By Jonathan Jones

A study soon to come out in the United States shows that the percentage of smokers among gay men and lesbians is far higher than that of their heterosexual counterparts. 37% of lesbians in the United States light up as compared to 18% of straight women which is an increase of over 200% whereas the figures for gay men are 33% as opposed to 24% of straight men which is still a quite considerable increase. Researchers studied those who smoked within the LGBT communities for over 20 years to inform their eventual findings.

This does not surprise me. When I used to party a lot more in my 20's the best place to guarantee a ciggie would be wherever gay people hung out. Not only did a large number of them smoke, they were also generous in dishing out cigs to whoever was nearby. Plus, they smoked 'our' brand. Even now, this particular brand seems to be the smoke of choice among lesbians and gay men in England. In fact, where I've been working recently all the apparent looking gays smoked so I was guaranteed a cig and a good chat with fellow pink teamers, a win-win situation for a gay nicotine addict like myself. Because that's what we are, addicts. Mention that though to any number of people who smoke and they baulk at the idea that they themselves could be addicts. Addicts are people who jack up in parks and walk around skeletal mumbling unintelligibly, not people who smoke a good old menthol cigarette while having a posh dinner party with friends.

I've smoked on and off since I was 14 though there have been quite significant periods where I haven't touched any at all but it's always been with me pretty much. If I haven't had one I've been thinking about one. I liked smoking from the off. I wasn't drawn into it nor did so to look cool partly because I have never been cool. I simply asked someone at school who I knew smoked if I could try one which I duly did, loved the smell, the taste and was off out there doing it. If anyone can be a natural smoker it was me. I know it's killing me and I will stop but I do love it and for a non-smoker that's very difficult to grasp. Hey it's even difficult for me to get my head around. I love lighting up a thin paper cylinder and breathing fire into my lungs. It's madness really!

Joseph Lee, one of the chief researchers in the aforementioned study had this to say:-

"Likely explanations include the success of tobacco industry’s targeted marketing to gays and lesbians, as well as time spent in smoky social venues and stress from discrimination."

He then had this to say, which makes rather grim reading I'm afraid:-

"Tobacco is likely the number one cause of death among gays and lesbians."

The American Cancer Society estimates that at least 30,000 LGBT people die each year from smoking-related illnesses. That's a shocking statistic. Groups such as the We all know that smoking is no longer cool, government legislation has seen to that. Where once smokers could light up freely in all manner of places, now they are viewed as pariahs in society and you often see smokers shivering away outside of offices, pubs, clubs you name it just so they can have their nicotine fix.

Smoking a cigarette does not alleviate the symptoms of stress, rather it adds to it in terms of raising blood pressure, heart rate etc etc so it must have a psychological factor because I know that I seem to feel more relaxed when I'm smoking and in fact I'm more often than not smoking as I write this column because it makes me think I'm better at creating and putting ideas together.

I know that when I pick up my bass guitar to play, invariably I'm smoking shortly after and put me where there's alcohol and I want to smoke immediately. I don't know what the answer is, all I know is we in the gay community smoke a hell of a lot, it's killing us in large numbers and that pains me considerably.