Queering vaping: A qualitative analysis of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women’s E-cigarette use in Australia

Abstract

Background

Vaping has emerged as a prominent practice among lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women in Australia. Despite its growing prevalence, the socio-cultural dimensions of vaping in LBQ communities remain underexplored. This study examines how vaping functions as a contested site of queer sociability, identity expression, and resistance. Using queer theoretical perspectives, we interrogate the ways LBQ women navigate the aesthetic, social, and political dimensions of vaping within Australia’s unique policy landscape.

Methods

Sixty semi-structured interviews were conducted with LBQ cis and trans women and non-binary individuals aged 18–72 in Australia. A reflexive thematic analysis was employed, informed by queer theory, to explore participants’ accounts of vaping.

Findings

Participants framed vaping as a performative practice tied to queer aesthetics, gender expression, and community bonding. While vaping facilitated intimacy and sociability in queer spaces, its association with stigma and youth culture complicated its subversive potential for some. Vaping emerged as a mode of resistance to normative public health narratives, yet also reproduced tensions around deviance and identity.

Conclusion

Vaping is a dynamic, contested queer practice, reflecting LBQ women’s negotiations of identity, community, and agency within restrictive policy environments. Policy and public health strategies must consider the queer socio-cultural meanings and community practices that shape vaping, to avoid reinforcing stigma and unintended harms to LGBTQ+ communities.