MAY 10.2003 • Q-NOTES
Gay money: Can it buy equality?
Atlanta marketing exec talks
to Triad Business Guild
GREENSBORO — An increasing number
of businesses are looking to reach gays and
lesbians but do
Cindy Abel
they really care
about GLBTs — or
just their money?
Cindy L. Abel,
President of Bizvox
Marketing
Communications,
recently addressed
this topic at the
Triad Professional
& Business Guild
in Greensboro, de
scribing how GLBTs can use this interest in
the community to gain what matters most:
full equality.
Abel pointed to the significant cultural
shift in the past decade, and the reason for
it: people coming out. “As we have come
out, the business world has realized they
were missing an opportunity. You might say,
'All they care about is our money.’ Perhaps
that is the initial motivation. But does that
matter, if they’re doing the things that help
us move forward?”
Abel reminded the audience — econom
ics have been integral to every movement
for equality — citing the example of Richard
Rich in Atlanta. During the 1960s Civil
Rights Movement, Rich brought together
business leaders and said ‘it’s not about
black or white, it’s about the economy of all
of our businesses and our city,’ and helped
prevent the riots that shook Birmingham.
She outlined some of the ways in which
the GLBT community can move closer to the
goal of equality if a company is willing to do
what it takes not to “look better" but actu
ally “be better.”
As inclusive policies are implemented, a
fair workplace begins to emerge through
internal awareness and education.
Additionally, “Corporate leaders such as Paul
Blackney, Worldspan CEO, encourage others
to institute similar policies and some even
testified to Congress that, contrary to busi
nesses’ typical reluctance to embrace more
legislation, a federal Employment Non-
Discrimination Act should be passed.”
When corporations support GLBT organ
izations, not only does it help advance the
issues GLBTs care about, it also publicizes
the fact that “it’s OK to be inclusive, it’s the
best way of doing business” and gives others
the courage to stand up and do so as well.
And as accurate images of gays and les
bians are used in advertising, they replace
the standard, negative stereotypes and allow
others to consider the reality of GLBT lives.
“All of these things encourage GLBT peo
ple to come out, and encourages friends
and family of GLBT people to come out,
provoking conversations outside the com
panies about who we are as people,” added
Abel. “Most of all, it’s an opportunity for
observers of these campaigns to grow, to
heal the wounds of separation, and find
new ways to live with one another.”
While GLBTs naturally find reassurance in
seeing themselves represented in a more pos
itive light, Abel warned GLBTs must be careful
not to look to these marketing campaigns as a
substitute for self-acceptance, “just as we
were not bad people when we we’re ignored,
defamed and ridiculed, we are not suddenly
good people because corporate America
acknowledges our existence and is willing to
reach out to us in the way we’ll respond.
Knowing GLBT value in the world is
something that must come from within.”
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