One of the key principles of gay and lesbian communications is that you can’t assume we are all the same. There is no one gay and lesbian audience, instead there are many. You must understand this concept before determining how best to develop programs to reach some or all of us in your communications programs.
I was thinking about this fact, and my past comments on the importance of understanding our history in conducting outreach to our community, when I reviewed the list of honorees for GLBT History Month. This month-long celebration of famous LGBT people started yesterday and runs throughout the month of October.
The list of honorees features recognized, out LGBT people such as Billie Jean King and Pedro Almodovar, but it also features a great many people who while well-known, have not always been recognized as LGBT. For example, the list includes Alexander the Great, Leonardo da Vinci, Bessie Smith and Florence Nightingale. I’m sure people will find many reasons to quibble with the inclusion of some figures in history for whom there is no “proof” of their sexual orientation, but the point has been made.
To me, that point is that we gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are an immensely varied community. We exist in every part of the world and we represent every part of society. A black lesbian poet? Yep, Audre Lord. One of the most famous transgender people in history? Yep, Renee Richards. The openly gay mayor of Berlin, Germany? Yep, Klaus Wowereit. And the list goes on, with the inclusion of Leonard Bernstein, Billie Jean King, Angela Davis, Frank Kameny, Annie Leibovitz, Gore Vidal and many others.
So how do you reach this immensely varied community? You start by determining which part or parts of it are most relevant for the program you’re developing. Based on this determination, you figure out the kinds of messages that will make sense for those audiences and the vehicles that will help you deliver those messages. Understanding our history means that you’ll have a better sense of how to make those decisions and that you’ll be better equipped to develop a more effective communications program.
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