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This study explores the representation of identity groups and their interests within the labor movement using lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals as my case group. The goal is to provide new knowledge about how national and international unions in the United States are responding to sexual orientation. Data on the official polices of the 13 largest national and international unions was collected through a telephone survey of union staff and officials possessing specialized knowledge about their unions’ responses to sexual diversity.

The data collected here was used to test whether structural and demographic arguments regarding union responsiveness to LGBT issues explain the divergences in union initiatives to recognize sexual diversity. The results of this study confirmed earlier research that structural and demographic variables do matter but revealed that it is necessary to go beyond these variables to more fully explain variation in union responses to sexual diversity. Future research needs to explore other factors involving collective agency, history, ideology, and so on and the differences between the social movement unionism rooted in old class politics and one more influenced by the new social movements to understand why unions such as Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are the most responsive to minorities and the most successful in changing union culture as well as practice.

In the seemingly perpetual battle among cities to secure economic growth, one strategy has gained increasing credence of late: luring the Creative Class. The argument, promulgated by Professor of Economic Development Richard Florida (2002a, pp. 4–5), suggests that human creativity is now the “decisive source of competitive advantage” and cities can thrive by tapping and harnessing such creativity. The primary ingredients in this sweeping recipe for urban success are a group of young, mobile, diverse, ‘creative’ professionals, who constitute a social class of their own, according to Florida's popular book, The Rise of the Creative Class (2002). This Creative Class – if cities can attract and retain it – operates as its own economic machine, producing jobs, enhancing productivity, and increasing the overall well being of the city, Florida argues. From an urban economic development perspective, the role of the city is to create the conditions in which this Creative Class and associated industries can flourish.