Faded Atlantic City Casino to Chase the Pink Dollar

With New York State poised to rake in perhaps $1 billion a year following the enactment of same sex marriage, one casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey seems to be likewise hoping to benefit from pink tourism dollars. Of course, the casino's cause would be helped significantly if the New Jersey legislature were to follow New York's lead and embrace marriage equality. While states like South Carolina and Virginia make themselves as unwelcoming as possible to LGBT citizens, other states and businesses realize that religious based bigotry and intolerance are not good for the bottom line. As I have noted before, when the boyfriend and I travel, we typical seek out gay excepting destinations such as New York City, Key West, Ft. Lauderdale and Washington, D.C. - all of which equates to a financial drain from Virginia. The New York Times looks at the Resorts Casino Hotel to encourage gay guests, including a full time gay bar and drag shows. It is interesting that the hotel operator believes that gays will also attract younger visitors. Here are some highlights:
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At the Resorts Casino Hotel, the somewhat faded Boardwalk grande dame that became this city’s first casino in 1978 after New Jersey legalized the business, you can find slots and blackjack, concert posters featuring performers like Paul Anka and Wayne Newton, the de rigueur all-you-can-eat buffet and the other familiar diversions of Casinoland. But there is also a rainbow flag flying above the entryway. There is Prohibition, a new nightclub that is believed to be the first full-time gay bar at any big American casino. Across the hall is a female impersonators’ show. On the hotel’s Web site, a menu tab reads “LGBT.”
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[T]he opening of Prohibition in May was a sign that just as the city has courted various markets over the years — Asians, families and others — it is now reaching out to gay customers as a way to cope with too much competition and too few gamblers.
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“I feel like I’m doing something that needs to be done, but it’s perfect because the right thing to do is the lucrative thing to do, too,” said Dennis C. Gomes, who in December became co-owner and chief executive of the faltering casino, which he says lost $20 million last year. So far the new club has been a big hit, drawing local customers and visitors from New York, Philadelphia and Washington.
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“As a gay person, the places you could go to were almost creepy, not chic at all,” said Francois Dagenais of Montreal, a singer and dancer who has appeared in Atlantic City shows for 10 years. “We’re looking for the same thing as everyone else. We have money to spend and want to have fun. I don’t know why this didn’t happen before.”
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The idea, part of the hotel’s ’20s-themed makeover, was not just that members of the gay community were a ripe market, but that they were something of a pop culture signifier whose support would also pull in a younger, hipper audience than Resorts had been attracting.
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[S]ome experts say that Atlantic City has particular potential for gay patrons because of its beach scene, period architecture, louche history, access to urban communities from New York to Washington and even the campy resonance of the Miss America Pageant.
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At Resorts, Mr. Gomes and Mr. Ballesteros, his marketing executive, discussed whether a gay presence would turn off a general audience. They agreed that in Atlantic City at least, that train had left the station. Instead, a bigger problem might be the opposite. At the drag show one recent night, the delighted audience was mostly heterosexual couples, average age hovering around 55. “It’s been great so far,” Mr. Diorio, the server, said. “But we did have one customer who came in, took a look around and said, ‘There went our gay bar.’ ”

Preference for Pro-LGBT Companies Carries over Into LGBT Business Purchasing Decisions

I have frequently urged those in the LGBT community to flex our collective purchasing power as a means for advancing full civil equality. Many members of our community indeed do so and target their purchases towards corporations and vendors that have pro-LGBT policies and/or that actively court the LGBT community as customers. Likewise, many in our community (I certainly do) make an effort to boycott businesses deemed lacking in their acceptance of LGBT citizens and/or their treatment of LGBT employees. A new study now demonstrates that LGBT individuals in decision making positions in the business world - lesbians in particular - carry these practices over into how and from whom they purchases supplies and services for businesses they own or for which they exercise purchasing decisions. The message to the larger business community is clear: acceptance and fair treatment of the LGBT community not only wins more LGBT consumer dollars from LGBT individuals, but it also means more business dollars as well - even from companies not ostensibly LGBT owned. Conversely, when a company caves into bigotry from groups like the American Family Association, they lose both GLBT consumers, but also LGBT owned businesses and businesses wherein purchasing decisions are made by LGBT individuals. Here are some highlights from the report findings:
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Very likely to give preference to LGBT vendors:
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• Majority of respondents (70%)are likely to give preference to LGBT-­owned/LGBT-friendly vendors when purchasing at work.
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• Lesbians more likely than gays to give preference to LGBT-owned/LGBT-friendly vendors (45% were extremely likely, compared with 32% of gays)
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• Nearly half of owners (45%)are extremely likely to give preference to such vendors.
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In addition, the study found that 73% of LGBT individuals making purchasing decisions for businesses will, if aware of a resource, use it for finding LGBT-owned and LGBT-friendly companies before placing purchase orders. Clearly, anti-LGBT discrimination can and does indeed carry a finacial price to non-LGBT friendly businesses. It's a message that needs to be disseminated far and wide.

Halloween Marketing Opportunity

Over the weekend, the Norfolk Zoo had a Halloween event for children and asked businesses to help distribute candy, etc., to local children and combine it all as a business marketing opportunity. My youngest daughter represented my law firm and worked the event, distributing candy and law firm brochures. She's pictured with two of the receptionist's children and one of their friends.
In retrospect, my years in the closet were Hell in many ways, but she and my other two children make the bad times all worthwhile. It is a joy having her working with me.

Mexico City Opens Office to Woo LGBT Honeymooners

A while back I noted how Mexico City, Mexico planned to woo same sex honeymooners following the legalization of gay marriage in the Mexican capital. Now, the city has formally opened the new gay tourism office. CNN has coverage of this step in a country which despite severe crime problems and poverty is out stripping the United States in terms of marriage equality. I find it nothing short of humiliating that the USA is increasingly shown to be a fraud when it comes to equality and freedom of religion for all of its citizens. Here in Virginia and under federal laws such as DOMA and DADT the religious dogma of Christianists has been made the defacto state and national religion. Here are highlights from CNN:
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Mexico City, Mexico (CNN) -- As more governments approve same-sex marriage laws, officials here are hoping to attract a growing part of the tourism market: gay honeymoons.
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The first couple to wed under Argentina's recent law allowing same-sex marriages nationwide arrives in Mexico this week on an all-expenses-paid trip -- part of a new push by the government in Mexico City, Mexico to woo gay travelers. "We hope that many same-sex couples who get married around the world spend their honeymoons here," says Alejandro Rojas, the city's tourism secretary.
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In July, the city opened an office aimed at catering to gay tourists that officials describe as the first of its kind in Latin America. "We are a very tolerant, liberal, avant-garde city," Rojas says. Officials inaugurated the new office by cutting a rainbow-colored ribbon. Rojas said the office's goal is to make Mexico City the No. 1 gay-friendly destination in Latin America.
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For years, it was rare to see gay rights issues gaining traction in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Not anymore, according to Javier Corrales, a professor of political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts. "Latin America currently has some of the most gay-friendly cities in the developing world," says Corrales, who ranks cities' gay-friendliness in a new book he co-edited, "The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America."
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In addition to training local hotels and restaurants on how to be sensitive to gay clientele, officials say they hope to create maps of the city highlighting attractions for gay tourists and possibly host an international gay tourism conference. Hotels, restaurants and businesses in Mexico City have responded positively to the program so far, Rojas said.
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Gay tourists represent 15 percent of the world's tourism market, and they spend more money than heterosexual tourists when they travel, he says. Recognizing the commercial value of gay tourism is a positive step, Navarro says, but it also shows that more social change is needed. "I hope that there comes a day in the future when they don't have to have an office for gay tourists, just like there isn't an office for Asian tourists," Navarro says.
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Meanwhile, southeastern Virginia continues to keep its head stuck in the sand and kisses the ass of folks like Pat Robertson and his fellow theocrats. Ditto for the religious extremists who currently occupy the Virginia governor's mansion and office of attorney general.

Catholic Pharmacy Shutters Doors in Virginia

A reader sent me the link to a story in the Washington Times - not one of my normal reads I will confess - about a pharmacy in Northern Virginia that opened to a lot of wingnut fanfare that was forced to close because it put "moral values" ahead of stocking inventory that customers want to purchase. The American Family Association and other "family values" organizations have perennial "boycotts" and other attacks on businesses that market to the LGBT community - e.g., Ford, Coke, Walgreens, etc. In truth, these businesses not forgotten the message the Catholic Pharmacy apparently never grasped. Businesses are in business to make money and earn a profit. And in the case of publicly traded companies, to generate dividends to shareholders. By refusing to carry contraceptives, many cosmetics and other products, the pharmacy sent the message that segments of the consumer base (including many Catholics who ignore the Vatican's teachings on birth control and many other issues) were simply not wanted. Or worse yet, that they were looked down upon and condemned by the sanctimonious pharmacy operators. Here are some story highlights:
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DMC Pharmacy, a pro-life Catholic pharmacy that opened with much fanfare in Chantilly, Va., in October 2008, closed last month because of lack of funds. "We could not make it work financially," said Robert Laird, executive director for the pharmacy, whose letters stood for Divine Mercy Care. "We could never get that big push to make it viable and finally the board of directors said enough was enough." By the time the store closed March 4, it was losing in the tens of thousands of dollars per month.
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[T]he 1,500-square-foot store on Metrotech Drive did not stock birth control pills, condoms, cigarettes or pornographic magazines. It did have booklets on natural family planning below a picture of St. John Leonardi, the patron saint of pharmacists. It was one of seven pharmacies in the country that refused to dispense contraceptives for moral reasons, on the grounds they caused abortions, lead to promiscuity or endangered a woman's health.
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Situated next to a Catholic bookstore, the founders hoped to attract clientele from St. Timothy and St. Veronica, two nearby Catholic parishes totaling 20,000 members. Within five miles were four other booming churches with 30,000 Catholics. . . . But regular customers never materialized in great numbers.
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Plus, DMC never got into the heavy retail items, such as cosmetics, toys and fast food, that help keep similar pharmacies afloat.

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I feel sorry for employees who have lost their jobs, but not so much sympathy for the store's owners who should have had more business sense.

Hispanic Chamber Business After Hours Event

On Tuesday, February 16, 2010, my office will be hosting the monthly Business After Hours networking event for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Hampton Roads. Like the LGBT community, the Hispanic community is often overlooked in the Hampton Roads area and the event is a great way to get your business introduced to this dynamic sector of the larger community or meet potential employers. Details on the event are set out below. I hope local readers will consider attending.

Tuesday, February 16TH
7pm – 9pm
MICHAEL B. HAMAR, PC

520 WEST 21ST STREET, SUITE J

NORFOLK, VA 23517

http://www.hamarlaw.com/

No RSVP Necessary *****Open to All Businesses

Contact: Gloria Day, BAH Coordinator at 851-1850 for more information

$5.00 Members and $7 Non-members

Bring your business cards for networking and any door-prizes you may wish to donate to promote your business.

Find out about the Hispanic Chamber
Exchange business cards and network with other businesses
Promote your business with Chamber members
Sell your products/services to other businesses
Find new employees or new business

A Sleepless Night

Last night was a fitful and largely sleepless night for me. At 4:30 AM I nearly got up and came into the office. Ultimately, I held off for a couple hours. I guess I simply had too many thoughts zooming around in my head: office matters, up coming business marketing and network events, and , of course, the still not final divorce.

I like being busy at the office for several reasons: the day goes more quickly, the firm revenue stream is enhanced, and at times I get a feeling of accomplishment when I have helped someone achieve a goal or meet a need. The draw back is that every client - rightfully from their perspective - views their matter as the most important. Thus, I become the juggler, striving to keep everyone happy all of the time. Needless to say, stress builds up.

On the marketing front, I am a bit in overload mode: a commercial real estate event this afternoon, speaking at a estate planning seminar Saturday morning, a church networking event Saturday evening, working the HRBOR booth on Sunday at Pride (and giving out my business cards too, of course). Then next Tuesday, I have the annual meeting of a commercial real estate networking organization at noon, and a real estate investor group meeting in the evening. Then on Thursday, there is the next HRBOR third Thursday event. How some allege I do not spend enough time marketing the firm is a bit baffling.

Then of course, I have the still open divorce case.

BTW, here is a website statement on sleeplessness: Sleeplessness is usually associated with emotional or mental tension, anxiety, depression, work problems, financial stress or unsatisfactory sex life. While insomnia is not usually related to any physical illness there are exceptions.