Last evening, Reason co-sponsored an
event at New York’s great Museum of Sex titled “Thank
You for Vaping,” in which foes of the nanny state lit up
electronic cigarettes (filled with all sorts of material!)
in defiance of the Big Apple’s new vaping ban. It was a swell time,
as perusal of the press coverage can attest.
ABC News:
More than 300 e-smokers showed up for a “vape-in” at Manhattan’s
Museum of Sex Monday night to protest a New York City ban on indoor
e-cigarette smoking. They thumbed their noses at e-cigarette
prohibitionists by dancing and vaping the night away until well
past midnight, when the ban went into effect. [...]
Tara Lober, a 21-year-old from Brooklyn who attended the event,
said she thinks the ban is silly.
“This is a health issue, yes, but I see it as closer to a civil
rights issue,” Lober said[.].
Newsweek:
The scene might have been mistaken for a pickup
spot—there were more than 100 bodies loose with booze, many toking
on hookah-looking things. But those present consisted of vapers,
what users of e-cigarettes and higher-tech nicotine-vaporizing
devices call themselves, and they gathered to protest the city’s
indoor e-cig ban that took effect at midnight—by continuing to vape
after 12 a.m. [...]
One such vaper is Will Gallagher, a 20-year-old photography
student who had a cigarette habit until he got into vaping.
“They make this out to be a bad thing when there really isn’t a
lot of information,” he said of anti-vaping efforts. “It’s really
been a shoot first, ask questions later situation.”
And, compared with smoking, “it’s a much healthier thing,” he
added. [...]
Vice magazine co-founder Gavin McInnes helped lead
the countdown from five before midnight, which was followed by
shouts of “Illegal smoking, woo!” and “Outlaw!” as vapers breathed
deep.
When Newsweek asked McInnes what brought him
to the vape-in, he said he didn’t vape or smoke but was “always a
libertarian.”
Vice:
If SoHo’s
swanky Henley Vaporium was a sign that the vape scene has
come out from underground and is penetrating the mainstream, last
night’s event seals the deal. (Henley founder Talia Eisenberg was
there donning a “Fuck Big Tobacco” shirt.) Attendees mingled with
glasses of wine and High Life, in a darkly lit venue strewn
with Playboy magazines and a DJ mixing next to
the cocktail bar.
It felt more like a fancy club than political protest, but the
message was clear: get your hands off our vapes. If not for the
benefit of the public health, than for the nascent industry
attempting to distance itself from the toxic habit that society has
been trying to kick for decades.
The Verge:
Inside, a diverse crowd of punks, 9-to-5-types,
white hairs, 20-somethings, Army veterans, and artists puffed on
nicotine vaporizers, the all-metallic devices that look like part
of a vacuum cleaner, and “cigalikes,” the smaller, cheaper sticks
that look like cigarettes and probably have glowing tips. The smell
of caramelized banana, Apple Jacks, and melon mixed in the air.
[...]
“This is the beginning. This is where this fight takes off,”
says Jenee Fowler, a thin woman with multicolored hair also known
as Vape
Girl on YouTube. Fowler’s boyfriend Russ Wishtart, a
vaping advocate who hosts a libertarian-themed podcast, recently
joined a smoker’s rights group in a lawsuit
against New York City over the vaping ban.
Fowler is a former smoker, like many of tonight’s attendees. She
quit after she started using an electronic inhaler that vaporizes a
nicotine solution in order to simulate the effects of smoking. Like
many of tonight’s attendees, she feels the e-cig ban is
counterproductive.
“We were forced to be smokers because we were addicted,” she
says, taking a hit of something called “freckle-faced dragonberry.”
“Now we finally have our lives back.”
Would she be observing the new rules that ban
vaping in restaurants, bars, schools, within 15 feet of a
hospital door, “public arenas where bingo is played,” and so
on?
No, she says. “I am going to vape everywhere.” [...]
McInnes was wearing the “College” shirt from the
movie Animal House, which he said he had just
watched. “We don’t care if de Blasio puts us on double secret
probation,” he said. “We are going to release water vapors into the
sky, because that doesn’t hurt anybody.”
“Five, four, three, two, one,” the crowd counted down. “I’m
breaking the law!” one man yelled, holding his e-cig in the air.
“We’re all breaking the law!” someone else yelled.
The police never came.
The Verge has a photo essay of the event
here. The
Independents will have some video from the event tonight
at 9 p.m. ET on Fox Business Network.