As someone who is committed to environmental protection issues and interested in global warming, sustainable development and other issues, I read the results of the most recent Advocate Poll with great interest. The Advocate asked “Should the government consider global warming to be a bigger threat to national security than terrorism?” As reported in the current issue (the one with Ellen on the cover), sixty-five percent of respondents said “yes” and only twenty-seven percent said “no.” Wow. I wouldn’t have guessed the positive response would be so high.
In addition to my work with Steve and Eddy building the first gay and lesbian communications practice at a major international communications firm, I spend a good deal of my time on energy and environmental campaigns and initiatives. I’ve long thought of myself as an anomaly: a “green” gay. With all of the more immediate/pressing issues facing our community, it just didn’t seem as though many other LGBT people were all that concerned about “green” issues.
With the groundswell of interest in environmental issues among the population at large, we’re starting to see interest in these issues in our community as well. In the past few months, The Advocate also ran a fascinating story about leading gay environmental activists from a variety of organizations and backgrounds. To me, this interest is yet another signal that gays and lesbians are interested in many of the same things as everyone else: we care about the planet we live on, too.
For marketers, I think the message is simple: we’re a group of audiences and a market. If you reach out to us as you would other audiences, we’ll respond. The challenge is to first acknowledge that we are a group of audiences and then treat us as such in your marketing efforts. It’s not difficult, but it does require effort. And as we’ve seen in the latest estimates of the value of the LGBT market, it’s an effort that has a huge potential upside.
P.S. The photo above was taken by my partner, Mark Pimble. For more of his wonderful photography, check out his photos on flickr (search people for "mjpimble").
SUBSCRIBE