BY MORGAN WELCH

On December 23, LGBT consumer research company Community Marketing & Insights (CMI) released the results of its Annual LGBT Travel Survey, covering brand recognition, trends, travel patterns and destination rankings.

The full report can be downloaded here.

No one destination emerged as a clear favorite for couples on their honeymoon; responses given were for locations all over the US, Canada, and Europe. The highest overall number of honeymooners went to Hawaii, but they still only made up 7 percent of couples; however, with marriage equality now legal in the state, making it a possibility for a destination wedding, its popularity may improve.

Read more at dot429.com

The post Annual LGBT Travel Survey results revealed first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY KELLY MORRIS

According to a new British survey saying that women are far more adventurous, better informed about sex and less afraid to experiment than men, the number of women having lesbian sex has jumped by 400 percent since 1990.

The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles said that in 1990, four percent of women admitted to same-sex experimentation and just two percent said the experience involved genital contact. Now, 16 percent of British women said they have lesbian sex, and eight percent involved intimate contact.

“Almost all of the ‘straight’ women I know have had lesbian snogs, furtive feels, one-nighters or full-on flings at some point in their lives,” British sexpert Dr. Tracey Cox told the Daily Mail. “It’s becoming so commonplace, it’s got a lot of people horribly confused. Most of the women I know thoroughly (some really thoroughly) enjoyed the experience but have remained straight.”

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

The Seattle Lesbian online magazine reaches more than 188,000 readers per week globally

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BY MORGAN WELCH

On November 12, LGBT consumer research company Community Marketing & Insights (CMI) released the results of a survey called “Same-Sex Couples: Weddings and Engagements.” The survey, a collaboration between CMI and The Gay Wedding Institute, uncovered many trends (both surprising and not) among those planning weddings in the wake of recent marriage equality victories.

Lesbian couples consistently had more expensive weddings than male-male couples; even those who were already married and only having a wedding to make it legal spent 15 percent more than male couples. (Whether or not this had to do with the expense of wedding dresses versus tuxedos was not explored.) 74 percent of same-sex couples preferred LGBT media as their source for wedding planning, such as selecting a venue or finding a flower vendor. However, personal recommendations were the most trusted source of information.

Read more at dot429.com

The post Big trends in LGBT weddings revealed first appeared on Lesbian.com.

No Hate Stop Sign

BY KEVIN MATHEWS
Care2

Though laws may be on the books to protect the gay community from hate crimes and homophobic harassment, most such acts go unprosecuted. The blame for this situation can be shared among a number of parties: a flawed justice system, police officers that take these crimes less seriously, and victims who rarely report the incidents so that the perpetrators can be held responsible.

To learn the extent of the problem, Stonewall, a British LGBTQ rights group, conducted “The Gay British Crime Survey.” Respondents were able to illuminate just how rampant homophobic hate crimes are, figures that are usually obscured due to a lack of reporting.

Read more at Care2.com

Care2 is the largest online community of people passionate about making a difference

The post 10 shocking statistics about anti-LGBT hate crimes first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY MORGAN WELCH

The question of what terminology to use regarding the LGBT community is a tricky one; given the potential for insult, this can make marketing especially hazardous. To determine which terms are favored over others, Community Marketing Inc. conducted a survey of more than 10,000 gay or bisexual men, 4,000 gay or bisexual women, and over 400 transgender people.

The verdict: the survey respondents were most in favor of “LGBT,” with approval ratings ranging from 70 percent (bisexual men) to 87 percent (lesbians). The longer but more inclusive term “LGBTQQIA” actually received the least amount of approval; the people who disliked it the most were gay men, with only 10 percent approving, while the ones most in favor were transgender people, at 42 percent.  Less surprisingly, given its history, only 16 percent (gay men) to 38 percent (transgender people) of respondents were in favor of seeing “queer” used in marketing.

Read more at dot429.com

The post LGBT community likes to be called… LGBT first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Your friendly neighborhood lesbian news site.

BY JANE EISNER
dot429

LGBT media consumers tend to turn to LGBT blogs and websites more than large cable networks or other mainstream news outlets.  The 2013 LGBT Community Survey from Community Market 7 Insights (CMI) polled over 30,000 LGBT individuals from over 100 countries on their media consumption habits. As indicated by eMarketer, 67 percent of gay men and 58 percent of lesbians had visited LGBT websites and blogs within the week before completing the survey.

Network television and cable were marked as the second most popular information source for LGBT consumers. 65 percent of gay men and 57 percent of lesbian women tune into their TVs for their news fix. Mainstream websites and blogs takes the third place spot for LGBT consumers, with 57 percent of gay men and 46 percent of lesbians turning to these sites as their main information source; 55 percent of gay men and 46 percent of lesbians also rely on mainstream newspapers.

Read more at dot429.com

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Emerson College in Boston. (Photo: Allston Dave)

BY MORGAN WELCH
dot429

There are multiple issues to consider when looking at colleges; Princeton Review’s annual list, which covers both two-year colleges and four-year universities, rate each institution on multiple criteria for the consideration of prospective students, including LGBT-friendliness. Predictably, schools from California and New England crowded the most LGBT-friendly list, while Southern schools were likely to be rated as least friendly towards the community. However, there were some surprises.

Not everyone considers the Princeton Review’s findings reliable, however; Campus Pride points out that the surveys include only one question on LGBT issues: students are asked if they agree or disagree with the statement “students, faculty, and administrators treat all persons equally regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.”

Among the most LGBT-friendly schools:

01. Emerson College (Boston, MA)
02. Warren Wilson College (Asheville, NC)
03. New College of Florida (Sarasota, FL)

Among the least LGBT-friend schools:

01. Grove City College (Grove City, PA)
02. Hampden-Sydney College (Hampden Sydney, VA)
03. College of the Ozarks (Point Lookout, MO)

Read more at see the top 20 rankings in both categories at dot429.com

The post The most (and least) queer-friendly colleges first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY HUFFINGTON POST GAY VOICES

Good news for Washington D.C.’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents: you are most definitely not alone. A Gallup Politics poll has revealed that a full 10 percent of the U.S. capital’s population personally identifies as LGBT. D.C., which nabbed the top spot, was up five full percentage points from Hawaii, which came in second place with five percent of its population identifying as LGBT.

On the flip side, a mere 1.7 percent of North Dakota residents polled identified as LGBT, which Montana was barely ahead with 2.6 percent.

Read more at Huffington Post Gay Voices

The post Where is the gayest place in the USA? first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Gallup has conducted an expansive survey in an attempt to determine how many people openly identify as a member of the LGBT community across the United States. While the difference between specific states was not particularly significant, researcher Gary Gates points out that the findings do show that states with more protections for LGBT people tend to have more out LGBT people.

“The states with proportionally larger LGBT populations generally have supportive LGBT legal climates. With the exception of South Dakota, all of the states that have LGBT populations of at least 4% have laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and allow same-sex couples to marry, enter into a civil union, or register as domestic partners. Of the 10 states with the lowest percentage of LGBT adults, only Iowa has such laws,” he says.

Read more at ThinkProgress.org

The post Survey: More LGBT people live in progressive areas first appeared on Lesbian.com.