Gays good for economy, vibrancy of community.

[bluedawg12]

http://www.davidwcampbell.com/2004/12/is-florida-right.html

Friday, December 17, 2004
Is Florida Right?

>Before you mistake this blog as an appeal for New Brunswickers to stay home this winter (i.e. is it 'right' to migrate to Florida), don't. It's not. It's in reference to professor Richard Florida whose thinking is sweeping the economic development world. He did research on successful economies and found that those that are successful tend to have a more diverse labour pool (higher levels of immigrants), a higher percentage of creative people (persons working in artistic occupations) and, a higher gay population.<

Do you agree, that gays are a stable and productive element in the economic and social and..yes...aesthetic life...of a community?

Higher incomes? :toast:

Better educated? B-)

Nicer lawn ornaments (gay men). :hug:

Good insulation, wiring, and wonderfully built decks. ( gay women). :grouphug:

[Dark]

1. I've heard that Gays have higher income than straights.

Not sure from where, though, so I don't necessarily trust that.

[ret5hd]

3. i think what you are referring to is...

that the average gay has a higher disposable income than the average straight because of no kids. that's the way i heard it anyway.

[bluedawg12]

6. Gays and income cuts both ways:

I am puzzled by the dissociative thinking on the part of the radicalright.

I am not puzzled that they hate. Haters will always be with us, to paraphrase someone.

I am puzzled by their outright stupidity and transparent inconsistency.


They decry the gay "lifestyle" as promiscuous and unstable.
Then, when gays ask for fairness in laws and parity as couples in order to affirm and protect their unions and promote domestic stability, the RW goes crazy attacking gays for wanting more stability in gay unions and marriage.

When the RW moans and dribbles on themselves about how frivolous gays are and how we are a corrupting influence on society and it is pointed out that gays are educated and economically successful it is called "disproportionate political power," by the highest court in the land??

Gee, it seems the fix is in. Can't win for trying. No matter what tack we take it will always be wrong- because in the mind set of bigots gays need not exist and can do no right.

So screw 'em!

Stand up for ourselves as we do, reject the mentality of failure and negativism, and keep succeeding, organizing, uniting and educating ourselves about their obvious bias and bigotry.


http://outsmartmagazine.com/issue/i04-01/myth.html

>Four years later, the state’s ban was challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court. Clemson University professor James Woodard, appearing for the State of Colorado, testified median annual household income for gays and lesbians exceeded $50,000, 40 percent higher than heterosexual households. Therefore, he argued, gays and lesbians need no special protection because their wealth protects them. The Colorado Amendment was overturned by the Supreme Court. The vote, however, was not unanimous. In an ominous dissenting opinion, joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Clarence Thomas, Anton Scalia cited Woodard’s testimony as evidence that gays’ "disproportionate political power," achieved as a result of their higher incomes, entitled the non gay voters of Colorado to rein in that power through legislation.

In fact, surveys of newspaper and magazine subscribers are particularly misleading with regard to income levels. For example, male readers of USA Today earn $5,000 more than the national average. Male readers of the Wall Street Journal average $18,000 more. Still more strikingly, from the Simmons Bureau’s own files, we learn African-American readers of Jet and Ebony magazines earn nearly 60 percent more than the average African-American.<

WTF does reign in that power mean?

Do they mean reign in the power of uber wealthy hetero-white-male- CEO’s, too?

http://www.indegayforum.org/authors/varnell/varnell80.html

Some Economics of Being Gay
By Paul Varnell

Originally appeared August 22, 2001, in the Chicago Free Press.


>THE CLAIM is often made that gays and lesbians suffer employment discrimination. One way to demonstrate this beyond anecdotal reports might be to show that gays and lesbians have lower income levels than similarly situated heterosexuals.

Yet we also like to claim that gays and lesbians represent an economically upscale market with ample disposable income to buy a range of recreational and leisure products, arguing that companies should compete for our business and advertise in our publications<

Answering some of these questions is the aim of a new book "Money, Myths, and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay men" (University of Chicago Press, 2001), by University of Massachusetts economics professor Lee Badgett..


>Badgett's book seems to be the first serious book on the subject. But what makes it particularly valuable is a quality that often irritates the general reader. For instance, in Chapter 2, "The Economic Penalty for Being Gay," she concludes:

"Lesbian/bisexual women earn 11 percent more than heterosexual women. The difference is not statistically significant. ... Gay/bisexal men, however, ... earn 17 percent less than heterosexual men with the same education, race, location, and occupation." <

[Dark]

7. Well, actually,

I think you're right. Because gay rights groups claim that gays have lower pay because of discrimination, but anti-gay rights groups say that they have a higher pay.

Still not sure where I heard it, though. I thought it was a reputable source, though.

[ret5hd]

2. agree 100%. (nt)

[bluedawg12]

4. higher disposable income means more economic power

allthough I thought I read somewhere and posted on this too, that gays do have a higher income-but again, getting good data on groups who are at risk for oppression and repercussions about orientation makes us all wonder how accurate any stats are.

[Hardrada]

5. No painted tractor tires on front lawn.

Sockks and ties co-ordinated (spend more for clothes).

[bluedawg12]

8. Have I told you about my deck?

Later I will post pictures of my Skill reciprocating saw ( it's a good 'un) and a couple of pictures of our cats and dogs.


Oh yea, and my flanell shirt matches my three post graduate degrees and my investment portfolio--gee, dumb as foxes aren't we all? :evilgrin: muhaw-haw-haw ha!

The RW just wants the world to think gays are failures- we are not.

[Hardrada]

9. You think gays have problems?

Try being an atheist anarchist around here! (Rural East Iowa. Beautiful country but everyone is so so religious). So I have to tell people I'm studying Zen Buddhism (which I sort of am). I am no friend of antigay bigots either.

[bluedawg12]

10. Hardrada- can't imagine, why is the more rural

the place with open spaces the more closed the minds?

[UncleSepp]

11. In the crowded city, you're forced to see other people?

Just my WAG.