Transcripts

SPEAKER 1: I think we have a real interesting environment here in the Twin Cities and in Minnesota because we are fairly progressive politically. We have elected state officials that are out gays and lesbians. We have some legislation that protects gays and lesbians in this state.

But when it comes to the business climate, there's kind of an interesting perspective because what we have are companies who are certainly not discriminatory towards gays and lesbians and many of whom actually welcome gay and lesbian dollars. But they're not willing to be out about it. For many, many businesses in this state, the gay dollar is very important to them.

We believe it's important that they know that. And that's an important that they feel good enough about it to say to the community at large, hey, we support gays and lesbians because what's good for us is good for them and vice versa. And so that's what I believe-- for the most part, we believe is a gay friendly business. It's one that welcomes the gay and lesbian dollar and is also willing to be up front about that fact.

SPEAKER 2: How do you measure that?

SPEAKER 1: Well, there's a lot of ways of measuring it. And it's ways that the straight owned business sometimes doesn't perceive. For example, a hotel might believe that the way to target their customer is to have brochures saying that they have larger beds, they have more restaurants in their hotel, and they offer competitive rates. That's important to the community as a whole and of course, may be important to the gay and lesbian consumer.

However, for the gay and lesbian consumer, it's also perhaps more important that the hotel has domestic partnership benefits, that they have a non-discrimination policy towards people with HIV and AIDS. It's important that in their advertising brochures, they advertise, first of all, in the gay media, and secondly, that they have brochures showing two men or two women positioned around the pool or something. Those are the kind of things that demonstrate to us that they value our business.

SPEAKER 2: Why do you think your business should be worthwhile to them. When we talk about clout, can you frame that for me?

SPEAKER 3: Yes. While gay and lesbian people may be, in many, many ways, very similar to people, a cross section of people just at large in the community, one major difference is that, A, for the most part there is they are more affluent. And, b, 80% of gays and lesbians across the country will make their buying purchases based on gay and lesbian specific advertising or targeted advertising.

So that if you're a company who values the gay and lesbian dollar, you're going to aggressively go out and show that community that you're going to advertise. And by doing that, they'll be very faithful to you. It's a very loyal community.

SPEAKER 2: We're in the midst of Starbucks right now. And you would call that a gay friendly business. Why?

SPEAKER 1: One thing that impressed me with Starbucks is that when they moved into the Twin Cities community, they made sure that they were reaching out to the community and were benefiting the community. And not only have they done that when they moved in, but they've continued to do that. There is a couple of events that exist in the Twin Cities that raise money for AIDS organizations and for other gay and lesbian organizations.

And in all of those events that I've been involved with, Starbucks has been out front about how can we help you, how can we have a presence there, how can we give back to the community. And so that has been very-- that's been a very gratifying thing to see. And I know that Starbucks also has targeted AIDS, for example, as one issue that they want to become very involved in. They have excellent company benefits when it comes to domestic partnership and that kind of thing. And so that's one way that Starbucks has shown that they care about us.

SPEAKER 2: What are some other non-gay owned businesses in the Twin Cities that you believe are friendly to the gay and lesbian community?

SPEAKER 1: There's many individual-- individually owned businesses such as restaurants, florist shops, Lagoon Cinema, a movie theater located in the uptown area. Those have all demonstrated some commitment to the gay and lesbian community by advertising in the gay and lesbian media. They have a presence at Gay Pride, which is held every year at the end of June.

But unfortunately, the larger companies in the Twin Cities have not been, as we noted earlier, as upfront as they perhaps should be about saying we value the gay and lesbian customer and really want to go out of our way to prove that.

SPEAKER 2: Do you think your efforts will help them cross that hurdle.

SPEAKER 3: Well, one of the goals of our efforts is to assist them in reaching that market and showing them what it is they need to do. The other thing is establishing a standard. If you are a member of Twin Cities quorum, that right there will show the people in the gay and lesbian community in this town that you want their business and that it is a concern of yours to make sure that you have covered all of your bases as far as gathering information and networking and making sure that you know what the gay and lesbian community wants from you.

SPEAKER 2: How will whether the pressure you're exerting and the guidance that you're providing is working?

SPEAKER 1: I think that the member businesses will, perhaps, be able to tell us if it's a success or not because if we can attract the kind of business from outside the Twin Cities that we're hoping we can attract from the gay and lesbian community on a national level, they're going to be coming into town. They're going to be spending lots of money. And the businesses are going to feel that impact.

Already, we've had several national gay and lesbian groups that have been meeting in the Twin Cities. We've had the National Gay and lesbian Journalists Association, the National Gay Men's Volleyball Tournament. Next year, the National Gay and Lesbian Softball Tournament is going to be here.

All of those kinds of things impact business in the Twin Cities. And businesses are becoming much more sophisticated. I think that they'll know when those gay dollars start coming into their business.

SPEAKER 2: I was thinking in terms of just people who live here frequenting gay friendly businesses, not conventions coming in from the outside. Will they be able to measure that as well?

SPEAKER 1: Well, we're going to have to come up with some ways that they can measure that. And maybe it's as simple as having some kind of a decal that the business puts on there, puts on their door. And when the gay and lesbian consumer goes into that business, they make a point of telling them that that's why they're there. There are some ways of measuring that are pretty elementary, I think.