Nov 10, 2006  |  By: ZACK ROSEN  | COMMENTS     

The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, an organization that seeks to bring about equality in the business world, is holding its third annual national dinner on Friday, Nov. 17th, at the National Building Museum, and will honor various gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses from around the country. 

Titled “An evening of courage,” the event has many corporate sponsors, including Wells Fargo and Citigroup and will feature an awards ceremony, including accolades for “Courage in Business,” going to Ross Klein, president of W Hotels Worldwide, “Courage in Government,” received by Robert Faithful of the U.S. Department of the Interior, and “Corporation of the Year,” going to the Intel Corporation.

In addition to the more than 500 elected officials, entrepreneurs, business owners and corporate leaders attending the evening’s festivities, the event will feature three celebrity appearances. Three actors from Here! TV will headline the event. “Shock to the System’s” Chad Allen will join “Dante’s Cove’s” Thea Gill and Charlie David as the dinner’s featured special guests.

“I think the voice the NGLCC has is very important,” says David, who is also the owner of a gay-friendly talent agency. “When I go to something like the NGLCC dinner I learn a lot, I take part in the seminars myself, I gain insight into things that I can take back to my own business. … I think that an organization like theirs is mutually beneficial. We can give and also get a lot from it.”

FOUNDED IN 2002 by Chance Mitchell and Justin Nelson, the NGLCC is a not-for-profit advocacy organization that aims to expand the opportunities available to the gay business owner.  Both co-founders were gay veterans of the business world and were interested in putting a corporate spin on gay equality. 

“We realized that this is a community that has a tremendous amount of buying power and has made great strides in corporate America,” explains Mitchell, who had been a bankruptcy manager prior to founding the organization.

“There was an economic identity missing for the LGBT population,” adds Nelson, a former healthcare lobbyist. “There was a business empowerment that needed to happen that hadn’t happened. There were opportunities out there to put an economic face on the LGBT population. … That was the biggest reason for doing it, using economics to push equality.”

Since its creation, the NGLCC has created a national network of gay businesses, empowering gay business owners to come out and make contact with other business leaders, from large corporations all the way to “ma and ma” and “pa and pa” shops.

“The thing we’ve found is that decision-makers, whether it’s Washingon, Wall Street, or Main Street, listen to business folks,” says Nelson. “[The NGLCC] has opened the door to a whole new kind of activist. It’s identified people that have never stood up and talked to a member of Congress or been visible as a community because there hadn’t been a reason to, and [the NGLCC has] given them an economic reason … to identify not just as gay or lesbian, but as a gay or lesbian business owner.”

EQUALITY THROUGH ECONOMICS is an aim shared by Bob Witeck and Wes Combs, the gay co-founders of Witeck-Combs Communications, this year’s recipient of the NGLCC-Wells Fargo LGBT Business of the Year award.

“We’re a public relations and marketing firm,” says Witeck. “We create marketing strategies and communication strategies for companies that are reaching gay households and gay people. Our vision was to bridge between corporate America and the gay community to get a better understanding of both.”

Founded in 1993, Witeck-Combs Communications has worked with an array of companies, including IBM, Motorola, the World Bank and American Airlines.

“I think you’d be hard-pressed to find any organization, any information that’s been written or said or used to really give an identity in terms of spending power and opportunities within the LGBT segment that you don’t attribute back to Witeck-Combs,” says Nelson. “They’ve been pioneers within the business movement, and we’re pleased to honor someone right here in our backyards this year.”

In step with the mission of the NGLCC, Witeck says that business activism can be a very powerful tool for gay men and lesbians.

“In politics, things don’t always move so fast,” says Witeck, “but in the marketplace, change occurs with greater swiftness and greater sensitivity. It’s a very highly tuned barometer of opinion and change, and when business changes and responds, I think those ripples go through the entire society and the NGLCC reflects that wave of change.”

Although the arguments surrounding gay equality are ...