Background and Purpose

In 2021, the Grand Rapids Pride Center (GRPC) received a grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to better understand tobacco use among LGBTQ+ individuals, along with strategies that could help them successfully quit using tobacco. Working alongside the GRPC, our team at Datawise designed, conducted, and reported on a survey and focus groups to gather this information.

To reach LGBTQ+ individuals across Michigan, GRPC partnered with nine other organizations that serve LGBTQ+ people. These partner organizations are Affirmations, Great Lakes Bay Pride, Out on the Lakeshore, Stand with Trans, Jim Toy Community Center, OutFront Kalamazoo, Polestar, Trans Sistas of Color, and Transgender Michigan.

Read the full report

Survey Results

Nearly 400 LGBTQ+ individuals completed a survey about tobacco use and quitting resources. Just over a quarter of respondents reported currently using tobacco, and another quarter reported having previously used tobacco. Two-thirds of those who currently used tobacco were interested in quitting if given the resources to do so, and most of these people were interested in quitting soon. Respondents said they would be most comfortable receiving quitting resources from an LGBTQ+ organization.

While tobacco use among LGBTQ+ individuals is an important health concern, survey respondents rated many other health concerns, such as alcohol or other drug addiction, physical or sexual abuse, depression, anxiety, suicide, bullying, and housing instability, as larger issues in the LGBTQ+ community than tobacco use. Taken together, these results reveal that many LGBTQ+ people who currently used tobacco are open to quitting but do not seem to feel like quitting is particularly urgent, especially in light of other more pressing physical, mental, and social health issues.

See the interactive data visualizations

Focus Group Themes

To expand on the survey results, our team conducted focus groups with a total of sixteen LGBTQ+ individuals who wanted to quit using tobacco. Each focus group lasted about ninety minutes and took place virtually. Several key themes emerged from these conversations, including:

Social pressure, combatting mental health, and breaks at work are three prominent reasons that individuals started using tobacco.

Cost of tobacco, medical necessity, and support from others emerged as motivational factors for quitting using tobacco.

A focus on negative health outcomes and scare tactics were ineffective quitting messages for participants.

“The message that annoys me or doesn’t sit well with me is the blanket statement of ‘just quit.’ Oh, just quit smoking cigarettes and you’ll be healthy, and you’ll save all this money. Great, awesome… obviously they’ve never smoked, and they’ve never tried to quit, so it’s like this is written from a nonsmoker. The only thing you can do to quit is to fill that time with other stuff and other habits and other oral fixations, and you need to exchange all of these things instead of just having someone tell you to quit smoking.”

Including more empathy and resources in quitting messages would be more effective for participants.

“I think messaging could be very effective if it was along the lines of, ‘if you’re feeling ready to quit smoking, here are your options,’ as opposed to ‘'you need to stop smoking; here are your options.’ Because [name of person above] is absolutely right; if you aren’t ready to stop, you’re not going to stop… a much better way to approach it [is] ‘are you ready? Here you go. Let’s help you. You’re not? That’s okay. When you are ready, we’re here to help you.”

Support groups and LGBTQ-oriented methods emerged as ideal quitting resources for these individuals.

“So, [something] the LGBTQ community seems to enjoy is support groups that are specifically geared towards the community, towards them… smokers, we [are] connected… with other smokers. Smokers stick together; the LGBTQ community sticks together also. We have that—so I think that whether it’s online support groups, texting support groups, in-person support groups, I think [the LGBTQ] community aspect that brings that group together is going to provide another group for us that sticks together.”

Participants also conveyed that meaningful change in tobacco use among LGBTQ+ people cannot occur without first addressing systemic issues. Discrimination, mental health issues, and a multitude of systemic injustices should be addressed to prevent tobacco usage in the first place, rather than looking at how to get individuals to quit instead.

Questions and Feedback

Please reach out if you have questions or feedback. Please email info@wearedatawise.com or laura.luchies@wearedatawise.com.