Ian Johnson, Out Now
October 1, 2007
For the best gay and lesbian marketing strategic advice, contact Out Now -- the leading global specialist gay marketing strategic research and communications agency in the gay market.
TOPICS: Gay trends. LGBT community market trends. Gay community marketing. Gay family news. Gay and lesbian parents. Gay families. Gay and lesbian parents. Kids growing up with a lesbian or gay mom or dad. Gay parents part of gay community marketing trends to watch. The reality of modern life is that many thousands of lesbian and gay people are now gay parents.
There have always been kids whose parents were lesbian or gay, but what is a new trend in gay community marketing is the fact that now more than ever, lesbians and gay men have made conscious decisions to become parents whether by biological means or by way of adoption.
Gay Market News has covered this issue before, for example in relation to the UK market and growing numbers of gay and lesbian community members choosing to become parents.
The issue of gay parenting is a global one, and Out Now research from markets across the world show that everywhere from Australia to Asia to Europe to the US, the option to become a lesbian or gay parent is now one that is increasingly being adopted by lesbian and gay community members.
This has very significant implications for gay community marketing initiatives, gay and lesbian communications strategies and consumer brand positioning, with Out Now research results revealing a wealth of insight about the gay community marketing implications of the increasingly important gay market trend of gay parents.
Of course quite apart from being a new marketing trend -- and opening up significant new gay community marketing frontiers -- it is most important to remember that lesbian and gay parents, and their children, have to each day find acceptance and equality as they go about living their normal day to day family lives.
Remember though that this is not just a major new gay marketing trend -- for gay families it is reality. And sometimes it is not always so easy.
The current Washington Blade has an interesting article that explores some of the issues faced by gay parents from a first hand perspective. Before starting to consider the gay community marketing implications of this new gay market trend of gay families, it is most instructive to consider the lives of gay and lesbian parents and the lives of their children -- their actual experiences as gay families -- before anything else.
Here is an extract:
Gay homework assignment
Friday, September 28, 2007
In many ways, I lead a very traditional life.
In fact, in most ways I do. Like many moms all across America, I just said goodbye to our 12-year-olds as they headed off to school. Even the lunch was traditional — peanut butter and jelly. I finished lunches and then did what most stay-at-home parents were doing at 7:45 this morning — yelled at the kids to hurry up. The kids were late this morning. Ben woke up and, for the first time in 12 years, decided to care what his hair looked like.
Typical and traditional, but for me, it’s so much more than that. It all feels so warm, cozy and comfortable.
Then I remind myself that I am a second-class citizen. I’m not quite like all the other parents who waved goodbye to their kids this morning.
I can’t forget that. Nor can I take the warm, cozy and comfortable life I have for granted. And I don’t mean that in some paranoid way. We always need to be reminded of what we are up against. So in that spirit, I’d like to suggest that each of you to do a little homework.
Take a few minutes and have a look at some web sites. I don’t feel great about driving traffic to some of these sites but I feel there is some upside, so here goes.
Google the word “family.” The No. 1 entry is www.family.org. Think about that for a minute. The No. 1 entry when you Google “family” belongs to James Dobson. He is well funded, has access to extraordinary media platforms and raises millions of dollars instilling fear about gay Americans into his army of followers.
I perused that site and stumbled upon a piece offering advice to parents whose son or daughter has just come out to them. It starts out quite nicely and it isn’t until the end that the true colors come shining through.
According to the site, parents have to be willing to do several things: educate themselves on the issue of homosexuality confess any ways they may have inadvertently wounded their child find trusting others in whom they can confide and share realize it may take years for their child to repent of homosexuality and release their child into the good care of God. "When we let go of our loved ones,” the site says, “we stop taking responsibility for them. But we don’t stop fulfilling our responsibilities to them."
Ridiculous, right? Wrong.
Would you like to know how many millions of Americans hang on James Dobson’s every word? Millions and millions.
I repeat: I am not a paranoid personality. I like to be well informed. I’ll take that a step further: I believe I have an obligation to be informed.
But visiting (such) sites does more than inform me. It reminds me that I can’t take what I have for granted.
And perhaps most importantly, the impact of these words is sobering. It makes me want to do something. Like writing this article for example.
I can’t always get my kids to do their homework so I know I have limited influence over those of you reading. But unlike some of my kids’ assignments, this is not busy work. But maybe it will get you busy.
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