Introduction

It is a well known fact that the entertainment industry has a lot of gay 'participants', either closeted or openly gay: writers like Noël Coward, Truman Capote, Harvey Fierstein, movie directors like John Waters, James Ivory, Pedro Almodóvar, Derek Jarman, Gus van Sant, Rosa von Praunheim, artists like Liberace, Elton John, Melissa Manchester, George Michael, Boy George, Ricky Martin, Robert Long, TV personalities like Ellen Degeneres, Anderson Cooper, Graham Norton, Stephen Fry, Julian Clary, Jos Brink, André van Duin, Paul de Leeuw, movie stars like Rock Hudson, Dirk Bogarde, Alan Cumming, Sir Ian McKellen, Neil Patrick Harris, stage actors such as Sarah Bernhardt, Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Derek Jacobi - and the list goes on and on.

All these famous LGBT are on the 'supplier' side. But what about the consumers?

Music and Movies

Many straight (mostly recording) artists have risen to fame thanks to - and hardly ever ‘in spite of'! - a dedicated gay following: Judy Garland, Bette Midler, Liza Minelli, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Madonna, Lady Gaga, to name but a few. This often concerns a ‘diva’: ”a celebrated female singer; a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and by extension in theatre, cinema and popular music.” One of the explanations for this is that a diva has a glamorous way of dressing, puts up a real show, often is or was an underdog - all aspects that many LGBT can opr would want to identify with. Either before or after becoming a “gay icon”, the star frequently speaks out for equality or even becomes an activist (like Lady Gaga).

Similarly, the theatre has always drawn many LGBT art lovers, especially musicals. Many gays know the complete lyrics of their favorite musical by heart - and are not afraid to 'perform' them. TV shows like Glee have drawn large gay followings, not only because of the 'natuiral' inclusion of LGBT characters (see below), but also because of their

So much for the music industry - a parallel can be drawn to the movies, although for movie stars it lies a bit more difficult: they portray a character and being openly gay, or even activist, could hurt their career. Or could it?

Television

Ellen Degeneres is a good example of how a (very public!) coming out can be detrimental to your career. After the famous “Puppy episode” in which her character, and by proxy Ellen herself, came out, her show was soon cancelled. Due to a lobby by the conservatives, advertisers pulled out and the network decided to cancel the long-running series, which had good ratings thus far.

Ellen did not get many job offers in the subsequent period, until she started hosting a day time talk show, which became so popular that she not only won a large number of awards, but without doubt became one of the most powerful and respected people in show business.

TV characters

When Ellen had her coming out in the 90s, the prevalence of LGBT characters on TV was not yet very broadly developed, and the ones that were featured often were caricatures. By 2013, this had changed dramatically - a sign of the times, which runs parallel with the perception of the public about acceptance of LGBT and equal rights.

The annual GLAAD report in 2013 "Where We Are on TV" found that 4.4% of actors appearing regularly on prime-time network series portray LGBT characters, up from 2.9% in 2011. This percentage is close to the established percentage of LGBT prevalence in the population, which would mean that the taboo on gay characters in mainstream media has practically disappeared. The increasing tolerance is a sign for advertisers that it is OK to market their products or services to the LGBT market. This trend continued, especially after the landmark SCOTUS ruling of 2015 about same-sex marriage.

Gay-friendly brands

Some companies are leaders in the field of Diversity and Equality. One such company is Apple. Not only were they mentioned a LOT of times in my survey as gay friendly, but when their new CEO Tim Cook came out a few years ago, they more or less set the standard. Yet, even a leader in the field is not always a beacon to follow. When they launched their Mother’s Day campaign in May 2016, one of the protagonist families was a lesbian couple with two kids. A mere 3 seconds in the commercial. Yet, they considered it might be offensive to show the diversity of motherhood, and the segment was removed in the French, German, Italian, Turkish, and Japanese versions of the ad. Buzzfeed: “it is strange that this particular image was omitted only in certain geographies - especially from a company that has made very public commitments to fostering inclusion and diversity across the business.” Apple hasn't yet explained its reasoning.