Profile: Golden Gate Business Assoc (GGBA)

In 1974 the Golden Gate Business Association (GGBA) began as the first business organization founded by gay and lesbian entrepreneurs. Our purpose was and still is to support the growth and visibility of the LGBT community and supportive businesses. We provide a forum where our members can address their unique concerns. We promote human rights issues in the workplace and in our society at large through education and positive exposure. We depend on our loyal membership and friends within the community to help us prosper in the future and cope with the ever changing economic and social environment.

Through networking and mentoring opportunities as well as informal business advice, we are able to provide our members with business referrals and leads, professional insight, educational programs, visibility in the community, and a sense of camaraderie as they face the task of doing business in today’s rapidly changing and increasingly challenging business conditions.

For over thirty years, the GGBA has served as a dynamic voice for the Bay Area’s LGBT businesses. Specifically, it has built a community of excellent LGBT businesses with significant value for the economy and has provided a strong voice both to the Office of the Mayor and to the members of the Board of Supervisors. Recently, the GGBA launched the Tourism Advisory Program (TAP), a cooperative effort between the GGBA, the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, and the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Committees. This historic coalition’s goal is to create and maintain a coordinated campaign to attract LGBT tourists to San Francisco.