by youth in the GLBTQI community.
Abstract: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Intersex (GLBTQI or queer) youth smoke at a rate of nearly 3 times their heterosexual peers. Research shows that queer youth smoke for different reasons than heterosexual youth, many of which are directly related to coming to terms with their sexual orientation within a homophobic and often hostile environment.
Description: Boston's Home for Little Wanderers' Tobacco Education for Gay and Lesbian Youth (TEGLY) program is the only federally funded tobacco prevention program specifically designed for queer youth. Organizations that provide services for queer youth often lack programs that confront tobacco use; HIV/AIDS, STDs, substance abuse, and depression have traditionally taken priority in a climate where funding for GLBTQI services is scarce. TEGLY works to change the queer community's cultural norms around tobacco use and to provide queer youth with alternatives to smoking.
San Francisco's QUIT Project, based on the American Lung Association's Not On Tobacco is part of the Tobacco Free Project cessation initiative for queer youth. QUIT is the first demonstration project implemented in San Francisco using a research-based youth cessation curriculum.
Goals: Participants will be able to identify strategies in working with queer youth to help avoid, reduce or quit tobacco use. Participants will also identify the lessons learned in the implementation of a queer youth cessation program. Participants will learn strategies to plan tobacco-free events, identify resources for quitting, and other program implementation ideas appropriate for the GLBTQI youth community.
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