For those who still hold old stereotypes of gays partying in the streets, you may be shocked to hear that most are dull as dishwater, just like the rest of us middle-class drones. Market researchers and the U.S. Census have found in recent years that gays and lesbians -- surprise! -- also live in the suburbs,
which means they spend weekends cruising the aisles at Target and Home Depot. According to Community Marketing, a San Francisco-based research firm, about half of the gay and lesbian consumers they've surveyed own single-family homes, and half live with their partners or spouses. They're steady wage earners with average household incomes of $86,000 a year, and more than 60% of lesbians own dogs or cats. Can't get more Middle America than that. At the same time, gay consumers represent a wide range of interests and cannot be easily categorized, notes David Paisley, senior research director at Community Marketing.
(Above, "Pride" by John Carleton, under a Creative Commons license on flickr.com.)
Global businesses might be happy to hear that 83% of U.S. gay and lesbian consumers surveyed hold valid passports -- a percentage far higher than the U.S. average of 34% of Americans over 18 years old, according to the just-released "14th Annual Gay and Lesbian Tourism Report" by Community Marketing. About 63% of gay and lesbian consumers surveyed said they used their passports for international travel last year. Their favorite destinations: Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver), England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico (Puerto Vallarta and Cancun) and Puerto Rico.
They also love to spend on brands that cater to the gay marketplace. In the dawn of the modern gay political movement in San Francisco and New York 40 years ago, red-blooded American companies shunned the controversy surrounding gays. Now, hundreds of reputable companies have no problem selling to gay consumers, who make up a $700 billion market, according to Witeck-Combs Communications in Washington D.C. Among the favorite brands of gays, according to Community Marketing's research: W Hotels, Kimpton Hotels, Hilton, Marriott, American Airlines, Southwest, Delta and others. The gay wedding market -- all that hotel and travel spending – also brings hundreds of millions of sales and tax dollars into governments and economies, according to the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute.
(Above, "Gay Buck" by PrizePony, under a Creative Commons license on flickr.com.)
What used to be called "pink dollars" by some are looking pretty green now.