“Free”: a smoking awareness campaign for transgender people

The ACT Alliance Against Tobacco, the LGBTI+ Federation, and OUTrans are joining forces to launch an awareness campaign for transgender people. The campaign, titled "Free," aims to raise awareness about the little-known specificities of smoking among trans people, but also to advocate for better support for these people in quitting smoking and, more generally, for improved access to healthcare.[1].

Until recently, little data was available regarding the smoking epidemic among LGBT people, as surveys did not include criteria for sexual orientation and gender. It is only in recent decades that research has been able to demonstrate this very high prevalence within this community.

Higher smoking among transgender people

According to the latest data from Santé Publique France, 37% of transgender people are daily smokers, a figure more than 10 points higher than the national average. For the ACT-Alliance Against Tobacco, this high prevalence is primarily explained by numerous experiences of discrimination: 85 TP3T of trans people reported having been victims of transphobia during their lives and 37 TP3T reported having been victims of discriminatory acts repeatedly during the year. Tobacco is thus perceived as a way to cope with stress.

This high consumption is also explained by the long tradition of targeting the LGBT community by the tobacco industry.[2]The social and political acceptance of the LGBT community in the 1990s led marketers to specifically target this segment of the population. Internal documents show that the tobacco industry was well aware of the high smoking rates among sexual minorities, and that marketing strategies clearly highlighted efforts to capitalize on the LGBT market, including advertising campaigns in the LGBT press.

Call for the implementation of new measures

Through this campaign, the three associations aim to urge public decision-makers to implement new measures to combat smoking within the trans community. They are calling for funding for studies on tobacco use among transgender people to enable the development of appropriate tools and facilitate an appropriate care pathway. The NGOs are also calling for support for the deployment of a national awareness program for transgender people to provide information on existing smoking cessation support programs and the various treatment options. The goal is also to better train healthcare professionals in this regard.

The stakes are high: in France, 1 in 5 people said they had given up on seeing a doctor in the last 12 months for fear of being discriminated against because of their trans identity.

©Generation Without Tobacco

AE

[1] Press release, "Free" Campaign - Raising awareness to better understand tobacco consumption among trans people, Act-Alliance against tobacco, published June 17, 2022, consulted June 21, 2022

[2] Tobacco-free generation, Tobacco and the LGBT community, published June 25, 2021, accessed June 21, 2022