There’s a pervasive feeling among gay and lesbian consumers these days: “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.”

“A lot of businesses still don’t recognize the strength of the LGBT community, or how much we’re actually paying attention,” said Gricel Ocasio, publisher of The Rainbow Times, based in Northampton. “We’re very, very loyal to LGBT-friendly brands and companies, because of the discrimination our community has faced.”

That reality isn’t a mere drop in the American economic bucket, either. According to marketresearch.com, the world’s largest collection of market research, the buying power of the sector called LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals; the acronym is also seen as ‘GLBT’) is expected to top $835 billion by 2011. That alone has caused some major firms to take notice, and in turn, to realize that this is a population that knows where its money goes.

“I pay a lot of attention to the companies that serve me, and that care about my struggles,” said Ocasio, who launched The Rainbow Times, a biweekly LGBTQ (the ‘Q’ is for ‘questioning’) newspaper, with editor Nicole Lashomb in February 2006. “Businesses don’t always realize how educated we are on the issues that face our community, but we are very knowledgeable. We actively seek out those companies that cater to us.”

However, Ocasio and Lashomb are on both sides of this capitalist coin. As business owners themselves, they realize that inclusion on myriad levels is fast becoming one of the most important practices within all American businesses, and that includes those that identify as LGBT-owned or LGBT-friendly.

“We want to reach as many people in the community, especially the business community, as we can,” said Ocasio. “We hope that continuing to highlight the positive aspects of the LGBT community, and the issues that mean something to us, will add to our ranks and lead to collaboration.”

“Inclusion has become our slogan,” Lashomb added. “We want to come out to people of all types — gay, lesbian, straight — and bring them into a circle that thrives as a community.”

In other words, any business willing to work toward that equality is seen as a strong ally, and the goal is not to draw a line in the sand, but to begin to erase it.

Go, West!

The Rainbow Times and other LGBT-owned businesses in the area are making strides to that end, capitalizing on an already welcoming and diverse climate.

By most accounts, Northampton and the Pioneer Valley at large are positive places for gays and lesbians to do business. There are challenges, both those that face all business owners and those that are specific to the LGBT community, but overall, progress is being made on a number of fronts, ranging from a greater acceptance of LGBT individuals and their entrepreneurial endeavors, to a better realization of the buying and marketing power the gay and lesbian population possesses.

“There’s definitely a trend of more people wanting to tap into the gay and lesbian market,” said Mark Carmien, who has co-owned Pride and Joy, a retail store and resource center for the LGBT community, with Steve Lucas for four years. “It’s a great market to tap into. When any business reaches out to the gay and lesbian community, the community responds.”

That outreach could be an advertisement featuring a same-sex couple, for example, or a partnership with an LGBT organization or business, said Carmien. And with concrete proof in hand, such as marketresearch.com’s recent report that gay and lesbian consumers are major players in the economic landscape of the U.S., an increasing number of companies of all types and sizes are gearing some of their marketing efforts toward that population.

Carmien has worked with the Northampton Chamber of Commerce on its own efforts to target gay and lesbian tourism, including an ad campaign featuring the arts town in national gay and lesbian publications.

“The town has already garnered national recognition as a strong gay and lesbian community,” he said, “so an ad that demonstrates support goes a long way.”

Melinda Shaw, president of Northampton Pride and past president of the Northampton Area Lesbian and Gay Business Guild (NALGBG), agreed with Carmien that the positive environment in Greater Northampton is a shot in the arm for all types of business owners, particularly those that are LGBT-owned.

“I’ve never kept my sexuality a secret,” she said. “In fact, I’ve been exposed through Pride, NALGBG, my own family, and our story. None of that hurt my business. I would not have let it stop me even if it did.”

Shaw added that, beyond personal acceptance, LGBT business owners are also afforded the same assistance as other business owners in the Northampton area, not just through specifically gay and lesbian groups.

“Resources for the LGBT community are the same as for the rest of the community,” she said. “The chamber is very resourceful, and other LGBT business owners like myself are happy to assist. We mobilize to make things happen, and it is starting to make a difference.”

She said Northampton businesses in general are getting more creative about how they appropriate their marketing dollars, and whom they are targeting.

“I think business owners are getting smarter about tapping into marketing,” said Shaw, who until recently was also the owner of Kidsports Family Fun and Fitness in Hadley (the business is being sold). “I love marketing. I love to look at what a product offers and figure out the best ways to get people’s attention. I think we all can do it, and some of us who love business are getting even better at it.”

Carmien said it makes sense that it’s not just LGBT-owned businesses that hope to capitalize on that sector. With statistics showing that it will only grow in size and buying power, Northampton in particular is poised to become a power center for retail, tourism, and entertainment in the coming years.

“Every business is looking to attract more business,” he said, “and most businesses in Northampton welcome all people. Even minimal outreach to the gay and lesbian community can make a huge difference in that regard.

“I just hope it’s not smoke and mirrors,” he continued. “I hope that businesses marketing through the LGBT community and to the LGBT community are backing it up with real, sincere policies and sensitivity training.”

Equity and Economy

In one sense, that training is a matter of respect and courtesy. But in addition, it’s a long-term strategy to continue to effectively cater to a growing niche — the LGBT population is expected to reach about 16 million people in the next four years, and as Ocasio said, it’s not a group that tends to make indiscriminate purchases.

Members of the LGBT community are largely savvy consumers who are keyed into the equality practices of major companies across the country.

One way they stay abreast of a given company’s dedication to the LGBT community and its LGBT employees is via the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index, which measures a given outfit’s performance in a variety of areas, including the availability of inclusive health insurance, bereavement and family leave policies, diversity training, appropriate and respectful advertising to the LGBT community, and contributions to LGBT organizations, among other factors.

Businesses are then assigned a score ranging from 0% to 100%; the higher a company’s score, the more likely that it has tapped into the LGBT market, and will continue to gain its trust and patronage.

HRC is the largest lesbian and gay political organization in the nation, and the LGBT community doesn’t take its research lightly — nor the scores given to the businesses it rates. The group released its latest equality index in September of last year, and reported an unprecedented number, 138 out of 446, major U.S. companies with a 100% score, marking a 10-fold increase in four years.

HRC President Joe Solmonese said he was encouraged by those findings.

“Companies are not only working to improve their scores, they are actively competing to be ranked the most inclusive and fair-minded in their industry,” he said.

Leading companies, which years ago instituted basic equal-employment policies, are accelerating their efforts to expand the range of benefits. This competition sends a clear message that corporate America is rapidly becoming a place of fairness for GLBT Americans.”

If You Build It…

Tom and Peter Cabaniol-Malone, a married couple who also own Rainbow Home Improvement in Florence, pay close attention to the HRC index, and make their purchasing choices accordingly.

“We won’t, for example, buy one drop of gasoline from ExxonMobil,” said Peter, “because they’re not GLBT-friendly. We support our community and our allies.”

Indeed, ExxonMobil was one of four companies in the U.S. to score a ‘zero’ on the Corporate Equality Index. The Cabaniol-Malones say shunning the oil giant is an important step toward equal treatment for all U.S. residents.

But as business owners, they also say they understand intrinsically the importance of catering to all groups, not just their own. Supporting businesses that do so helps the LGBT community, they say, as well as their own endeavors, by pushing all equality-minded companies forward.

“We are Rainbow Home Improvement because we’re proud of who we are, and not afraid to put it out there,” said Peter. “Being a business that is part of the GLBT community helps us, and we identify as part of it, but we also identify as viable business owners. We work with the GLBT community, as well as everybody else.”

Tom agreed, adding that while Rainbow Home Improvement has reserved most of its advertising dollars for LGBT publications, the business has grown largely due to word of mouth and referrals from clients.

“We have no idea what the orientation is of some of our best clients,” he said. “I think we would like to start marketing to more of the Valley. We’ve never had an issue in this area, and it seems dynamics have changed.

“Plus,” he added, “our business is growing.”

Plant a Seed, Watch It Grow

As the national and regional business climates continue to shift along with LGBT-centric trends, there will be some hurdles to clear, and some objectives to be met. Shaw said that while the business climate in Northampton and the surrounding area is a welcoming one for LGBT businesses and consumers, she would like to see more corporate development.

“There is generally more money to be lent in a larger city,” she said. “A smart entrepreneur can tap into multiple markets and seek diverse funding for projects. There aren’t a lot of LGBT venture capital groups out here, if any.”

She added that the LGBT business community in the region is also characterized in large part by smaller, and perhaps safer, ventures.

“Most of the LGBT folks I know who are in business have not tried very lofty businesses,” she said. “They are small and manageable, and will succeed if one is smart and manages well. I think that there are also those who don’t care if they lose money, because they have a lot.”

Ocasio and Lashomb would also like to see growth in their industry, and their keen interest in LGBT trends helps them as entrepreneurs as much as it does in their own personal lives and struggles.

“We want to make sure we promote this area and other LGBT communities, because then everyone will get more,” said Lashomb. “We’d like to see more business involvement through partnerships, and we also want to be more involved to identify more companies who cater to us. We want to give them our money.”

Part of the mission, said Ocasio, will include breaking down stereotypes and bridging gaps, both within the LGBT community and within the population at large.

“We want people to see people as humans,” she said. “As the guy next door, the co-worker, the family with children. I think the attention that ‘alternative’ LGBT lifestyles have gotten from the media in the past has tarnished the image of the community somewhat. Bars, sex, drugs… that’s not my life.”

Color My World

Lashomb added that, with an equality rift still facing the LGBT community, she strives to call attention to it in a way that resonates with all populations.

For instance, she covers global, hot-button topics in The Rainbow Times, such as homelessness and accessible health care, and how the gay and lesbian population affects those issues. That helps to strengthen alliances, she said.

“Our allies are prevalent in the equality struggle,” she said, “and our struggle would be more so without them. We hope to continue to forge these collaborations, to put an end to disparities.”

To many, it’s a goal that makes perfect sense — and cold, hard cash.

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at stevenson@businesswest.com