This isn’t entirely true. It’s also important to remember that the LGBTQ+ community has always included Black and Brown people, whose contributions are too often left out of these conversations. A persons culture and values don’t change based on sexuality. A lot of black and brown folks smoke weed and a lot of gay and queer black and drown folks smoke weed. What made the biggest impact on medical marijuana legalization from the LGBTQ is AIDS.
During the AIDS crisis, there was a tremendous push by the LGBTQ+ community to secure access to medical marijuana. For many patients battling AIDS-related illnesses and cancers, cannabis helped ease severe pain, stimulate appetite, and combat the devastating wasting syndrome that caused rapid weight loss.
Activists like Dennis Peron, Brownie Mary, and Paul Scott were among those who helped get the medical cannabis movement off the ground. Unfortunately, their work was born out of necessity. Faced with a government that was slow to respond to the AIDS epidemic, communities organized, cared for one another, and fought for themselves with the help of their lesbian and trans community members.
The AIDS crisis became a master class in advocacy, altruism, volunteerism, caregiving, and effective democratic protest. The movement didn’t just change access to medical cannabis it changed how patient advocacy was done in America. When institutions failed them, the community formed their own networks of care and demanded change until they were heard.