Smoking compounds HIV health problems, research shows. Our community's urgent need to liberate itself from tobacco struck me recently when I saw that a gay youth conference was packed with chain smokers. Likewise, the lobby at a fund-raiser for lesbians with cancer was thick with smoke. The solution, of course, isn't to nag or blame smokers. Instead, we must make lowering our smoking rate a real community project.
Friends can form a cheerleading squad for a pal who's trying to quit.
Or two smokers can quit together, suggests Bob Gordon of San Francisco. The emotional withdrawal is harder for me. So, for the first couple of months you need to stay away from smokers. It's that simple and that hard. Tobacco is a leftover prop from the gay community's self-hating days.