Editing LGBTQ community (section)

===Marketing===
{{Main|LGBT marketing}}
Marketing towards the LGBTQ community was not always a strategy among advertisers. For the last three to four decades, Corporate America has created a market niche for the LGBTQ community. Three distinct phases define the marketing turnover: 1) shunning in the 1980s, 2) curiosity and fear in the 1990s, and 3) pursuit in the 2000s.<ref name="Oakenfull2">{{cite journal|last1=Oakenfull|first1=Gillian|date=2012|title=Gay Consumers and Brand Usage: The Gender-Flexing Role of Gay Identity|journal=Psychology & Marketing|volume=29|issue=12|pages=968–979|doi=10.1002/mar.20578}}</ref>

In recent years, marketing oriented towards the LGBTQ dynamic has increased. With a spike in same-sex marriage in 2014, marketers are figuring out new ways to tie in a person's sexual orientation to a product being sold.<ref name="Soat2" /> In efforts to attract members of the LGBTQ community to their products, market researchers are developing marketing methods that reach these new families.<ref name="Soat2" /> Advertising history has shown that when marketing to the family, it was always the wife, the husband, and the children.<ref name="Soat2" /> But today, that is not necessarily the case. There could be families of two fathers or two mothers with one child or six children. Breaking away from the traditional family setting, marketing researchers notice the need to recognize these different family configurations.<ref name="Soat2" />

One area that marketers are subject to fall under is stereotyping the LGBTQ community. When marketing towards the community, they may corner their target audience into an "alternative" lifestyle category that ultimately "others" the LGBTQ community.<ref name="Soat2" /> Sensitivity is important when marketing towards the community. When marketing towards the LGBTQ community, advertisers respect the same boundaries.

Marketers also refer to LGBTQ as a single characteristic that makes an individual.<ref name="Soat2" /> Other areas can be targeted along with the LGBTQ segment such as race, age, culture, and income levels.<ref name="Soat2" /> Knowing the consumer gives these marketers power.<ref name="Um2" />

Along with attempts to engage with the LGBTQ community, researchers have found gender disagreements among products with respective consumers.<ref name="Oakenfull2" /> For instance, a gay male may want a more feminine product, whereas a lesbian female may be interested in a more masculine product. This does not hold for the entire LGBTQ community, but the possibilities of these differences are far greater.<ref name="Oakenfull2" /> In the past, gender was seen as fixed, and a congruent representation of an individual's sex. It is understood now that sex and gender are fluid separately. Researchers also noted that when evaluating products, a person's biological sex is as equal is a determinant as their self-concept.<ref name="Oakenfull2" /> As a customer response, when the advertisement is directed towards them, gay men and women are more likely to have an interest in the product.<ref name="Um2" /> This is an important factor and goal for marketers because it indicates future loyalty to the product or brand.