LGBT Communities Tobacco Action Plan

With planning started in December 2002, the Tobacco Action Plan represents a wide-ranging community process that included a Working Meeting to develop the Tobacco Action Plan and opportunities for Internet-based input and feedback. Such a plan was one of the wish list items tobacco activists had listed a year earlier at the first national LGBTI Tobacco Summit.

The vision for the Action Plan is to establish key criteria and goals to actively address and fight the disproportionate consumption and health burden of tobacco use in the LGBT youth and adult communities through synergistic collaboration on research, prevention, policy, and education at the local, state, and national levels.

Several national LGBT organizations convened the Action Plan Working Meeting: LLEGO, the National Coalition for LGBT Health, the National Association of LGBT Community Centers, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, the Mautner Project for Lesbians with Cancer, the National Youth Advocacy Coalition, the National Coalition of Lesbian and Feminist Cancer Projects and the National Association of Lesbian and Gay Addiction Professionals. A 22-member steering committee was organized, representing LGBT groups nationwide, who recruited additional participants resulting in a diverse group of 64 LGBT tobacco control advocates at a planning meeting in October 2003 in Washington, DC.

For additional information and to connect with LGBTI anti-tobacco activists, be sure to join the Tobacco Action Plan Listserv.