The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and OpusComm Group are trying to change that perception and make LGBT people more visible to those running America’s corporations and institutions.

The result of their efforts: The 2006 Gay/Lesbian Consumer Online Census, an annual online survey that collects responses from thousands of LGBT people across the country.

The GL Census, the largest survey of its kind, poses questions from demographics, to politics, to what television shows respondents watch and what products they buy. Last year, 6,000 LGBT people participated in the survey (this year’s survey runs through Nov. 11. Check it out at www.glcensus.org).

Why is that important? “Many subgroups of our population are studied,” says Jaehnig, who believes it’s “important work being done so that LGBT people can be visible to the business world.”

Just as there is diversity among the heterosexual community, there is diversity among the LGBT community. The results of the most recent version of the GL Census showed respondents were single, coupled, grandparents, widowed. They lived in cities, in rural areas and in suburbs. 

“The need to educate advertisers on diversity is an ongoing goal,” says Jeffrey Garber, president of OpusComm Group Inc., “no different than advertisers’ efforts to strive to understand that consumers come in all shapes and sizes and their consumer wallets reflect this axiom.”

For LGBT couples, there is the added challenge that comes with loving someone and possibly creating a family, which has few—if any—legal rights. 

“Maintaining a relationship in today’s society is very challenging,” Jaehnig says. “And members of the LGBT community lack, in support, what the heterosexual population has available to them—financially and legally.” 

Same-sex marriage and legal rights for their families was a concern among the 2006 respondents, particularly women, who were more likely to have children under 18 living at home. The movement for marriage, Jaehnig explains, is more for legal recognition of partners and protections for families. 

It’s a matter of “detangling” marriage from a religious institution to a legal one, she says. “Marriage is a legal contract LGBT people want to protect their families, their partners in the case of death, health issues and for legal issues dealing with children.”

The results of the 2006/2007 GL Census support that: When it comes to religious recognition of same-sex partnerships, 48 percent of men and 35 percent of women said it was not important. Asked if it was extremely important: 18 percent of men and 26 percent of women said yes.

Additional results from the 2006 GL Census include:

 
• Politics—98 percent of respondents were registered voters. Their political interests: Gay men were very much interested in political blogs and HIV/AIDS issues; women showed more interest in increased gay representation in government, recognition of civil unions and same-sex marriages for tax, estate and insurance purposes, and equal rights for both parents. (According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s statistics following the 2004 presidential election, 72 percent of Americans were registered to vote and citizens age 65 and older had the highest registration rate at 79 percent.)
 
• Living—Women tend to live in suburbs, villages and rural areas; men tended to live in cities.
 
• Being out—LGBT people were more likely to be out to friends than family, but less likely to be out at work than to family. The concern about being out at work is obvious, Jaehnig says, because it is there that GLBT people can potentially be discriminated against.
 
• Advertising—When LGBT people know a company is gay-friendly, they are more likely to buy goods and services from them. They like the idea of gay themes in advertising, and more likely to notice ads that appear in gay-oriented media than mainstream media. 
  

For full highlights of the 2006/2007 GL Census report with demographics, media and consumer behavior, go to  www.glcensus.org. 

Source: Syracuse University and OpusComm Group Press Release