By Terry Beswick–
Buy Lesbian!
San Francisco Bay Times publisher Betty Sullivan called me last week with the news that her predecessor at the paper, Kim Corsaro, had died. I was stunned, stuttering my disbelief.
I knew that Kim had been battling illness for several years, but I’d been encouraged when she recently relocated back to San Francisco with the help of many supporters. I’d figured I could visit my old friend in her new home when I got around to it. I was wrong, and now she was gone.
Instinctively, I compartmentalized the loss for several days, focusing on work. It’s an acquired skill.
But over the course of the week, the enormity of the loss, of Kim’s life and her influence on San Francisco, and on myself, began to sink in as the tributes and comments were posted online. Others have written eloquently of Kim’s contributions in this paper, which she ran for 30 years beginning in 1981, and elsewhere. There are so many great stories that can be told. But I’d like to use this space to focus on one thing.
The San Francisco Bay Times was—and is—a Lesbian-owned and -published paper.
When Kim ran the paper, despite the fact that women publishers were a rarity, this was often taken for granted, as we so often take these kinds of things for granted in our community. A powerful Lesbian ran an LGBTQ paper. So what?
But it mattered then, and it matters now.
According to a recent report from the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), of which San Francisco’s Golden Gate Business Association is an affiliate, there are some 1.4 million LGBTQ business owners in the United States and those enterprises add $1.7 trillion to the national economy each year. That’s a lot of money. There’s incredible power in those numbers that can be wielded as a force for good. And not just for LGBTQ people, but for so many worthy causes.
Our community has a long history of using the gay dollar, through boycotts and through loyal patronage, to create political change. And yet in 2022, 44 years after the San Francisco Bay Times was founded, I think we are only scratching the surface.
In another recent study of over 15,000 LGBTQ people across the U.S., over 74% of respondents said they are more likely to purchase from a company that targets advertising to the LGBTQ community regardless of whether the company is LGBTQ-owned.
And this makes me wonder how LGBTQ consumers might respond to a call to support businesses first that are not only LGBTQ-friendly, but are also actually LGBTQ-owned and -operated.
Today, the San Francisco Bay Times is just one of numerous Lesbian-owned businesses in San Francisco, and many of them are members of the Golden Gate Business Association. Just off the top of my head, I’m thinking of African Queens Travel, Colibri Digital Marketing, Day Darmet Catering, ellaprint, Equator Coffee, and—perfect for Valentine’s Day—Kokak Chocolates on 18th Street. There are tons more if you just look around. Many are LGBTBE-certified businesses listed in the GGBA business directory online ( https://tinyurl.com/2p8rvb7a ).
Our LGBTQ neighborhoods and safe enclaves cannot survive without LGBTQ-owned small businesses, and some are really struggling right now. How great would it be if all queer people in the San Francisco Bay Area would make it a point to seek out Lesbian-owned businesses and give them their queer dollars? Even just for a day? Buy Lesbian today. Tomorrow, Buy Bi. Buy Gay. Buy Trans. Heck, at least buy from an ally.
And in memory of Kim Corsaro, the San Francisco Bay Times would be a good place to start. How about taking out an ad for your LGBTQ business, or patronizing an LGBTQ business that advertises in the San Francisco Bay Times? Or maybe even subscribe?
There’s power in our LGBTQ dollars. We should not throw that away.
Terry Beswick is the Executive Director of the Golden Gate Business Association.
Published on February 10, 2022
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