Corporate America - The Unlikely Gay
Ally
Aobgy News/proudparenting.com
By Malcolm Lazin
January 5, 2006
The FORTUNE 500 has reached consensus: homophobia is not good business. The
American Family Association (AFA) failed with a threatened boycott to convince
Ford Motor Company to pull its ads in gay publications. Threats by AFA and
similar organizations also fizzled with Disney, Microsoft, Wells Fargo and
Kraft, among others.
Wal-Mart, the largest of the FORTUNE 500 companies, includes sexual
orientation protection in its workplace policies and has retained Witeck-Combs,
a marketing consulting firm specializing in the gay community to conduct staff
seminars on the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) market.
Five years ago, a minority of FORTUNE 500 companies provided sexual
orientation workplace protection. Currently, 461 (92.2%) of the 2005 FORTUNE
500 Companies protect gay employees. Vanguard recently decided to vote its
proxy for sexual orientation workplace protection. Vanguard and other
institutional stewards understand that diversity is in the best corporate and
shareholder interest.
The GLBT market is far larger than realized. Voters News Service and Zogby
International data reflect that between 4% to 5% of the American voting
population self-identifies as gay or lesbian. According to studies, there are
15 million adult GLBT Americans.
The 15 million adult GLBT Americans with a $610 billion annual buying power
compares with 9.3 million adult Asian Americans with a $344 billion annual
buying power, 23.8 million adult African Americans with a $688 billion annual
buying power and 26.5 million adult Hispanic Americans with a $653 billion
annual buying power.
Recently, more gay and lesbian couples are parenting. Even with this growing
trend, there is far less than one child per GLBT household. With fewer children
per household, the average adult GLBT American has more disposable income. This
is reflected in the hospitality industry recognizing GLBT Americans as a highly
desirable travel market.
These 15 million adult GLBT Americans with fewer children and higher
disposable income become an attractive consumer market for Ford. It is a
compelling business reason not to pull Land Rover, Jaguar and other Ford ads
from gay publications.
Corporate America has become an instrument of social change. Social
conservatives not only find themselves up against core American values such as
fairness, but also core principles of free enterprise. Efficient capitalism
requires bottom line decisions.
Corporate America has become an ally of GLBT rights not only because so many
agree with equality, but because the result is consistent with profit
maximization. Capitalists have concluded that for the GLBT market, sagacious
business follows the money.
(1/5/2006)
- By Malcolm Lazin , proudparenting.com
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