Awesome Two

[JanetLovesObama]

Travis and my nephew, Conor, have founded this awesome group to help any and all LGBT's in the Boston, MA area. I just hope and pray that they will bring it on down here to the homophobic and racist state of Texas.

A New Theory That Could Truly Create Change for LGBT People

(The link is not posting. Ugh. Let me see if I can fix it. Sorry.)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/travis-lowry/a-new-theory-that-could-truly-create-change-for-lgbt-people_b_3088452.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Good potential in using economic power, BUT...

.... for me at least, it has to be based on a more multi-dimmensional scale.

In other words, if ______________ , Inc. ( fill in the blank) has a pro-marriage equality for its employees but at the same time pays no corporate taxes, outsources jobs, supports RW economic initiatives ( school privatization for instance; RTW laws; RW governments and movements internationally, SS defunding, etc etc) I'm not going to support them economically if I can avoid it. Pro-marriage equality policy notwithstanding.

>>>>
My company OutGrade presents the nation with a carrot and a stick. It lets people review local businesses according to their LGBT friendliness. This community that for generations has suffered bullying and bigotry and cold neutrality is considered by many to be one of the wealthiest and best-educated groups in this country. Through the power of the Internet, we can for the first time aggregate LGBT people and allies as a single economic force and harness the emotion that fueled millions of Facebook photos changing to little red equal signs. We can force accountability on every business in the nation. We can plot a very public map of equality. We can show the country that being LGBT-friendly is good for your bottom line, and that being homophobic is a sure-fire way to hurt your cash flow.

LGBT rights are more than an LGBT issue. Furthermore, with thousands of places reviewed so far, it is clear that local businesses do not view the LGBT community as a niche market. A midmorning beer with the very Irish and very blue-collar owner of a bar in South Boston that had been rated highly on OutGrade put a final polish on this theory of mine. He articulated it thusly: "If my bar was racist towards black people, sure I would lose out on business from the 12% of the country that is black. But I would also lose business from the 95% percent of everybody else who views racism as unacceptable. You need to do the same thing with gay people."

And so that's my theory: If we can show the country's businesses that equality pays and that homophobia hurts not only their reputation but their pocketbook, we can harness this emotion and elicit change on a local and national level. As businesses change their ways for fiscal reasons, they will come to interact with LGBT people on a more frequent basis. They will soon learn what we already know: LGBT people are just like everyone else. We already have united as an emotional force; now let's unite as an economic force.

For more information about OutGrade, visit outgrade.com. Follow OutGrade on Twitter @OutGrade. You can email Travis at [e-mail].>>>>>