Tidewater Virginia Ignorance and Homophobia

A local news blogger friend of mine forwarded a comment that had been e-mailed to him relative to a New York Times story he had linked to on his news site which discussed changes in the gay community and the increased number of cities with growing numbers of self identified gay couples, one of which was Virginia Beach. (Which in my opinion is far less gay friendly than Norfolk) Here's the title from the NYT article: TRADITIONAL GAY ENCLAVES BECOMING PASSE. The article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/us/30gay.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Now, here's the local yahoo's comment which is indicative of the mindset of far too many residents in this area:

Gay Enclaves Face Prospect of Being Passé - BEING REPLACED BY NEW GAY MECCAS LIKE VIRGINIA BEACH: Oh, goodie, another chance to be a Sanctuary City - When's the parade?

The guy's comment about a "sanctuary city" indicates he dislikes immigrants too, especially Hispanics, so he is a double bigot. In any event, I suspect that my friend Morris knew I'd not sit quietly by - he loves to get a debate going or allow me to smack down fools in guest letters to the editor on his web site - and made sure that he included the guy's e-mail address so I could respond. Which I did - both to Morris and the local idiot. Yes, I was bitchy, but I get so tired of the bull sh*t put out by the local knuckle draggers. I will not bore you with my entire reply, so here are some highlights:

Morris,

I am not sure if Mr. Starrin is a local business owner or not. If he is, his comment shows his ignorance in terms of marketing to growing segments of the domestic economy. Moreover, his mentality, if shared with the local gay community (much of which remains "under the radar" of the general public,) would probably cost him far more business than he realizes.

My response is: Would that Virginia Beach did have more gay tourists (note that even Louisville, KY, a smaller city has almost twice the number of gay couples per the NYT article). Virginia Beach would certainly have more upscale hotels (supported by tourist revenues as opposed to taxpayer subsidies), better restaurants, fewer tacky tourist trap stores at the Ocean Front, and better shopping and cultural amenities in general with a larger number of gay tourists. Moreover, Virginia Beach might do better in attracting progressive businesses to relocate to the city.

The total gay buying power in the USA is estimated by one survey to be $641 BILLION currently, making it larger than the buying power of the African-American population, estimated at $572.1 billion, and just slightly less than that of the Hispanic population, estimated at $700 billion. In reality, as more gays "come out," especially in the younger generation, the gay purchasing power number will probably out pace the growth of other market segments.

I am a founding board member of Hampton Roads Business OutReach ("HRBOR") (http://www.hrbor.org) and let me assure you, the straight business owners and professionals are joining in significant numbers to market to the local gay community which is pretty strong financially. More significantly, they send their business to those who treat them with respect.

Since Virginia Beach likes to think of itself as a first class resort city - by what definition, I do not know - I also included information from my post on Vancouver's experiences with gay tourism.