Fighting smoke with fire. (Smoking).

One in every three women will get cancer in her lifetime, with lung cancer being the leading cause of cancer deaths among those women. Add to that the fact that lesbians are less likely than straight women to seek health care and more likely to smoke cigarettes, and "you have a big problem," says Jessica Halem, executive director of Chicago's Lesbian Community Cancer Project.

While the current "Smoke Up" antitobacco campaign out of Los Angeles--an in-your-face series of ads, billboards, and postcards created by the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center and funded by the county department of health services--targets lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people as a group, the LCCP decided to strike back with an antismoking program aimed specifically at lesbians, dubbed "Bitch to Quit." "We needed something aggressive to combat this aggressive problem," explained Halem. "The women our campaign is aimed at have tried to quit many times. `Bitch to Quit' takes a holistic approach--we want participants to identify and think about what makes them smoke. And we want to get them angry about their addiction."

The eight-week fall workshop, which is modeled after support groups, proved so popular that organizers have scheduled another for January and hope to make the program a model for health organizations around the country.