Beverly Hills car dealership sets sights on gay buyers

Monday, August 6, 2001

By ANDREW BRIDGES Associated Press Writer

BEVERLY HILLS -- The only sign that the car dealership caters to a distinct clientele is a small rainbow flag on the wall, and the name -- GLBT.

It stands for "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender," and the flag is the international symbol of gay pride.

While other dealerships court gays through specialty advertising, none has gone as far as Beverly Hills Ford, which last month set aside one of its six lots to cater exclusively to homosexuals.

"Gay people don't often feel comfortable being themselves in a straight, male environment, which the car business is," lot manager Claes Lilja said. "We've created an atmosphere where they can."

The lot is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, said Peter Blacksberg, the dealership's owner and president.

While the manager and four salespeople are homosexual, that isn't a prerequisite to work or shop on the lot, Blacksberg said.

"It's not that we're making a statement. We're trying something different. It's a demographic we're marketing to and we're going to see how it works out," said Blacksberg, who is not gay.

Ford supports the effort by the independently owned dealership.

"Ford has a very diverse customer base," said Susan Krusel, a spokeswoman for the Ford Division of the Ford Motor Co. "Our dealers do what marketing efforts they think are necessary to ... connect to customers in their area."

The gay lot may help Blacksberg stand out in the heavily competitive Southern California marketplace, home to about 110 Ford dealers. Next door is West Hollywood, which has a large homosexual population.

"It makes sense from a market standpoint to any business to look at what their market is," Lilja said.

So far, business at the lot is slow. But Lilja said it would be a long-term commitment for the dealership, which sold $31 million worth of new vehicles last year.

With time, the gambit could work, experts said.

"When you're the first to do something, you're able to stand out and perhaps win the affection and loyalty of a group that's been ignored," said Michael Wilke, executive director of the nonprofit Commercial Closet Association in New York, which works to influence how the advertising industry portrays homosexuals.

Winning that loyalty can also pay, said Wesley Combs, president of Witeck-Combs Communications, a Washington, D.C. marketing firm that specializes in targeting gay consumers. Estimates of the annual buying power of U.S. gays range as high as $500 billion.

"Because of the low incidence of children in gay and lesbian households, gay people have a lot more discretionary income so they are more likely to buy consumer products -- like cars -- more often than other households," Combs said.

Corporations, such as American Airlines, car manufacturer Subaru and vodka distiller Absolut, have targeted gay consumers to boost market share.

"It's a great signal to others in the business world that it does not pay to ignore or alienate anyone in the marketplace," said Gwenn Baldwin, executive director of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center.

But simply marketing to gays will not necessarily pay off, she cautioned.

"They can be a very loyal clientele, if they're treated well," Baldwin said. "But nobody is going to pay twice as much for a car, even if they say 'we respect you."'

“Ford Motor Company has been very supportive of this establishment,” added Baldwin. “To commemorate this unique retail outlet, they plan to announce a new special vehicle. Named the ‘Rump Ranger Pick Up’, this mid-sized hauler will feature various non-traditional restraint devices and a bright metallic mauve paint scheme”

-- Short-Term (fin@ncing.available), August 08, 2001

Answers

‘Rump Ranger Pick Up’ ROTFLMAO

Stick or Automatic?

-- Too (funny@2.cry), August 08, 2001.

I can't find this story on the Net, and I also notice that no link was provided. The last paragraph is certainly bogus although the rest of it sounds plausible.

Care to provide a link for this article, Short-Term?

-- Give (us@the.URL), August 09, 2001.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010808/pl/census_same_sex_couples_1. html

Wednesday August 8 12:07 AM ET

Census Figures on Same-Sex Couples

By MARGIE MASON, Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Nearly a million gays and lesbians identified themselves as members of same-sex couples in the 2000 census, which for the first time gives an authoritative record of homosexuals in America.

But the total gay population is much larger, since the census didn't provide an opportunity for single homosexuals to identify their sexual orientation, and didn't count gay couples who live apart.

That has some homosexuals fearing their calls for domestic partner rights and benefits such as marriage, health care and inheritance rights will get little attention.

``Why would politicians waste an hour on this if there are only 6,500 (male) couples in San Francisco, the queer capital of the world?'' said Peter Altman, 42, who's been with his partner 11 years.

Census officials say the numbers are more accurate than those gathered in 1990, when the bureau assumed that all people who checked ``spouse'' or ``married'' to someone of the same sex had made a mistake. Such people were categorized either as heterosexual couples or other relationships such as roommates or relatives.

Still, the 2000 numbers cannot be used to estimate the nation's entire gay population, said Martin O'Connell, chief of the fertility and family statistics branch of the Census Bureau (news - web sites).

``It's hard to get a complete picture by only describing the living relationships of people living together,'' O'Connell said.

To date, the Census Bureau has reported that there are 479,107 same- sex couples sharing a household. This number will rise when data from all 50 states is released. The missing states are New Jersey, Texas, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Arkansas.

According to the latest census statistics released Wednesday, California and Vermont lead the nation with the highest percentage of gay couples, while San Francisco has nearly twice as many same-sex partners as any other county.

There are 92,138 same-sex couples in California, including 8,902 in San Francisco. In Vermont, 1,933 same-sex couples responded to the census. Gay and lesbian couples make up nearly 1 percent of total households reported in both states.

The census found that gay couples represent 2.7 percent of San Francisco's households. However, San Francisco's total gay population is closer to 10 percent, or 80,000 people, according to San Francisco pollster David Binder.

``We're not talking about some sort of intangible concept of a gay family,'' said David Smith, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian advocacy group in Washington D.C. ``We're talking about real people who live in a real assemblyperson's district.''

The 1990 census counted 121,346 same-sex couples. These were people who checked ``domestic partner'' with someone of the same gender.

But O'Connell warned against comparing those numbers to last year's because of the way the forms were edited a decade ago. For example, two men identifying themselves as married could have been switched in 1990 to male and female and counted as a heterosexual couple, or listed as relatives or roommates instead of domestic partners.

The 2000 data did not reassign partners. Instead, it put everyone into the domestic partner category, and then classified the couples as homosexual or heterosexual. There are 3,850,524 heterosexual unmarried couples nationwide.

The same-sex numbers, while most likely undercounted, still show a lot about where the country's gay couples live and who they are.

The data shows there are more lesbian couples living in rural areas, while gay male couples tend to be in urban areas. California, Nevada, Florida and New York rank at the top for male couples, while Vermont, New Mexico, Oregon and Massachusetts have the most lesbian couples.

``Part of that might have to do with more of us having children than the guys. They still haven't caught up with us there,'' said Bobbi Cote-Whitacre, 53, of Grand Isle, Vt., who has been with her partner 34 years. ``We tend to look for places that are safer or more of a rural country spot.''

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On the Net: http://www.census.gov

-- (statistics@on.gays), August 09, 2001.

Boswell is speed-dialing right now.

-- gayboswell (boswell@boswell.is.gay), August 09, 2001.