Echelon Magazine plans to publish GLBT business directory

You've probably heard of the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) Corporate Equality Index, the list that rates businesses based on their policies, practices, and outreach to the LGBTQ community both internally and externally. It is from that Index that the HRC derives their "Buying for Equality" guide, and it is also the basis for this examiner's "Buying for Equality in Kansas City" series. The businesses listed in that index, however, are not necessarily GLBT owned or operated -- they simply support the community, at least in theory.

Echelon Magazine, however, has announced that it is compiling a list of businesses that will include those owned and/or operated by members of the Queer community itself. Individual community organizations will sometimes have such directories available if you know where to look (often online and often very difficult to find for the average user), but this seems to be one of the first major efforts on a national scale by one of the very few magazines catering to GLBT businesses specifically.

The list, called The Echelon 2011 Business Directory, is expected to be published in January 2011, with an iPhone application following shortly after in February. But it's not too late for Kansas City GLBT Businesses to be included on the list. The deadline for listing applications is December 1, 2010.