rm2breathe
Diverse and Resilient has conducted statewide health forums for LGBT community leadership since 2005. At the January 2007 forum, more than 50 LGBT leaders reviewed the research conducted on health disparities in 2005 and 2006, and recommended that future health initiatives developed by Diverse and Resilient and community partners focus on addressing tobacco use within LGBT communities in Wisconsin.
In May of 2008, Diverse and Resilient responded to this recommendation in partnership with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, the American Lung Association, the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, Senior Action in a Gay Environment (SAGE), OutReach, Inc., the Chippewa Valley LGBT Community Center, and the LGBT Community Center of the 7 Rivers Region by creating rm2breathe.
The rm2breathe program has been created to address the growing disparity in tobacco use between LGBT and heterosexual people in the state of Wisconsin. While about 20% of the Wisconsin population smokes, 44% of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults in the state are smokers. This represents an annual loss of approximately 6,960 years of life and a cost of $297,632,000 to the gay community and to the state of Wisconsin.
Several factors have been cited as possible reasons for the disparity between smoking rates in the LGBT community versus the general population. They include: higher levels of economic and social marginalization, stresses resulting from homophobia and discrimination, frequent patronage of bars and clubs, lack of smoke-free social venues, higher rates of alcohol and drug use, and direct targeting to LGBT consumers by the tobacco industry.
To learn more about the program, please visit www.rm2breathe.org.
