Community Marketing and Insights (CMI) has released results from its international survey of LGBT peoples which it conducted online earlier this year. This year’s survey drew the involvement of 35,000 LGBT citizens across over 100 countries. With a cumulative nine year participation of over 270,000 respondents from 150 countries, the LGBT Community Survey is one of the largest sociological tracking studies of its kind.

A separate report detailing results specific to Nashville will be available in the September issue of O&AN.

The report recently released focuses on data of over 15,000 self-identified gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender United States residents.

By attracting large numbers of respondents, CMI was able to take a closer look at the many segments within LGBT. Obviously, the purchasing patterns and motivations of a 25 year old single gay man living in New York City are completely different than those of a lesbian couple in their 60’s living in Sedona, Arizona. The study helps organizations understand how the LGBT community sometimes responds as one voice, or when demographic differences such as gender, age, and geographic residence are far more important.

The 2015 report is available here.

CMI has provided the following key takeaways from the report:

• Baby Boomer LGBTs are 10% more economically confident than Millennial LGBTs and all three generations reported increased confidence since 2014. 
• An LGBT Baby Boom may be on the horizon as 51% of Millennial gay men and 55% of Millennial lesbians desire to have children in the future.
• 58% of LGBT parents are likely to seek parenting advice from their own parents, more than any other advice source.
• Urban gay men age 21 to 28 are the heaviest consumers of alcohol. Within this key demographic, whiskey consumption is significantly increasing.
• The top three brands that LGBTs purchase because of their pro-LGBT policies or practices are Apple Computer, Starbucks and Target.
• Once again, Chick-fil-A is, by far, the brand with the most negative reputation within the LGBT community. 74% of LGBTs typed in the company’s name as a brand they are boycotting (up 4% from last year).
• LGBT discrimination, anti-LGBT religious freedom legislation, marriage equality, affordable healthcare and racial discrimination were the top concerns within the community when the survey fielded in May 2015. 
• "LGBT" remains the most popular term to describe the community among both men and women. 
• Gay and bisexual men are 13% more likely to live in big cities than lesbian and bisexual women. Lesbian and bisexual women are more equally distributed in different types of communities.
• At any given moment, gay and bisexual men are more likely than lesbian and bisexual women to define themselves as single. Lesbian and bisexual women are far more likely to be married. 
• Within the LGBT community, only 9% of Millennial men define themselves as married compared to 22% of Millennial women.
• Gay men and lesbians appear to be equally satisfied with their current same-sex relationships. Over 90% of same-sex couples indicated satisfaction with their primary relationships.
• Lesbian and bisexual women are far more likely to care for pets than gay and bisexual men. However, 79% of women and 61% of men indicated pets in the home (the national average is 62% of households). Consequently, lesbian and bisexual women purchase more pet food. 

Be sure to check the September print issue of O&AN for results specific to our community.