October 27, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Honda and Acura Join the Gay-Friendly List on Gaywheels.com

American Honda Offers Same-Sex Domestic Partner Benefits to U.S. Employees

New York, NY – Gaywheels.com, the only website designed for the LGBT automotive consumer, has updated its listing of gay-friendly car companies to include two brands previously on its non-gay-friendly list – Honda and Acura. Both brands are sold in the U.S. by American Honda Motor Company who quietly changed their policies earlier this year.
“We are very happy that American Honda has rolled out their domestic-partner benefits to all of their U.S. employees,” said Joe LaMuraglia, publisher of Gaywheels.com. “I was aware that American Honda employees in CA have had this benefit for some time but we were waiting for the benefits to be offered at the manufacturing facilities before adding the brands to our gay-friendly list.”
American Honda began offering same sex domestic partner benefits to their U.S.-based employees as of January 2009. Employees in the sales and marketing division of the company have enjoyed domestic partnership health insurance benefits since January 2008. The latest addition includes the manufacturing arm of the company, which employs the vast majority of American Honda’s U.S. workers.
“The addition of Honda and Acura to the gay-friendly list is an example of how customers can affect change,” LaMuraglia emphasized. “Since we launched the site in 2005, many Honda owners have contacted me upset that Honda wasn’t gay-friendly. It looks like American Honda finally listened to their customers.”
According to the results of the LGBT Automobile Ownership Survey conducted by Sorgenfrei (www.sorgenfreillc.com), Honda is the third most popular brand owned by LGBT consumers.
About Gaywheels.com
Launched in 2005, Gaywheels.com is dedicated to promoting responsible consumerism and affecting change by encouraging car shoppers to patronize gay-friendly companies throughout the vehicle purchase process. Users of the site are able to investigate which automakers and other automotive companies offer domestic partner benefits to their employees, thus qualifying them as “gay-friendly,” plus read general reviews about cars, trucks and SUVs from those manufacturers. With that information at hand, they can make educated choices during the car-buying process. For more information, please visit www.Gaywheels.com.