Changing times?

Editor’s note: Bob Witeck is CEO, and Wesley Combs is president, of Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc., Washington , D.C.

As the election campaigns ended this past November, partisans and pundits almost instantly highlighted the pivotal role of gay issues in American politics as well as the 11 states that voted to adopt bans on same-sex marriage. In the days after November 2, many in the U.S. media ballyhooed the ascendancy of “moral values,” giving overblown interpretation to exit poll questions that seem to suggest that an historic anti-gay backlash has occurred.

But has it really?

Gary Langer, director of polling for ABC News, for instance, made this point emphatically, as reported in the New York Times four days after the election: “A poorly devised exit poll question and a dose of spin are threatening to undermine our understanding of the 2004 presidential election. The reporting accurately represents the exit poll data, but not reality. While morals and values are critical in informing political judgments, they represent personal characteristics far more than a discrete political issue. Conflating the two distorts the story of Tuesday’s election.”

Putting aside the political snapshot for the moment, it is just as important for us to analyze the near- and long-term implications for the U.S. consumer market. We believe this analysis will offer critical new insights and supporting data to help guide business managers in understanding public opinion as a barometer on controversial social issues including gay civil rights and responsibilities.

Today, companies are smart to ask whether the gay marketplace will remain as promising in 2005 and the years ahead. Based on a deeper understanding of current opinion and market research, we believe the unqualified answer is yes.

First, how did American voters actually deal with gay issues in 2004? In a year when same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts , not surprisingly the movement to restrict or ban the recognition of marriage for gay couples found its way onto 11 state ballot measures in 2004. Opponents of these ballot questions said the measures were a strategy by Republicans to galvanize their conservative voter base and get them to the polls in greater numbers.

However, many analyses also report that during this unusually high-visibility election year, turnout would likely have been high with or without the referenda. One advocate in Oregon for the same-sex marriage ban was quoted thusly, “It’s conceivable this measure might turn out some people of faith that are typically apolitical, but I think in the big scheme of things...this is going to be a large turnout and our measure doesn’t have that big of a role in it.”

On November 2, therefore, voters in Arkansas , Georgia, Kentucky , Michigan , Mississippi , Montana , Ohio , Oklahoma , Oregon , North Dakota and Utah passed measures limiting or banning the legal recognition of same-sex relationships. In addition, however, efforts now are underway to challenge several of those measures in state and federal courts.

What else happened?

The ballot measures were not the only word on gay issues and political candidates, however. On November 2, American voters also:

  • voted in many races to elect and re-elect openly gay candidates throughout the nation;
  • elected or re-elected all six openly gay candidates running for legislative offices in California;
  • elected open lesbians to North Carolina ’s state senate, to the Idaho state house and to the Missouri state house;
  • elected the first-ever open lesbian Latina as sheriff in Dallas County, Texas;
  • re-elected every Massachusetts lawmaker on the ballot, Democrat and Republican, gay and straight, who supported same-sex marriage in that state; and
  • voted to repeal a law in Cincinnati that prevented the city from passing legislation to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination - this progressive result in a state that also adopted a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

What does public opinion research therefore reveal about American attitudes? Over the last year, numerous national and state surveys confirm that a majority of Americans oppose legal marriage for same-sex couples. It is not really surprising therefore that the referenda votes cast in November 2004 reflect this attitude.

When probed a bit more, however, we also learn that many Americans do not distinguish clearly between the matrimonial sacraments of marriage bestowed by churches, temples or mosques and the civil ceremony of marriage conferred by state law. Whether through tradition or faith, many Americans do not wish to confuse their long-held definitions of marriage by endorsing equal married status for gay couples.

But that is not all that voters believe. In many of the very same surveys, a majority of Americans favor establishing some forms of legal protections for gay and lesbian couples. This was also confirmed in the exit polls taken on November 2.

When asked specifically in the 2004 exit polls, 25 percent of voters favored legal marriage for same-sex couples, while 37 percent opposed any form of legal recognition.

Most important, over a third of all voters - 35 percent - stated they favor some form of legal relationship such as a civil union, but one not labeled or defined as a marriage. Therefore 60 percent or six out of 10 voters support some form of legal recognition for gay couples. In addition, 50 percent of all Republican voters also support legal recognition of same-sex relationships, with 20 percent favoring legal marriage and 30 percent favoring civil unions. (What the exit polls asked on November 2, 2004: “Which comes closest to your view of gay and lesbian couples?” 1. They should be allowed to legally marry [25 percent agreed]. 2. They should be allowed to legally form civil unions, but not marry [35 percent]. 3. There should be no legal recognition of their relationship [37 percent].)

Under normal circumstances in American politics, a 60 percent to 37 percent margin would be considered highly decisive. This emerging consensus also is validated by survey research conducted in 2003 and replicated again in late 2004 by Witeck-Combs Communications and Harris Interactive when we queried over 2,000 adult Americans online about eligibility for workplace benefits. Employment benefits often mirror the same kinds of privileges and rights conferred by marital status, and are a valid way to examine social acceptance of gays and lesbians.

Specifically, when heterosexuals were asked whether certain benefits of employment now available to married spouses should be equally available to same-sex partners, in almost every instance, nearly two-thirds of heterosexuals agreed that equal treatment ought to be given to employees with same-sex partners.

The specific benefits included the taxability of health insurance benefits, adoption assistance, bereavement leave, relocation assistance for partners, family and medical leave emergencies, and COBRA health coverage. In fact, in each instance, support grew by at least 4 to 5 percent between 2003 and 2004, even after same-sex marriage became a reality in Massachusetts .

We conclude that although same-sex marriage remains a sensitive, sometimes politically-charged question, Americans not only are more aware of gays and lesbians in society but also increasingly fair-minded in terms of acceptance and treatment of their intimate relationships. Factors of age, education and gender also play roles in terms of acceptance; more welcoming attitudes are consistently associated with younger people, women and individuals with higher education.

Intriguingly, in an ABC News interview held within a week of the presidential election, President Bush echoed the sentiments of many of these Americans, and revealed that he also favored letting states decide whether to have civil unions or some form of legal recognition for same-sex couples. This is a position that closely mirrored the position of his Democratic challenger too.

Bush was reported to say, “I view the definition of marriage different from legal arrangements that enable people to have rights. And I strongly believe that marriage ought to be defined as between, a union between a man and a woman. Now, having said that, states ought to be able to have the right to pass...laws that enable people to you know, be able to have rights, like others.”

The market and workplace trends continue to advance

At the end of 2003, as one key milestone, over 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies - and 68 percent of the Fortune 50 - now offer equal benefits for same-sex couples. Over 7,000 employers across the U.S. now provide health insurance coverage to employees’ same-sex domestic partner, a trend that is currently growing at the rate of 18 percent more companies each year.

The trend towards recognition and equal treatment of gay couples in corporate America is based frequently on many corporations’ desire to treat all employees and their families fairly and equally, as well as competitive pressures to recruit and retain the best qualified workers including gays and lesbians.

Interestingly, in 2004, two states and 66 cities and counties, according to the Human Rights Campaign, also provided domestic partner registries - another independent means to recognize same-sex couples. In 2007, the state of California will also join a trend started by San Francisco , Los Angeles , Minneapolis , Seattle and New York to require companies that do business with local or state government to offer equal benefits to gay couples that are currently available to heterosexual, married couples.

Equal treatment and basic fairness towards gays and lesbians remain clear trends in public policy decisions and employment practices from coast to coast. They frequently motivate employers and local communities to establish innovative approaches to respect gay couples and to offer some specific ways that married couples today benefit under the law to achieve a level of parity.

The road ahead

Elections often are snapshots of strong feelings and mixed motivations. Certainly this year’s election cycle reflected America ’s very strong divisions and attitudes on tough social and global issues including gay civil rights. Voters reflect the political moment as well as deep-seated beliefs.

Without question, Americans express complex and sometimes even conflicted feelings about gays and lesbians, and do not quickly accept many forms of social change. However, they also increasingly see gays and lesbians as well as same-sex couples on the job and at their workplace, in the community, on television, in school and in their churches. When fairness is put to the question, they consistently appear to endorse policies that embrace fair-minded treatment and emerging forms of legal protections for gay and lesbian couples - though short of marriage.

Many more corporations have witnessed and confirm that this visibility and public acceptance are growing, and creating legitimate opportunities for marketing strategies and progressive employment policies that recognize diverse households. These trends continue to spread, giving little evidence or rationale that this electoral moment and the 11 ballot measures will have significant impact on mainstream attitudes and market forces even in the near-term.

In our immediate experience, none of our Fortune 500 clients are considering retreats from the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender market. In fact, we continue to hear from new companies exploring the best way to reach out to gay consumers and households. This market is visible more than ever before, with gay and lesbian consumers putting their $585 billion buying power into the hands of companies that market effectively to them. It is a market segment that companies can no longer afford to miss.

As the New York Times columnist on faith and religious beliefs, Peter Steinfels intelligently took the nation’s temperature in his post-election column last November: “Voters’ emphasis on moral values has prompted talk that the culture is undergoing a sharp conservative shift. A better case can be made that the cultural shifts of recent years have almost entirely continued in a liberal direction. On November 2 a significant part of the nation balked. Same-sex marriage has proved, at least for now, unacceptable. Meanwhile civil unions, which stirred shock and fury in Vermont only a few years ago, have almost reached the edge of being mainstream.”