Travel: Holiday Money

Guardian.

'The LGBT market is worth £6bn in the UK and $85bn in the US...'

And you believe these figures, presumably just copied from their press release?

Do you not think they might have a vested interest in pushing over-inflated figures about the size of the market?

Sake.

PS I can't see who this is aimed at.

People who don't know how to Google?

The Economist: The Wages Of Sin

LABOUR markets are hotbeds of inequality. For every dollar a white American man in full-time work earns, the average white woman earns 78 cents and the average Latina only 56 cents. Marriage is a boon for male earnings; motherhood drags female earnings down. Likewise, gay men earn about 5% less than heterosexual ones in Britain and France, and 12-16% less in Canada and America, even after controlling for things like education, skills and experience. Yet one minority appears immune to this scourge: lesbians.

Marieka Klawitter of the University of Washington looked at 29 studies on wages and sexual orientation last year.* On average, they found a 9% earnings premium for lesbians over heterosexual women, compared with a penalty of 11% for gay men relative to straight men. This discrepancy has been borne out by research on America, Britain, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. Even after adjusting for the fact that lesbians are on average more educated than straight women, and less likely to have children, the gap persists.

Research on this topic should be taken with a pinch of salt... 

The Economist.

I don't know about lesbians, but one thing is gay men are more likely to do 'female jobs' (the caring professions, hospitality, retail etc) which tend to be badly paid - and perhaps that's where much of the wage discrepancy comes from?

For more research on this see Joe Clark's Gay Money: The Truth About Lesbian And Gay Economics.

Gay Money: We Got Trillions!!!

The annual spending power of the global LGBT community has been estimated as $3.7trillion (€3.4trillion).

The figure was calculated by LGBT Capital, an asset manager that specializes in providing financial services and advice to the LGBT community.

It offers a further figure of $14trillion (€12.7trillion) for LGBT household wealth (LGBT-Wealth), and estimates that LGBT wealth in the US alone represents $5trillion (€4.6trillion).

‘It is estimated that the Global Spending Power of the LGBT consumer segment is US$3.7 trillion per annum, with an LGBT population estimate of about 450 million,’ said LGBT Capital in a statement.

‘Asia is fast developing, already with an estimated LGBT-GDP in excess of US$1 trillion and with China alone estimated to have an LGBT population of more than 80 million.’ ...

Gay Star News.

It's just embarrassing that the gay media can print this junk without question.


Actually it's depressing.

Fagburn thinks the name 'LGBT Capital' is hilarious, though.

PS Gay Money: The Truth About Lesbian And Gay Economics - a brilliant, well-researched blog debunking nonsense like this.

Will Self: Oscar Wilde, Champagne Socialism And Why I'm Voting Labour

Wilde seeks to define the individual type of the coming socialist age: “With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” It might be argued that in rejecting the institutions of marriage and family, while taking himself – a quasi-closeted gay artist in hypocritical late-Victorian England – as the representative type of the coming age, Wilde was genuinely prophetic. After all, whatever else we may say about contemporary Britain, there’s little doubt that many people perceive it as a society in which they can be themselves sexually, individually and creatively; that this self-realisation is fully articulated within capitalist metrics would presumably be shocking even to Wilde. Soothsayer or not, he never imagined the pink pound would become legal tender...

Wilde writes: “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” Yet for him, in his essay, the two are conflated, because for all utopians, no matter how anarchistic they may think themselves to be, the premise underlying their brave new worlds is that everyone cravenly become exactly like them – and while I myself am perfectly happy to emulate Wilde, I’m not sure being a flamboyant literary figure is likely to fulfil everyone’s needs, nor lie within everyone’s ability. No, I’m no longer a socialist if to be one is to believe that a socialist utopia is attainable by some collective feat of will – but I remain a socialist, if by “socialism” is understood an antipathy to vested interests and privileges neither deserved nor earned, and a strong desire for a genuinely egalitarian society. And that is why, for the first time since 1997, I will be voting Labour in a general election.

Will Self, The Guardian Review.

And here is The Soul Of Man Under Socialism of which Will writes.

Pink Pound: Meet Pink Paint

It was billed as homophobic vandalism but a queer group has now claimed credit for the defacing of a sequined ATM.

ANZ gave an Aukland ATM a glittering sequined makeover as a "GAYTM" but by Friday someone had smothered it in pink paint, which bank describing it "as pretty sad".

It was labelled a homophobic attack, coming just before the Auckland Pride Festival.

But in an anonymous online post, a group calling themselves "Queers Against Injustice" claimed credit for the "pink-washing".

They claim the bank had "co-opted" gay symbolism for commercial purposes, using them to obscure their business practices and treatment of workers.

"It is disheartening that the representation of our symbolic pinkwashing of the GAYTM has been manipulated into an act of hatred and complicity. This misrepresentation reinforces the image of tolerance that ANZ has spent a lot of money marketing to us."

Stuff, New Zealand. 

Hahaha - excellent work.

Queers Against Injustice Political Statement Regarding 'Vandalism' Of GAYTM can be read here. 

Gay Money: Not In The Pink

Earning differences are a consistent problem for many employees with a minority sexual orientation and present one of the most tangible environmental factors affecting their workplace well-being. Studies for the period 1989–2014 suggest that gay men receive lower earnings than heterosexual men of comparable education, skills, and experience [1], [2]. Any remaining earning gaps between gay and heterosexual men not explained by differences in education level, work experience, and occupation are generally interpreted as evidence of labor market discrimination [1], [2], [3]. Studies find that gay men earn from 4–5% less than heterosexual men in the Netherlands, France, Greece, and the UK to 12–16% less in Canada, Sweden, and the US [1], [2], [3] (Figure 1).

Sexual orientation and labor market outcomes, Nick Drydakis, IZA World of Labor report. *

Although this may surprise many regular readers of the gay media  - the main peddlers of the myth of gay affluence ('Advertise with us, our readers are loaded!' etc) - the real research (all 600 pages worth) was presented several years ago on Joe Clark's excellent blog; Gay Money: The Truth About Lesbian And Gay Economics.

[Actually the main reason this myth persists is so many gay journalists are literally incapable of questioning anything they read on a press release].

The straight media are just as guilty, if not more, of unquestioningly regurgitating junk 'research' and made-up statistics on this. Far too many to list - but Google 'pink pound'.

All gay surveys are as unreliable and as unquantifiable as a promised Grindr user's dick size.

Fact!

* The conclusions drawn by Drydakis about why gay men earn less are often exercises in spectacular point-missing, and at once both simplistic and convoluted. 

USA: LGBT Poverty Report

Report by LGBT Movement Advancement Project.

Although Fagburn isn't convinced by its extrapolations about how states' legal discriminations affect economic inequality, this is an important piece of research - yet ignored by all the main US gay media outlets apart from Joe My God. Go figure.

Economics: Or EconoBalls?

PINK POUND
WHO? Gay people [ie gay men].
WORTH? £70 billion.
THEY SPEND ON? Fashion, cosmetics, leisure and fitness, nightlife.

The Sun - Click to enlarge.

Refreshing to see though that it's not just gay men that journalists think they can get away with regurgitating patronising twaddle and completely made-up figures about a social group's supposed spending power.

Questioning Questionable Research 2: The Myth Of Gay Money

Economist Lee Badgett says equal treatment for gays and lesbians can benefit economies from Virginia to India. For the past two decades, she’s mined data in her quest to prove it.

“My long-run goal has always been the same: It’s using research to help create a more just world,” said Badgett, 54, director of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Center for Public Policy and Administration. “When policy makers can pick out their favorite myth about gay people to hang their policy on, it’s pretty hard to argue against.” ...

She broke into her field with a 1995 paper debunking the idea that gay men are richer than their heterosexual counterparts. In the early 1990s, she was studying gender and racial discrimination as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland at College Park when she read a newspaper article that labeled gays a marketer’s dream, citing their above-average affluence.

Lee Badgett

“I thought: ‘This is really interesting. I know a lot of LGBT people -- I am one -- and this doesn’t characterize the people that I know,’” she said. “I needed better data, so that was really the quest. Marketing data wasn’t going to cut it for economists.”

Badgett used the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey to show that gay and bisexual male workers made between 11 percent and 27 percent less than heterosexual men with similar experience, education and region of residence.

“Lee’s seminal research on the economics of sexual orientation was critical,” said Marieka Klawitter, a University of Washington economist in Seattle who published studies on gays after Badgett. “The myths that gays were all rich, carefree, without families, led to the perception that they didn’t face discrimination.” ...

Bloomberg.

Astonishing how junkonomics about the pink pound/dollar are still regularly regurgitated without question.

Well, it's not really is it?

You'd think some 20 years on certain journalists might take notice.

For an exhaustive demolition job on the myth of gay affluence see Joe Clark's Gay Money: The truth about lesbian and gay economics - a project he began after reading Badgett's first paper. 

Gay Travel News: Spend! Spend! Spend!

Marriott International is joining an increasing number of American businesses embracing the power of the pink dollar by targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender customers.

A campaign featuring Jason Collins, the first openly gay National Basketball Association player, and Geena Rocero, the transgender model, has been launched as more resorts attempt to make LGBT tourists feel more welcome.

The annual spend on tourism by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is set to exceed $200 billion for the first time this year, according to Out Now Global, a specialist tourism trade association. The expansion of marriage equality laws in the United States — 19 states have legalised gay marriage — has led to a wave of other campaigns, including Las Vegas’s “Everyone’s welcome. Even straight people.”

Kristine Friend, senior director of segment marketing for Marriott International, said that the company wanted to shift the perception of its brand. “We are committed to ensuring that all of our guests feel comfortable at all of our hotels and are proud to stay with Marriott,” she said...

The Times.

$200 billion, you say?

Sure.
But can you show us your workings?

This figure has come from Out Now Consulting - famed for making up ludicrous over-estimations of gay spending power.

Why? Because they are a company that's all about marketing to the LGBT community, so have a vested financial interest in telling big business; 'There's gold in them there fags!'

Here's an old favourite of Fagburn's claiming that The Gays in Britain earn 25% more than the national average!

Sure - we all get paid extra just for being fabulous.

The myth of the Pink Pound has been thoroughly debunked on the thoroughly researched blog Gay Money: The truth about lesbian and gay economics - all serious research suggests gay men earn less btw. 

And how strange that much of the gay media is running the new ad campaign for Marriott Hotels.
Invariably accompanied by excitable advertorial/editoral about how wonderful it is.

Here's a fawning article on Gay Star News about Marriott's #LoveTravels campaign - the hotel chain are one of GSN's sponsors. 

It's one of the world's largest Mormon-own companies - you'll often find a copy of the Book of Mormon snuggling up to a Gideon Bible in your room. 

Here's what the Latter Day Saints official website has to say about homosexuality...

The Mormon Church is firm on its position condemning homosexuality as sinful behavior. One of the tenets of Mormon doctrine is the Law of Chastity. It permits sexual relations only between a husband and wife who are legally married...

The topic of gay Mormons is a difficult one right now because of the swing of popular opinion toward acceptance, but the Mormon Church cannot compromise the laws of God and counsels those who wish to follow Christ but suffer from same-sex attraction to work to overcome it.

Though they do really love you, or at least your money; by way of example CEO Bill Marriott issued a statement to reassure you that he didn't donate to California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8. 

'The Bible that I love teaches me about honesty, integrity and unconditional love for all people. But beyond that, I am very careful about separating my personal faith and beliefs from how we run our business.'

Phew! That means the gay media don't have to call for a Dorchester-style boycott.

But does it just mean Bill knows being openly homophobic would be bad for business?


Don't know about you, but Fagburn didn't know whether to laugh or barf.

Fagburn: Backpfeifengesicht

Ver actual media is full of stuff about Ukip and that smug posh twat Nigel Farage today, but here's a quick round-up of some other stuff that caught my red eyes recently...

Chris Denning: Shameless Ex-BBC DJ busted BBC News.
Burn the witch! etc etc.

Unreported World: Jamaica's Underground Gays Channel 4.
Tonight at 8pm.
RT with a :( if you want to pretend you care, but won't actually watch it.

Gambo: Shameless BBC DJ hosts Ivor Novello Awards Daily Express.
The 30th year he's done it. Good for him. x

Adorable!: The most pukey kid reacts to gayers 'viral' video EVER! Daily Mail.
It's rather instructive that only naff right-wing dweebs like Mail Online and Gay Star News like sentimental gay crap like this.

Old Vic: Matthew Warchus taking over from Kevin Spacey Daily Telegraph.
Old Vic? Queen Vic more like!
[Edit: Apparently Warchus, director of the new film Pride, isn't gay so... 'Old Vic? Old queen more like!' Not that I'm suggesting Spacey is a big gayer, either].

Disco Damaged: London website relaunched!!! DiscoDamaged.com.
Good news.

Brian Paddick: Ex-lover 'threatened to kill me' Via Gay Star News.
No comment.

Brighton Pride: Will they charge for the St James's Street party? GScene.
Probably. They always do what Sussex Police tell them to.

Sitges: Never Mind The Buggers Guardian Travel.
Fagburn's stepsister [Is there a nicer term to use?] used to live there with her kids and they all loved it.

RuPaul: Responds to 'tranny' 'controversy' HuffPost Gay Voices. 
Context is all. If The Sun used 'tranny' in a cruel, sensationalist story about a trans woman that would be offensive, but I really don't think that's what going on here. 

Harvey Milk: A frigging stamp unveiled at the White House! The Independent. 
A stamp!!!! Wow. It's the least they could do - they checked.

Edward Carpenter: Fundraising drive for a memorial in Sheffield Morning Star.
The pioneering radical gay socialist Edward Carpenter is one of Fagburn's heroes. Born in Hove, he didn't stay long...

Fred Phelps: Did a dying Fred come out for LGBT rights? Via Queerty.
Doubt it. This has apparently come from a member of the Phelps clan and they say all kinds of crazy shit.

Giovanni's Room: The last day at America's oldest gay bookstore Rolling Stone.
Thanks amazon! Maybe since your minimum wage slavery and tax avoidance helped put them out of business, some of the money you so publicly gave for mc same-sex marriage could go to help a community LGBT bookshop for gay people who like books. Ah, just realised the flaw in that plan...

PS Backpfeifengesicht is a German word for a person who should be punched in the face.

No idea why Fagburn kept thinking of that today.

Anyway, here is the real news!

Leave me alone, I can't fucking take it anymore

Finance: Selling Out

'There are more than 3m gay people in Britain, with an average annual salary of £31,000 and collective pre-tax income of £96bn, according to a study by Out Now Consulting (Global LGBT2020).

'Gay consumers are worth an estimated £80bn to the British economy each year, according to Stonewall, and Out Now Consulting found that the first year of Civil Partnerships in the UK delivered a £130m boost to the UK economy.'

Daily Telegraph Finance.

All these figures are utter, utter hyperbolic nonsense.

Can you not see how a company that wants people to exploit the 'gay market' might exaggerate the extent of the 'gay market'??

Or maybe Olivia Goldhill* knows of some secret clause in employment contracts that means all of us queens in low-paid jobs doing care work or in the service industries get paid double just for being 'fabulous'?

• Some pesky facts about the myth of 'gay money'.

* Clue's in the name. Bet she knows a lot of working-class gay men, eh?

Fagburn: Slow (Cooker) News Day

From the Express, but the nation's newspapers were united in joy at this news.
Don't blame them - I love our Nige.
And his racy, tell-all memoirs, Toast, are one of Fagburn's favouritest gayist books.
Coincidentally, Life Is Sweets, his adorable Proustian personal and social history of sweets is on BBC 4 on Wednesday.
I think my mum would be happy if I got gaymarried to Mr Slater.
Either him or Alan Bennett.
Sorry, miles way...
There's nothing that's really gripped me today.
The Times is running the obligatory "I'm a gay dad!" story.
The Sun reports about a new gay-ish sort-of scandal at the Beeb!
'THE BBC was slammed last night for airing a Top Of The Pops repeat featuring paedophile Jonathan King'
Apparently "Outraged viewers vented their disgust online."
They quote one tweet.
Apparently Channel 4's Sex Box, which is on the tellybox tonight, is a bit boring.
The Guardian note; "Unfortunately, the actual show's post-sex conversations make post-match interviews with football managers seem exciting."
And the sex box is not opaque, as previously reported, but made of wood.
SO YOU CAN'T SEE NUFFINK!!!
I really can't be bothered with Julie Bindel's latest instalment in her Guardian online series on lesbian and gay (but not bisexual and trans) life in the UK.
Today the lesbigot is writing drivel about the Pink Pound - groundbreaking stuff!
Fagburn is going to do some hoovering, pay some bills, and pick up something from the post office.
I'M LIVING THE DREAM!

Gay Money: A Poverty Of Riches

When gays and lesbians are featured in popular culture, what do we see? White, wealthy women who host talk shows or affluent men doting on their kids -- like Mitchell and Cameron from "Modern Family." So it’s no wonder that the conventional wisdom is that gay people in America have tons of money and fewer economic struggles than the rest of the population.
But the truth is significantly different.“I think people are surprised there are any poor gay people,” says M.V. Lee Badgett, professor of economics and research director for The Williams Institute, a national think tank at UCLA Law School researches sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy. “This ‘myth of gay affluence’ has been around for a long time. It gets in the way of people even imagining that LGBT people can be poor.”
On Monday, the Williams Institute will release a detailed study about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their real economic status. Drawing on recent data from four different sources, the report finds a sexual orientation “poverty gap”: LGBT Americans are more likely to be poor than heterosexuals, with African-Americans and women particularly vulnerable.
Badgett spoke with NBC News about the results of the study, "The Gay Affluence Myth: New Research on LGBT Poverty."

NBC News.
The article includes an interview with Badgett on The Gay Affluence Myth.
Though with all the work done on debunking this myth - see Gay Money: The truth about lesbian and gay economics - it's depressing this would still be news to anyone.
And surely the main propagators of the gay=rich myth have been, not popular culture, but the US evangelical right, and the gay media* and gay marketeers? 

* For one ludicrous recent example see 8 Ways Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Is Good For The Economy on Huff Post Gay.
Includes the classic correction: "An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that legalizing same-sex marriage would boost California's economy by $123 billion over three years. It would boost it by $123 million, according to a 2005 Stanford study."
The second figure's just as spurious, but Oops!

Sport: Selling Out

A gay man who makes money out of trying to convince businesses they can make money out of marketing to gay men has said businesses can make money out of marketing to gay men, Gay Stupid News can reveal.
And Bob Doogle-Wanger III, head of Pink Pounding Inc, says the next market to be opened up will be the world of sports.
"Without a doubt, I really believe this," Bob told GSN. "If a top baseball player came out he could make $10billion immediately - that's just a ball park figure, of course."
Doogle-Wanger is author of the book, The Pot Of Gold Over The Rainbow: Making The Gay Market Work For You.
He estimates the US LGBT population's buying power is approximately $800 trillion.
This is based on his own totally reliable research that shows one in four Americans are gay, and most are millionaires.
"When I tell people this they think I must be kidding, and must have made this up cause I have a vested financial interest in peddling crap like this," he laughs. 
"I can see Nike getting on board real quick," he says. "They have a history of championing diversity in their advertising. They sponsored that South African athlete guy without any feet, and that worked out real well for them.
"Also they employ a helluva lot of children in South-east Asia to make their clothes - I think that shows these dudes really care about the little people."

• In other "news", Gay Stupid News reports on some things all the other gay media wrote about a few days ago.

Marriage: The Cost Of Loving

Surge in gay marriage could boost UK economy by £18m a year

A surge in gay marriages could boost Britain’s ailing economy by up to £18million in a year, ministers stressed today.
They predicted that the introduction of same-sex weddings could lead to 3,000 more unions on top of the 6,000 civil partnerships a year.
The Government estimates that these extra ceremonies could each lead to an additional £4,750 spending in the economy, on average, or £14.4million in total.
Hoteliers, florists, caterers and gift shops are expected to benefit.
Thousands of same sex couples are also expected to convert their civil partnerships into marriages, which a “conservative” analysis says may deliver a £3million injection to the economy.
Officials also believe that same sex couples from countries without gay marriage, particularly European nations, may head across the Channel to tie the knot once it is brought in here.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “Marriage should be open to all, regardless of sexuality.
“I have no doubt marriage equality is of benefit to our economy, and that in itself is a good thing."

Evening Standard.

Oh, there is an itsy bitsy teenie weenie bit of small print a little later on, though...

"Given the difficulties in correctly identifying the potential financial benefits from gay marriage, a government impact assessment put them at between £100,000 and £18.6million."

Genius!
And so good of you to narrow it down.
So it could just be worth £100,000?
What's £18.5million between friends?
I do like the moral obscenity of thinking about marriage equality in financial terms, and arguing for it as it "could boost Britain's ailing economy", which is measured in trillions and trillions and trillions, by the billy way.
Still, great news for the florist community!
What was it Oscar said; "A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing."

PS Today's cake topper illustration is from the Standard, and shows an enchanting groom and groom combo who appear to be made of marzipan - and presumably solid gold, to help bring the wedding costs up to that magic and in-no-way-plucked-from-the-ether £4,750 figure. 
Anything left over can go on coke and whores.  

Money Money Money: Lies Lies Lies

The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is in better financial health than the rest of the country on average, a recent study found.
Not only do gay people earn more than the average American does, gay people are more likely to be employed, they have more money in savings and they are better at managing debt, according to a Nov. 14 survey of more than 1,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people by Prudential.
The average LGBT household earns $61,500 annually, which surpasses the average national household income by more than $10,000. Unemployment is also lower within the LGBT community. Only 7 percent of respondents reported to be out of a job, while the national average stands at 7.9 percent. When it comes to putting away money for the future, gay households save on average $6,000 more than the national average. Gay households also have $4,000 less in debt...

HuffPost Gay Voices.

There is only one true fact in the above - that the figures quoted come from a "study" by the Prudential.
The Pru are an insurance company and this is, effectively, an ad.
Do Huffington Post Gay Voices really think their readers are so thick they can't see through this?
Why would any company want to "commission a survey" and put it out as a press release if it wasn't serving their own interests?
And similarly, how can any journalist take any "research" seriously if it's part of a PR campaign?
The kiss-off/pay-off line comes at the end.
Despite LGBT people seemingly outstripping our straight counterparts everywhere else, apparently oddly we fall down at the last hurdle; "That said, only 14 percent of respondents indicated they feel well-prepared financially compared with 29 percent of the general population."
Well, there you go!

Here's another rewrite of a Pru press release on this on this CNNMoney.
It's titled Gay People Earn More, Owe Less.
Really?
If that's news to you too, that's because it's simply not true.
All reliable research on this subject - ie not PR puffery put out by a business and/or marketing group - shows the exact opposite; gay men earn less. *
Sadly, while Hoff Post Gay presents the above PR baloney uncritically, CNN Money has the decency to point out how "a recent Gallup poll of more than 120,000 adults conducted this summer actually found that LGBT individuals tend to have lower incomes and to be less educated than the general population."
Of course, CNN Money is not aimed at the gay community, but at the business community, so they reach a different conclusion from HuffPost Gay Voices.

Most will agree, however, that the LGBT community is a largely untapped -- and potentially lucrative -- customer base when it comes to financial planning because of the complexity of their finances and unique needs.
While many financial firms are beginning to take steps to cater to this group, Prudential found that the majority, or 63%, of respondents feel underserved by financial firms, saying that the financial industry's attention to their needs is below average.
"There absolutely is an opportunity here," said (the Prudential's) Meyer-Shipp.

*  See the exhaustive review of the literature,  Gay Money: The Truth About Lesbian & Gay Economics.

Update: Both Pink News and Gay Star News have regurgitated Prudential's junk "research" uncritically and without question. I despair!

Pink Pound: We're In The Money!

I thought you might find this helpful if you're working out where you could make some savings in your household budget in the new year.
It's absolutely 100% reliable and accurate and in-no-way exaggerated as it appears in Marketing Week, and is based on the "findings" of a new report by Out Now Consulting; "International market leaders in gay and lesbian marketing strategy, LGBT market statistics and market research."
According to Out Now the average annual earnings for THE GAYS is £33,000.
The median UK salary is £26,000.
But you get paid 25% more just for being a big gay.
Isn't that great?
More Champagne?

• For more on the myths of gay marketing see Gay Money: The Truth About Lesbian And Gay Economics.

Fagburn Awards 17: Gay Myth Buster Of The Year

Canadian journalist Joe Clark has spent a year researching the facts behind the manufactured fallacies of the Pink Pound and the gay market;
"If you believe what you read, "gays” (really just gay males) are a lucrative group, a “dream market” made up of high-income earners who demand nothing but the best. "That’s a great image for a minority group to have, isn’t it?
"Gay marketers, using unreliable data, relentlessly promoted the image of well-off, desirable gays (usually gay-male couples) all through the ’90s. It’s become a stereotype.
"But it isn’t true. The overwhelming consensus of over 60 research papers on lesbian and gay incomes holds that gay men earn less than straight men..."

Check out Clark's excellent website Gay Money: The Truth About Lesbian & Gay Economics - Research Of The Year Award!

Pink Pound: Exploding The Myth Of Gay Money

"If you believe what you read, "gays” (really just gay males) are a lucrative group, a “dream market” made up of high-income earners who demand nothing but the best. That’s a great image for a minority group to have, isn’t it?
Gay marketers, using unreliable data, relentlessly promoted the image of well-off, desirable gays (usually gay-male couples) all through the ’90s. It’s become a stereotype.
But it isn’t true. The overwhelming consensus of over 60 research papers on lesbian and gay incomes holds that gay men earn less than straight men..."

This site summarizes all the research on lesbian & gay economics in one convenient place. This site explodes the myth of gay money.

Canadian journalist Joe Clark has spent a year researching the facts behind the manufactured fallacies of the Pink Pound and the gay market.
His brilliant new data-packed website should be the last word on this subject - though sadly Fagburn fears it won't be.
This guy deserves an award.