LGBTQ+ people are smoking to cope with trauma. Today’s anti-tobacco activists are failing them.
Yellowing teeth. Wrinkling skin. A dry as hell cough. We’ve all seen the ads showing the dangers of smoking cigarettes. In middle school, our teachers would pass out red ribbons and “D.A.R.E.” us to be drug-free. “Just Say NO” still lingers in my brain all of these years later. We’ve also seen at least one person close to us who has smoked a cigarette, had one too many shots of alcohol, or used some other form of substance to cope with the stresses of daily life. With the FDA declaring youth vaping an “epidemic” in 2018, it is clear that the scare […]