The Sexist » smoking

The State of LGBT Health—Minus the “T”

Amanda Hess — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:02:05 +0000

This week, the District Mayor's Office of GLBT Affairs released the "LGB Health 2010 Report," an examination of everything from smoking habits to sexual behavior in the gay community. This is the District's first report to address the health of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals in the District. But as the report's title makes clear, the transgender community has yet again been excluded from the official conversation on health. Also underrepresented here: African-American men and women under the LGB umbrella.

But first, the findings: The report surveyed 6,218 District residents—90 percent identifying as heterosexual, 4.5 percent identifying as gay or lesbian, and 2.3 percent identifying as bisexual or "other"—from 2005 to 2007.

According to the report, gay, lesbian, and bisexual District residents are more likely to rate their health as "good" or better; more likely to smoke; more likely to binge drink; more likely to be "neither overweight or obese"; more likely to "report one or more days of bad mental health"; more likely to "engage in risky behavior for contracting HIV"; more likely to exercise; more likely to take HIV tests; and more likely to be white.

Here's the stats on that final detail: In the survey, "9.0% of white respondents, 2.0% of African-American respondents and 5.3% of Hispanic respondents identified as gay or lesbian." The DC Center addresses the limitations of the report:

The methodology of the [study] itself raises questions about the reliability of the data and how it represents the true health of the LGB community, as reflected by the limited number of responses from African American LGBT people. The survey's findings rely on an identity-based rather than a behavioral questionnaire, which may exclude men who have sex with other men (MSM) but do not identify as gay.

The report also fails to differentiate between data for gays and lesbian respondents. According to the report, "8.3% of male respondents self identified as gay," while only "2.0% of female respondents self identified as lesbian." It is unlikely, for example, that lesbians are engaging in "risky behavior for contracting HIV" at the rates that gay men are—so what's the benefit in lumping the demographics together?

And, as always: "the absence of information on transgender health underscores the pressing need for better data on the transgender community in the District," the DC Center writes.

Which Maine Potheads Hate Gays?

Amanda Hess — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:36:25 +0000

A friend* pointed me to an interesting divide in the Maine election results: While only 47 percent of Maine voters opted to keep same-sex marriage legal, a full 59 percent voted to legalize medicinal marijuana. By my expert analysis, that means that a significant percentage of Maine's voters are raging potheads who hate gay people.

Here are the latest election results:

Overturn same-sex marriage:

Yes: 53 percent

No: 47 percent

Legalize Medicinal Marijuana:

Yes: 59 percent

No: 41 percent

So, which residents of Maine are fighting for their right to get high while expressing their disregard for the civil rights of gay people? My friend floats a theory: Frat guys?

* In order for me to steal his idea, he insisted that he be described as "sexy."

Photo by wstryder, Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

Protect Your Vaginal Lining With the HIV Cigarette

Amanda Hess — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:26:06 +0000

For the time being, smoking will simply send you to another slow, painful, and premature death (cancer)

In the future, women may be able to protect their vaginal linings from the HIV virus by smoking a special cigarette containing the anti-HIV drug griffithsin. Or maybe you'll just rub it all over your vagina, but either way, this is good news.

Griffithsin has been known for years to be effective in preventing HIV from "colonizing the vaginal lining," but science has yet to figure out how to reproduce the drug effectively, as "the only known naturally occurring source of griffithsin is a red algae found off the coast of New Zealand"—essentially, nowhere. Now, scientists have found a plant that has that grows under the necessary elements to cultivate griffithsin growths—tobacco.

Already, scientists have sprayed an entire tobacco field with a synthetic version of the algae and extracted the drug. Now, a vaginal gel is being tested on animals, with hopes of "phase one FDA clinical trials" within a year.

For those still hoping to smoke their HIV away, take heart: "A cigarette containing griffithsin hasn't been discounted either."

Photo by lissalou66