California Launches Tobacco Awareness Campaign For Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Communities.

Because tobacco-related lung cancer causes more deaths in the LGBT community than AIDS, drugs, breast cancer, or gay bashing combined, The Billy DeFrank Lesbian & Gay Community Center, The Center OC and American Legacy Foundation have sponsored a statewide social marketing campaign that launched on February 27, 2003. Renowned social marketing firm Better World Advertising ( http://www.socialmarketing.com ) created the media campaign that highlights the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people who are dealing with their tobacco addictions.

The campaign features images of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people who have triumphed over adversities like alcohol and drug addiction, homelessness, breast cancer, and other life threatening situations and are using this strength to quit smoking. Capitalizing on these individual successes, this campaign aims at inspiring other lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people to quit smoking. Taglines will include messages such as: “I didn’t survive gay bashing to die from lung cancer.”

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people smoke at significantly higher rates than the general population. This higher smoking prevalence can be attributed to issues including: homophobia; the high numbers of targeted tobacco advertisements in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender publications; and tobacco industry sponsorships of community events.

The American Legacy Foundation is a national, independent, public health foundation dedicated to building a world where anyone can quit. One of American Legacy’s goals is to eliminate disparities in access to tobacco prevention and cessation services. For more information about the American Legacy Foundation, visit http://www.americanlegacy.org.

The mission of the Billy DeFrank Lesbian and Gay Community Center is to strengthen communities by developing diverse resources that empower lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies. The mission of The Center OC is to provide services to ensure the physical, psychological, and social well being of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and HIV/AIDS affected community. The goal of Better World Advertising is to improve the quality of human life by designing and implementing strategies that achieve high levels of community education, self-efficacy, and beneficial behavior change.

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