Gay Business

Big Business
Chance Mitchell and Justin Nelson and the growth of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

The reason that homosexuality is socially and politically recognized is the power of the dollar, regardless of the power of the social conservative lobby.

Once out of the closet, the gay movement created a business niche that has grown to become a multi-billion dollar market. Ask Toyota and other companies that recognize and advertize to the gay market.

Gay readers, consumers, and a dominant gay habitus: 25 years of the Advocate magazine

This essay extends Bourdieu's analysis of taste, cultural capital, and habitus to address the identification of and appeal to gay consumers in the Advocate magazine between 1967 and 1992. From its humble beginnings as a local activist newspaper to its incarnation as a gay and lesbian, glossy, lifestyle magazine in the early 1990s, the Advocate consolidated the image of the ideal gay consumer, his (occasionally her) tastes, pleasures, and concerns, for readers and advertisers alike. The magazine thus helped to construct a dominant gay habitus that would increasingly characterize an openly gay, professional-managerial class. This process provides both opportunities and costs for a diverse gay citizenship and for a lively, heterogeneous, sex-positive gay politics.

"Sex Sells: Sex, Taste, and Class in Commercial Gay and Lesbian Media"
The question of when and how sex sells takes an interesting turn when we consider the cultivation of the gay market, especially since the distinguishing feature of this market is its nonnormative sexuality. The past thirty years have witnessed an exponential rise in attention to gay consumers, increased representations of gays and lesbians in mainstream and niche media, and the diversification of gay and lesbian media. Interest in gay and lesbian consumers from national corporations such as Seagram, Subaru, and American Express has helped take gay media from small, local newspapers and journals (such as the earliest days of the Advocate)

I recently saw a truck in Edmonton with the familar gay rainbow symbol on it, a local construction renovation contractor entitled Pride Construction.

Butch construction workers coming out on the job. Thats why Same Sex Marriage will remain the law in Canada.

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Gay

Homosexual

Same Sex Marriage


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