The Gay Boy Next Door

TOPICS: Mainstream media news. Netherlands. Australia. Out Now. Gay market research. Out Now 2004 Gay Krant Netherlands Gay Market Research Report. Violence and harassment against lesbians and gays. Netherlands mainstream news reporting. Chris Crain. Gay Krant. Sydney, Sydney Morning Herald news article on market research showing people do not want to live next door to gay neighbours.

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Last month when I was working out of our Sydney office, I saw this news report in the Sydney Morning Herald about a study showing that for many people living in the US, Australia and elsewhere, living next door to neighbours they knew to be gay is a major issue.

The simple fact is that this is homophobia - there is no other term for it.

Since I first saw this news reported on last month: We're still a nation of NIMBYs on gays I have been wondering what to do with reporting it here ever since.

We knew of course from Out Now's gay market research that violence and harassment against gays and lesbians is a major problem in most parts of the world. It can happen anywhere - including at work.

In 2004 Out Now market research for Gay Krant GK magazine revealed violence against gays even in the supposedly gay comfortable Netherlands.

There were even news reports of Dutch violence against a US man: a gay media NY Blade editor visiting Amsterdam, called Chris Crain.

At Gay Market News we recognize that while there is increasing acceptance of gays and lesbians worldwide, as reflected in increasing commercial advertising, PR and marketing interest, there are still daily issues of violence and harassment faced by too many gays and lesbians just wanting to live their daily lives.

As I said at the start of this article, that new study about living next door to gay neighbours has been on my mind, and I have been wondering how to cover it.

This week I came across an excellent coverage of the issues the research reveals by - none other than Chris Crain - the gay media US guy bashed in Amsterdam who I first learned of years ago in news reports that quoted Out Now research on gay violence and harassment in the Netherlands.

Chris makes some excellent observations about this NIMBY - not in my back yard (or even living next door) - research study.

We recommend you read Chris Crain's article on living next door to gay neighbours. It is worth it.

Here is a brief taste of what he has to say on this:

Asked who they would not want as neighbors, one in five residents of Western Europe, the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand said “no” to the gay next door. That’s fully double the number who said they wouldn’t want Jews or someone of a different race for a neighbor.

The papers may be full of stories about resentment toward immigrants and foreign workers, but gays are less welcome to the neighborhood by more than 50 percent. Even Muslims, with all their bad press, are 25 percent more accepted.

If you believe, as many of us do, that homophobia is the last acceptable prejudice, you’ll find support in the study. In two-thirds of the countries surveyed, gays were rated the least desirable neighbors, including in the U.S., Canada and Australia, where the numbers who disapproved of gay neighbors were more than double that of Muslims, the next group down the list.

It’s impossible to say whether the 23 percent of Americans who don’t want gay neighbors form the bulk of the 35 percent of Americans overall who don’t want our relationships to receive legal recognition — but it’s a pretty safe bet.

But as the gay couple on "Welcome to the Neighborhood" proved, although no one got to see it, the answer to this level of bigotry may not be in changing laws, but in changing hearts and minds. We have always been our own best ambassadors, and perhaps if we keep extending our welcome mat, one day more "deeply religious" folks will do the same.

To better understand the marketing relevance of the lives lived behind gay market research data, contact Out Now.
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