New York Gays Win, Smokers Lose

Justina wonders whether there’s a relationship between New York legislating for gay marriage at the same time as banning smoking in New York's parks.

“Don’t get me wrong, I support gay rights,” says Justina, “yet it seems to me that every right gays have won has been at the expense of smokers’ rights and I’m wondering whether the gay lobby has been working against smokers behind the scenes in order win approval for their agenda, or whether the narks out there need someone else to hate now that it is illegal to vilify gays.”

“Every objection once applied to homosexuality now seems to be leveled at smokers – it’s dirty, it’s unnatural, it causes horrible diseases, it’s anti-social etc.,” explains Justina, “and terms once the domain of gays now apply to smokers - we’ve become ‘closet’ smokers, people love ‘outing’ us, we are forced to smoke in lavatories and bushes in case someone catches us, and the accoutrements of our vice are now hidden under counters, requested in shameful, hushed tones, and sold to us with a sense of disgust by salespeople.”

“Sure, smoking is dirty, unnatural, anti-social and causes horrible diseases,” admits Justina, “but homosexuality is all of those things, too, and yet nobody dares say so to a gay person any more – and good thing too – but why is it now OK to vilify smokers in the same way that gays once were?”

“I actually heard some crazy woman say that she is deliberately exposing her young sons to homosexual material in order to help them through adolescence – just in case they may be that way inclined,” says Justina. “Hello? Can you imagine her exposing her young sons to smoking material in the same manner, for the same reason?”

“It is all very well to support gay rights and let them marry, kiss and cuddle in public and do whatever they want to do within the privacy of their homes and clubs,” says Justina, “but it is quite another thing to shove the gay lifestyle into our faces at the same time as vilifying the smoking lifestyle.”

“And this is where New York is wrong.”

“If the good burghers of that city are prepared to allow gays to marry, then why are they being so illiberal in relation to smokers?” asks Justina. “Why the ban on smoking in parks?”
“It has nothing to do with public health,” says Justina. “It is purely because some people just don’t want to be exposed to other people doing something enjoyable and perfectly legal in the open air that they, themselves, don’t do.”

“If we can’t smoke in the parks, guys, where can we smoke?”


Read Justina's other thoughts on this issue:

smokers should read gay pride book