M.E. Morreo at El Centro Esperanza tips us off to the following smoking cessation and awareness program for the local LGBTI community.

Heart Month Raises Awareness about Steps to Reduce Risk of Heart Disease: Quit Smoking and Eliminate Exposure to Secondhand Smoke

During the month of February, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people across the nation are raising awareness about heart disease and taking steps to lower their risk. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Two of the ways to reduce the risk of heart disease are to stop smoking and eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke.

According to studies, long-term exposure to secondhand smoke is associated with a 25 percent to 30 percent increased risk of heart disease in adult nonsmokers. The Pueblo Heart Study Phase II, published in the Jan. 2, 2009 issue of the Centers for disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, revealed that heart attack hospitalizations in the city of Pueblo, Colo. fell dramatically and sustained for three years after implementation of a comprehensive smoke-free workplace and public place ordinance. This latest study reinforces that smoke-free policies are vital in preventing heart disease mortality and morbidity.

The U.S. Surgeon General has found that secondhand smoke is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in the United States each year and that there is no safe level of exposure. Colorado implemented the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act (CCIA), its statewide smoke-free law, on July 1, 2006, and extended it to casinos on July 1, 2008. Research shows that smoke-free laws and policies to eliminate smoking indoors are credited with decreases of exposure. Before and after public places including restaurants, bars and casinos went smoke free, the State Tobacco Education & Prevention Partnership at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment conducted studies that measured air pollution in these venues. After the smoke-free law was implemented, the air improved by 90 percent in restaurants and bars and by 92 percent in casinos – an Environmental Protection Agency rating of “good.” Additionally, studies indicate that these smoke-free laws can prompt people who smoke to quit.

In the American Lung Association’s recent report card for states, Colorado was issued a grade of “A” for Smokefree Air. Though Colorado’s smoke-free law covers most indoor public places, strengthening specific areas and enforcing compliance with the law can protect more Coloradoans from exposure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children ages 4 - 11 have the highest rate of exposure at more than 60 percent. The primary source of secondhand smoke exposure to children is in the home. Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke are more susceptible to ear infections and coughs, bronchitis and pneumonia, childhood asthma; and SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Youth ages 12 - 19 have the next highest rate of exposure at more than 55 percent.

LGBT and Allied people who want to quit smoking or those who are thinking about quitting can seek help and support from the Colorado QuitLine – a free telephone coaching service for quitting tobacco that offers a FREE supply of the patch. To contact the QuitLine, call 1.800.QUIT.NOW (1-800-784-8669) or visit www.coquitline.org for Web-based cessation tools. The Colorado QuitLine is operated by National Jewish Health under contract to the State Tobacco Education & Prevention Partnership at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. QuitLine coaches are available Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For more information on SmokeFree LGBT in Colorado, please visit http://www.glbtcolorado.org/renderContent.aspx?contentId=35

For more information on STEPP (The State Tobacco Education and Prevention Partnership), please visit http://www.steppcolorado.com/

For more information on Raising Smoke-free Kids, please visit http://www.raisesmokefreekids.com/

Posted: February 10th, 2009 under Gay marriage, Health.
Comments: none

I’m loving this video.  The fact that Jack Black looks exactly like my son notwithstanding, this is a fantastic, tongue-in-cheek commentary on the ridiculousness of trying to leverage the biblical morality argument against gay marriage.

So one day, Jesus is hanging out…

One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’
And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that (he) answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

–Mark 12:28-34

So what does this mean?  Jesus is saying that love is the greatest commandment behind loving God.  I hate to remind you this, but God created gays.  Doesn’t matter how much it bother you, or how many pickets signs you carry, the fact remains that God in his/her infinite wisdom decided it was ok by him/her to have gays on the planet.  What’s left for us is to love one another.  That means that gays can love one another, and that means that we should love all people, gay or straight.  People who love don’t deprive their loved ones of happiness.

Anyway, here’s the video:

Posted: December 4th, 2008 under Gay marriage.
Comments: none

The debate over marriage equality, especially in light of the goings-on in California over Proposition 8, has people a little uncomfortable.  In my opinion, however, this is the last frontier of civil rights in the United States.  I say this because the restriction of legal marriage because of sexual orientation means that one group’s rights to “…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” will be infringed.  The writers and ratifiers of the Declaration of Independence meant for all citizens of the United States of America to have equal protections and rights under the law.  It was, and still should be, considered the act of a patriot to hold these rights as “inalienable,” in other words, they were meant for all citizens.

We Latinos understand that terminology.  It wasn’t all that long ago that the only job that a Mexican could get was building railroad or picking vegetables.  I know people that grew up in the San Luis valley here in Colorado that were beaten as schoolchildren because they made the horrible mistake of speaking Spanish in the school yard.  We can also think back to the old times, when New Spain ceded Texas to the United States, and how immediately laws were passed barring Catholics from owning land.  People who were given land grants from the Spanish crown, sometimes for acts of heroism, were suddenly homeless because of their native language and because of their faith.

We Latinos understand the way civil rights are infringed upon…all too well.

Now, I want to make a huge distinction between civil matters and religious matters.  There’s the whole separation of church thing, remember?  I am a practicing Roman Catholic, and the last thing I want is the government mixing it up in my religion, telling us what to do, even though I would be totally ok with gay marriages being sanctioned in the Church.  But the Church is an organism separate from “the world.”  If the Church decides she doesn’t want to bless gay marriages, then that’s a battle we need to fight internally, without the interference of government.  This is a totally different thing from the civil right to marry whomever one chooses.

In the final analysis, no matter how weirded out we get by the prospect of a gay marriage, that marriage has no effect on heterosexual marriages.  In fact, nearly 52 percent of them will end in divorce all by themselves, without any undue influence from a gay underground.  We heterosexuals napalm our own relationships because we cling to sexist ideals, to unrealistic expectations of one’s partner, of moral incompatibilities.  There are no gays at the gate waiting to ambush you as you open the door for the morning paper.

Is it fair to deny equal access to marriage to a couple that happens to be of the same gender?  No, just as much as it’s not fair to have laws that make interracial marriages illegal, or marriages between a citizen and an undocumented resident, or between a Catholic and a Jew, for example.  As we all know, there was a time in which it was illegal for blacks and whites to marry.  Now we look back at that past with a jaundiced eye and wonder what the hell was wrong with us.

Let’s get over this weirdness we have about gay marriage and just let people try to be happy with someone they love, for crying out loud.  Ok?

Posted: December 1st, 2008 under Gay marriage.
Comments: none