----- Original Message ----- From: Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: lbo-talk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2000 9:44 PM Subject: the New Gay Economy > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Copyright 2000 IntellectualCapital.com, > a service mark of VoxCap.com and part of the VoxCap Network > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > http://www.intellectualcapital.com/issues/issue389/item9923.asp > > > Thursday, July 06, 2000 > > Different Worlds > > by Bill Bishop > > Want to know how complicated our politics have become? Consider the > relationship between gays and the New Economy. > > Gary Gates, a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University, used 1990 > census data to show that certain cities were more popular than others > among people living with unmarried partners of the same sex. (His > findings were published in the academic journal, Demography, in May.) > Gates used the census information to construct a "gay index" of cities. > > And the results are in! > > Gates' gay index is based on the concentration of unmarried partners > living in metropolitan areas of more than 700,000. The more gay couples > per population, the higher the city ranks. There are 50 cities in the gay > index. The top 10 are: > > (1) San Francisco > (2) Washington, D.C. > (3) Austin > (4) Atlanta > (5) San Diego > (6) Los Angeles > (7) Seattle > (8) Boston > (9) Sacramento > (10) Orlando > > The bottom 10 cities in the gay index have the smallest concentration of > gay couples: > > (41) Detroit > (42) Louisville > (43) Cincinnati > (44) Charlotte > (45) St. Louis > (46) Greensboro/Winston-Salem > (47) Cleveland > (48) Las Vegas > (49) Birmingham > (50) Buffalo > > The accounting looked familiar to Richard Florida, a professor of > regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon. Gates' ranking looked > eerily like the Milken Institute's ranking of cities by concentration of > high-tech businesses. So Gates ran the numbers. > > The gay index did more than just follow the Milken rankings. Gates and > Florida compared other measures that are thought to predict high-tech > development: education levels; the number of scientists and engineers; > various measures of quality of life. > > Gates' gay index beat them all. "You're not going to find a stronger > predictor of high technology than the gay index," Gates says. "One is > clearly signaling the other." > > > Why the link? > > The match is uncanny. Six of the top 10 cities in the gay index were also > in the top 10 of the Milken when it was adjusted to count only the cities > over 700,000 (San Francisco, D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle and > Boston). Similarly, of the 10 gay-poor towns, four (Greensboro/Winston, > Las Vegas, Buffalo and Louisville) were also in the bottom 10 of the > Milken. > > Is there a connection to gay communities and the new economy? Is there a > connection to gay communities and the New Economy? > > Florida and Gates do not argue a direct, literal connection between the > presence of gay couples and the growth of high-technology firms. Gays are > not disproportionately represented in New Economy businesses. It is more > complicated than that. > > "There is something about cities that gays go to that is also attractive > to high-tech firms," Gates says. For instance, gay couples "move to > really nice places," Gates says -- places with a high quality of life. > They also "go to places where in general there is a more progressive > thinking." They seek out towns where there is a "diversity of thought and > progressive attitudes, or at least tolerant attitudes." > > Those attributes, it turns out, are exactly those sought by young, > talented, high-technology workers -- both gay and straight. Florida has > been questioning these New Economy workers and has found that diversity > -- not rocks to climb or good jobs -- was the No. 1 attribute people > wanted in a place to work and a place to live. "If you poison the > environment with anti-inclusive rhetoric, these people will turn away," > Florida says. > > This means that gay men and lesbians are the canaries in the New Economy > coal mine. If gay people can survive in a place, then so will high-tech > workers -- the people with the ideas and talents that are now making > economies grow. > > > Beneath the surface > > The technology industry has realized the importance of diversity in > satisfying the most important ingredient for their economic success, and > its leaders are demanding these values be extended to our politics. > "These industries don't come to me and say, 'We want you to be > conservative on issues of choice or issues of sexual orientation or > issues of diversity,'" says Ron Sims, chief executive of Washington > state's King County, which includes Seattle. "They are saying to me, 'We > want you to be out there talking about being an inclusive society, fully > participating in a new global period.'" > > But what about regions not benefiting from the New Economy? In those > places, the push for diversity is not a priority. Take Seattle, again. > Business leaders in Washington state pushed a statewide proposition in > 1997 that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. It passed > in Seattle and King County. It was voted down in the rest of the state. > > As diverse and open places surge ahead, others are left behind -- the > rural, the uneducated, the blue-collar worker, those in Old Economy > industries. Bubba was not invited to the New Economy, and Bubba > understands the slight. > > These days, political fights split more often down the New Economy/Old > Economy divide than between left and right or Republican and Democrat. > Gay rights, women's rights, globalization vs. protectionism all split > along this economic divide as much as the ideological divide. > > "When I look down at what is the political powder keg--I think, this is > it," says Richard Florida of the divide between old and new. "It's > simmering beneath the surface in California; it's simmering beneath the > surface in Seattle. My guess is it's simmering beneath the surface in > Texas. And I don't think either political party has sorted this boy out." > > > ------- > Bill Bishop is a regular contributor to IntellectualCapital.com and a > senior writer at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas. >
