MEDIA RELEASE
March 3, 2009
Rocky Mountain Arts Association and SmokeFree GLBT Team Up to Reach Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Smokers in Colorado
Rocky Mountain Arts Association (RMAA) and The GLBT Community Center of Colorado’s project, SmokeFree GLBT, are joining together for an innovative collaboration to educate Colorado’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) community about tobacco prevention and cessation.
SmokeFree GLBT staff will train over 200 RMAA chorus members about tobacco and its impact on the GLBT community. The choruses include the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus, Denver Women’s Chorus, Out Loud: The Colorado Springs Men's Chorus and Mosaic Youth Chorus. The training will include information about the high rate of smoking in the GLBT population and how tobacco companies target them, the impact of secondhand smoke, quit tips for smokers, and insight for friends and family members on how to talk to the smokers in their lives. Additionally, SmokeFree GLBT will offer RMAA a tobacco cessation class specifically designed for chorus members.
SmokeFree GLBT will have resource tables at all RMAA spring concerts and information about tobacco prevention and cessation in all RMAA spring programs. During the concerts, a RMAA chorus member who is a former smoker will share his story about quitting tobacco.
“We believe this project -- a GLBT tobacco prevention and cessation program working with GLBT choruses – is the first of its kind in the nation,” stated Cathy Busha, SmokeFree GLBT Project Director. “We are very excited about this creative partnership.”
Will Adams, Executive Director of RMAA, agrees. “This collaboration is a perfect fit with RMAA’s mission. The members of Rocky Mountain Arts Association provide educational, cultural and social enrichment for our audiences and ourselves. We actively strive to make a positive contribution to the entire community. Given the alarmingly high rates of tobacco use in the GLBT community, we are excited to partner with The Center to help build a healthy community both within RMAA for our members and for our audience.”
“From an artistic standpoint, singers shouldn’t smoke. The biggest effect of smoking on the singing voice is a drastic loss of lung capacity. We want our chorus members to perform at their full potential,” says RMAA Executive Artistic Director Ben Riggs.
SmokeFree GLBT is a statewide tobacco prevention and cessation project that is supported by the State Tobacco Education & Prevention Partnership (STEPP). Eliminating tobacco-related health disparities is a priority for STEPP’s Tobacco Disparities Initiative.
“Research shows that the GLBT community’s smoking rate is about twice that of the heterosexual/non-transgender population,” said Busha. “We believe this ground-breaking project will bring vital information and resources directly to the GLBT community, who is disproportionately impacted by tobacco. Our ultimate goal is to prevent and significantly reduce tobacco use by Colorado’s GLBT community.”
Rocky Mountain Arts Association builds community through music through four community choruses: the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus, Denver Women’s Chorus, Out Loud: The Colorado Springs Men's Chorus and Mosaic Youth Chorus.
The mission of The GLBT Community Center of Colorado is to engage, empower, enrich, and advance the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community of Colorado.
For more information:
Cathy Busha, SmokeFree GLBT Project Director
cbusha@glbtcolorado.org303-733-7743 x102
SmokeFree GLBT website:
http://www.glbtcolorado.org/renderContent.aspx?contentId=35Rocky Mountain Arts Association:
http://www.rmarts.org/State Tobacco Education & Prevention Partnership Disparities Initiative:
http://www.steppcolorado.com/ProjectArea2.aspx?Project=D
Join the Denver Gay Men's Chorus this Sunday, March 22 at 2:oo p.m. as they perform selections from their upcoming spring concert, "A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock 'N Roll" at the main branch of the Denver Public Library (Broadway & 13th Avenue).
The Denver Gay Men's Chorus will be singing in the 11:00 a.m. worship service at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church this Sunday, March 8. Please join us at Montview this Sunday morning to hear the DGMC perform a rousing arrangement of the African American spiritual, "Sinner Man," as well as a setting of "Salaam Aleikum" from Ghana and "Ameni" from South Africa.
