Gay for Pay: The Role of Philanthropy in Upholding Homonormative Nonprofit Agendas in LGBT Advocacy Organizations

Abstract

A misguided notion that gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender identified individuals constituted a demographic that possessed substantial wealth emerged in the early 1990s. Since this time, scholars have conducted randomized, representative research indicating that LGBT incomes are comparable to, if not lower than their heterosexual counterparts. While most LGBT organizations, both mainstream and progressive, have critiqued the myth of affluence among their communities, organizational agendas and practices often times continue to perpetuate this stereotype. These trends in giving have contributed to a problem among LGBT organizations which some have coined “homonormativity,” a term Lisa Duggan defines as “a privatized, depoliticized gay culture anchored in domesticity and consumption” (Duggan 2003, 50).