JUNE 2002OURNAL OF MACROMARKETING Out in the Market: A History of the Gay Market Segment in the United States

In recent years, the American gay market segment has been recognized by publications and businesses as large and lucra-tive. Whether purposefully or inadvertently, U.S. businesses have been marketing to gay consumers for well over 100 years. This market segment has developed as a result of a series of historical and societal events, paralleling the devel-opment of the gay community and involving activities on the part of both buyers and sellers. This article traces the evolu-tion of the gay market segment from the late nineteenth cen-tury to the beginning of the twenty-first century through three historical phases: (1) the underground phase, pre-1941; (2) the community-building phase, 1941-1970; and (3) the main-stream phase, 1970 to the present. A conceptual framework linking buyer and seller activities to historic events in these three phases is presented alongwith examples of products an