An interesting Metric for Growing Tolerance

According to Prime Access Inc., an marketing agency that produces an annual report on advertisement revenues in the gay and lesbian press, corporate America recognizes that tolerance for GLBT in is surging significantly.

Here are some of the report's key findings. You may read the entire report here.

• Compared to a decade ago, advertising growth in gay and lesbian press continues to out pace advertising growth in consumer magazines as a whole. For the gay and lesbian press, 2006 advertising spending is up an impressive 205% since 1996, compared to an increase of 47% for all consumer magazines during the same ten year period.
  
• Over 183 Fortune 500(registered trade mark) brands were active in gay consumer markets as of 2006, up from 150 in 2004. There were only 19 such brands in 1994
• The combined circulation of all publications constituting the gay and lesbian press is now 3,777,488, an increase of 10.4 % versus a year ago.
  

I think those findings are pretty amazing. Prime Access president Howard Buford gave Market Watch the following statement regarding the report:

"This year's report confirms how, in just one decade, gay and lesbian consumers have gone from an overlooked niche to an audience that Fortune 500 companies are working overtime to reach," said Howard Buford, president of Prime Access, in a release accompanying the report. "The numbers make it clear that corporate America recognizes and values both the spending power and influence of gay consumers."