LGBT HealthLink Conference Commentary: Not So Straight

by Jenna Wintemberg, MPH

What: Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Conference

Where: Philadelphia, February 25 to 28, 2015

The Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) conference in Philadelphia is the one I look forward the most each year, where the leading researchers in tobacco control come together to share their research. Session topics range from basic and clinical science, to behavioral and social science, to marketing and policy. I was proud to be there representing the Out, Proud and Healthy in Missouri project and LGBT HealthLink. I was also happy to share that this year I attended the conference as a travel scholarship award recipient for increasing diversity in nicotine and tobacco research. Of the 10 travel award scholars, representing many tobacco health disparate populations, I was the only LGBTQ research scholar.

Some of the LGBTQ presentations (titles and lead authors) that took place:

• Is There a Relationship Between the Concentration of Same-Sex Couples and Tobacco Retailer Density? (Joseph Lee)
• Rates of Tobacco Use Among Young Adult LGB Subpopulations (Amanda Richardson)
• Minority Stress, Smoking, and Cessation Attempts: Findings From a Community Sample of Transgender Women in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Sexual and Gender Minority Community-Based Tobacco Cessation Program: Tailored Recruitment and Evidence-Based Intervention (Jenna Wintemberg)

I always start the SRNT conference by looking through the program booklet for all of the LGBTQ tobacco presentations, but this year someone beat me too it. Joseph Lee, a graduate student at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, emailed all of the LGBTQ researchers on the first day of the conference suggesting that we have lunch together and attend each other’s sessions. We were told to look for the rainbow flag tablecloth at lunch today to find each other. We may have been only 15 out of 1,200+ researchers at the conference, but the quality of LGBTQ tobacco research being done is outstanding and we can network in a very individual and personal way. For example, during our lunch meeting we workshopped the projects we are working on such as developing cessation interventions for LGBTQ couples who both smoke, enhancing cultural competency at state quitlines and marketing these services to our communities and addressing cancer disparities. I left with great new connections, new research avenues, and a renewed passion to tackle tobacco in LGBTQ communities.

Jenna Wintemberg, MPH is a Health Education and Promotion doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri and works as a Graduate Research Assistant on the Out, Proud and Healthy Project. Her research interests are Tobacco-Related Health Disparities in Minority Populations, Tobacco Cessation, and Policy Change.