GAY MEN AND SMOKING, by Robert Halfhill

I wrote this email about why Gays smoke in much highr percentages than other groups
for my Lavender Greens discussion group. I think that this is the main reaon for Gay
men's higher smoking rate, although, as far as I know, no one else has proposed this
theory. I agree for the most part with your article in the July 9, 2004 LAVENDER,
although I would assign a much different weight to the importance of the reasons you give
for Gay men's higher smoking rates.
Robert Halfhill
Although some people have asked how the the proposed indoor smoking ban is a GLBTI issue,
other minority groups who have suffered disproportionately from this society's promotion
of cigarette smoking have clealy understood how it is an African American, Hispanic, etc
issue. Since the percentage of Gay men who smoke and thereby suffer the harmful effects is
much higher than it is the general population, it is clearly a GLBTI issue for the same
reason. I would like to propose a reason why Gays have been influenced to take up smoking
at a higher percentage than most other groups by advertising. I am not aware of this
reason being discussed by anyone else. Advertising has typically portrayed amoking as
macho in men. Even after being exposed to a steady drum beat of this advertisin in
childhood and adolescence, most people are not so stupid as to CONSCIOUSLY think that they
can make themselves macho by starting to smoke. But the subliminal impression has been
created in the back of peoples' minds that smoking is macho. Heterosexual men have been
given the subliminal impression through years of steady advertising that "if you
start to smoke, you will be this macho man and have these beautiful women." In Gay
men, the subliminal impression that has been created that "If you start to smoke, you
can be this macho man and have these handsome macho men." So far, these subliminal
effects seem exactly the same. So how is the effect greater on Gay men? Although the
heterosexual adolescent has been given the subliminal impression that he can BE this
handsome, macho man and HAVE these beautiful women by starting to smoke, he is not
sexually attracted to the handsome, macho man he has been given the subliminal impression
that he can BE; being handsome and macho is only a MEANS to obtaining the beautiful
women, which, assuming he is 100% heterosexual, is the only thing he is sexually attracted
to. The Gay adolescent is attracted and excited by BOTH the handsome macho, man hs has
been given the subliminal impression he can BE by smoking but also the handsome, macho man
he has been given the subliminal impression he can HAVE by smoking. As I said, few people
are actually stupid enough to think this consciously. But that is the subliminal
impression in the back of the mind that years of exposure to advertising has created, and
Gay men get a double whammy! In fact, by being both sexually attracted to what he has been
given the subliminal impression that he can BE and HAVE, a cycle of escalating a mutual
reinforcement of the two effects may have been created which more than doubles the effect.
I propose this as the reason why smoking rates among Gay men are equal to what they were
among heterosexual men back in the 1950's, before the Surgeon General's report. I will
leave it to people who belong to the L,B,T,and I portions of the GLBTI communities to
develop this theory for their own cases.
Robert Halfhill rhalfhill@juno.com