Gay campaign against smoking loses funding

Funding for an anti-smoking campaign sponsored by the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Utah has been cut by the Utah Department of Health.

The center and the UDOH have a "current contractual relationship" through June 30, in which activities involving smoking cessation are funded through Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement funds. The national settlement requires the tobacco industry to fund a charitable foundation that supports the study of programs intended to reduce teen smoking and substance abuse and the prevention of diseases associated with tobacco use.

One such program was implemented by the GLBT Center. T-shirts with the words "Queers kick ash" were given to several teens in May promoting an anti-smoking campaign targeting gay and lesbian teens.

Some teens at Hillcrest High School were asked not to wear the shirts and some refused to remove or change them. This led to the suspension of some students and has generated legal concern from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Jennifer Nuttall, director for adult programs at the GLBT Center, believes the funding refusal is directly related to this campaign, which was created by a teen task force.

"After the media jumped all over the story of students getting suspended from Hillcrest High . . . they immediately disapproved the title of our 'Queers kick ash' program," said Jennifer Nuttall, director of adult programs at the center. "It appears pretty evident that it has everything to do with the issue of the T-shirts at Hillcrest."

The center is in the second year of a three-year renewable contract of a $100,000 grant they received to sponsor the gay-themed anti-smoking campaign.

"They know and recognize that gay youth smoke more and are an at-risk, high-risk population," Nuttall said. "They're shooting themselves in the foot and going against their own objectives of protecting public health."

The Department of Health issued a statement citing its "annual option not to renew this contract for state fiscal year 2005 and to redirect these funds to other community-based tobacco prevention and cessation services for high-risk groups."

The Federal Trade Commission reports that tobacco companies spend more than $5 billion annually, or $13 million per day, on advertising and marketing campaigns.

The "Queers kick ash" program targeted Utah's gay youth, ages 14 to 24, of which 58 percent in Utah smoke — compared to 35 percent of the general population. Nuttall believes such statistics are enough to keep the program going.

Nuttall and the center plan to appeal the decision and ask the Department of Health to reconsider.

"The UDOH came to this decision in an attempt to prevent the anti-tobacco health message from being overshadowed by unrelated advocacy activity," said UDOH public information officer Jana Kettering in a statement. "The UDOH remains concerned about tobacco use among this population and urges those served by the center to access available cessation services through their local health department or through the Utah Tobacco Quit Line."

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E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com