Sep 19, 2008  |  By: ZACK ROSEN  | COMMENTS     

want to deal with homophobia,” says gay wedding photographer Ben Janken, who began shooting gay commitment ceremonies in the Bay Area in the mid-’80s. “They want to be around people that love them and see gay people as normal.”

If businesses are genuinely gay friendly, that could prove to be the biggest draw for same-sex customers who may decide to officially marry if the referendum is shot down in November. However, it will take some negotiating on both sides.

Though people like Tavake are taking steps to make gay customers feel comfortable, there is a certain amount of unease on the part of some gay patrons as well. When Vanderheiden tried to sign up for a booth at Pride, she had an initially contentious interaction with the man facilitating the process.

“He said, ‘Do you have invitations that are butch? Gay guys don’t like frilly things.’ I said we do custom invitations. When I explained how we worked he was fine, but at first he was confrontational about it.”

Despite stories like this, Janken is confident that most businesses don’t work with gay and lesbian customers unless they’re comfortable doing so. He cites a recent case in New Mexico where a Christian wedding photographer was fined nearly $7,000 for refusing to work with a lesbian couple.
 
The businesses that are willing to work with gay couples do stand to make a profit, and in the Bay Area there is no shortage of such businesses.

One is Herth Real Estate, a gay-owned business that has operated out of the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco since 1967. Its ad has the tagline “Need a Threshold?” and shows a rainbow touching down on the San Francisco skyline, suggesting married gay couples should “settle down” there. While it is too early to tell, this could be another harbinger of change for an already changing gay community — ads targeted to gay families.

“I think marriage becoming a formal institution will garner support from friends and family,” says gay Herth employee Larry Stebbins. “Relationships that receive more support have a higher probability of staying together and creating homes and families with children and pets and mortgages.”

Stebbins also says that his percentage of gay clients has risen in the last several months.