(continued)

Nice article, but the information about gay and lesbian median household income is just not true.

In empirical studies that use a national, random sample, gay men consistently earn lower wages than straight men (though this difference may be smaller among single gay and straight men, more of a marriage penalty), while lesbians earn slightly higher wages than straight women.

Many of these inflated stats about gay and lesbians earnings have come from samples that have been taken from magazines other non-random sampling procedures. No doubt there are many wealthy gay and lesbian couples, and corporations/advertisers would be foolish to ignore them. However, false stats like these about median household income obscure the real wage discrimination that many gay men (and some lesbians) must endure.

Some empirical studies about gay and lesbian wages....

Badgett, M.V. Lee. 1995. "The Wage Effects of Sexual Orientation Discrimination." Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 48(4): 1995.

Badgett, M.V. Lee. 2001. Money, Myths, and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Black, Dan A., Hoda R. Makar, Seth G. Sanders, and Lowell J. Taylor. 2003 "The Effects of Sexual Orientation on Earnings." Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 56(3): 449-469.

Blandford, John M. 2003. "The Nexus of Sexual Orientation and Gender in the Determination of Earnings." Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 56(4): 622-642.

Carpenter, Christopher. 2004. "New Evidence of Gay and Lesbian Household Incomes." Contemporary Economic Policy. 22(1): 78-94.

Carpenter, Christopher. 2007. "Revisiting the Income Penalty for Behaviorally Gay Men: Evidence from NHANES III." Labour Economics. 14(1): 25-34.

I was under the impression that the $83,000 figure came from anti-gay "researcher" Paul Cameron.

Gotta point out that Air Canada is, in fact, more excruciating than enjoyable, and "That's their problem" is pretty much that corporation's motto.