[NEohioPAL] Correction: Reflections on the Gay Games

[Bob Abelman via NEohioPAL]

What Were They Thinking: Keep it Gay

 

"The theater's so obsessed with dramas so depressed
It's hard to sell a ticket on Broadway
Shows should be more pretty; shows should be more witty
Shows should be more... what's the word?  Gay."

~ from Mel Brooks' "The Producers"

 

 

The speed with which public attitudes have shifted towards greater acceptance of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community has left many marketers scrambling to tap this sizable segment of influential consumers. 

 

How influential?  National surveys have put the collective buying power of the LGBT community at over $800 billion annually.  Gay households, in particular, have a 23 percent higher median income than straight households and - while it is important not to treat any community as a group with monolithic preferences and perceptions - they tend to be more brand-specific and brand-loyal in their purchases.  Which marketers love.

 

The 2014 Gay Games, and the estimated $40 million worth of consumption the event is bringing to Cleveland and Akron, has created a wonderful opportunity for local businesses to support and court the LGBT community.  

 

And because both positive and negative purchasing decisions are often made on the basis of a business' perceived inclusionary practices, many local businesses attended training on cultural competency from The Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio.

 

Local theater companies need no such training, nor do they have to devise marketing strategies to bring in members of the LBGT community.  "They have always been there," suggests Bill Rudman, artistic director of the Cleveland-based Musical Theater Project. "Without gays and lesbians on stage, behind the scenes and in the audience, there would be no Broadway.  Or us."  

 

One reason is that the stage is often the first place to reflect social progress.  In fact, a new breed of plays about life in the LBGT community is currently replacing the explicitly political and exclusively tragic plot points found in such groundbreaking 1980s and 1990s dramas as "The Normal Heart," "Torch Song Trilogy" and "Angels in America."  Shows like the recent Broadway production of Geoffrey Nauffs' "Next Fall" simply place the everyday concerns of Americans in a queer context. 

 

With approximately 7,000 Gay Games participants and 20,000 spectators coming to town, several local theaters purposefully offered LGBT-centric plays during the week of August 9 - 16.  Did these productions experience a bump in attendance?  

 

For more of this "What Were They Thinking" series installment, go to:  

 

www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/article_f26c7710-25ae-11e4-9d60-0019bb2963f4.html
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