Gays, lesbians now have fewer reasons to be invisible

The Inland Northwest Business Association has gradually attuned Spokane’s gay and lesbian population to businesses and professionals that are either gay-owned or gay friendly. The network has grown from barely 30 a decade ago to almost 100. Mainstream organizations like the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce keep an INBA directory available.

The INBA says Spokane has become a more gay-friendly city.

In 1996, the city council passed an ordinance barring job and housing discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals. There are many institutions and organizations that support gays. And, of course, there’s the INBA itself.

Those assets have paid off. A recent survey found that 87 percent of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals feel comfortable or fairly comfortable in the city.

But the GLBT community remains fragmented, and unsure of its place, says Bonnie Aspen, who co-chairs an INBA Vision Committee that over the last 14 months has considered if and how members can increase their visibility, and what the payoff — economic as well as social — might be.

Aspen says the committee is ready to bring all the area’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents into the discussion. Saturday, the community will hear a strong message of support from one of the nation’s more well-known activists — Candace Gingrich, half-sister to former speaker of U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich is a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Campaign, an advocate for the equality of everyone regardless of sexual orientation. The organization has 600,000 members.

Gingrich says the more GLBT people make their presence felt, the greater the opportunity to break down prejudices and stereotypes. When the suspect “them” becomes their mechanic or accountant, people become less fearful of gays, she says.

Gingrich also emphasized how important a message of tolerance is to adolescents and young adults trying to decide whether they want to stay in their own community or migrate to one more hospitable to gays and lesbians. No city gains when potential members of the “creative class” move on, she says.

Author Richard Florida, who a year ago visited Spokane, says gays represent a significant proportion of the creators who can put a community at the economic forefront.

But Gingrich warns there are downsides.

“Being visible does not come without risks,” she says. Business owners who reveal their sexual orientation face the loss of customers in much the same way athletes may lose endorsement opportunities.

She advises GLBT groups to organize not just for themselves, but for the broader community. Helping with food drives or storm relief builds goodwill, and shows others that an INBA or similar group is not just about gays.

Be a mentor, Gingrich adds, or provide apprenticeships for those who want to learn a business. Many gays are entrepreneurs because they did not want to put up with prejudice in their workplace, she says.

Gingrich says business has been far more progressive in its attitude towards gays and lesbians than government, particularly a cynical Congress debating a constitutional amendment banning gay and lesbian marriage instead of tending to budget deficits and Iraq.

“The backlash is calculated,” Gingrich says, to deflect voter attention from those more important issues.

And meanwhile, the number of companies that received a score of 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign’s corporate quality index has doubled, Gingrich says, adding “You want to support the companies that support you.”

The index includes factors such as whether the company has a written policy barring discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the availability of health insurance benefits to same-sex domestic partners.

Gingrich credits the INBA for encouraging those same initiatives in Spokane.

Aspen says the vision committee was organized in part to determine how to bring together isolated segments of the GLBT community, and in part to determine how to make a more unified population an economic asset.

“We are a lot of money in this town,” Aspen says. “We don’t see a downside to having a more physical, visible presence.”

For some, though, the dangers are still too great, she says. “It’s very easy to be invisible in Spokane.”