Banking On Gay Support

When banks refused to finance a gay and lesbian resort, Steven Dunlap scrapped that idea and decided to start a financial institution that would welcome homosexuals instead of spurn them.

The result is G&L Bank. The initials stand for gay and lesbian, and it is expected to open here in the spring pending final approval from federal regulators, said Dunlap, the bank's chairman.

Not only would it be the nation's only bank catering specifically to homosexuals, it would be one of the first operating primarily via the Internet. "The whole deal is to take banking away from you having to go to the bank, and let us bring the bank to you," Dunlap said. He envisions gays and lesbians as an entry market but not the bank's sole customer base.

"Just like Federal Express is doing to overnight delivery, I expect to be the No. 1 brand name in the Internet banking arena," Dunlap said. "You're going to sort of forget, potentially, what this G&L stands for." Bold talk, but Dunlap, 42, has some unique business credentials to back it up.

He went from selling watermelons outside his father's appliance store in Jonesboro, Arkansas at age eight to retirement in his early 30's after developing a series of novelty products. They include Nightcrawlers, children's house shoes with eyes that light up to guide youngsters through the dark, and Pet Peeves, talking collars for cats and dogs.

He made his real fortune, however, by selling millions of Moonies. The chubby doll-size figures attach to car windows with suction cups like the ubiquitous Garfield-the-cat stick-ons, but with a risqué difference.

"You squeezed the bulb and the little guy dropped his pants and mooned people," Dunlap said. "I got rich off of it and I quit."

He moved in 1990 from Memphis, Tennessee to Navarre Beach, about 20 miles east of Pensacola, planning nothing more than to sit on the sugar-white beach and write a book about fad products.

However, after noticing that thousands of homosexuals congregate on area beaches every Memorial Day weekend, he decided the Florida Panhandle could support a small gay and lesbian resort. Dunlap and a motel developer drew up a plan and took it to local bankers about six years ago.

"You could just see the color run out of their faces," Dunlap recalled. "My personal impression and observation was that they did not want anything to do with the financing solely because it was a ... 'gay and lesbian' business."

Dunlap, himself gay, figured if that was happening here it also was happening to others elsewhere. Creating a bank for such a geographically widespread market niche would have been difficult at best before the Internet.

"The Internet now allows us to deliver to this community without having bricks and mortar," Dunlap said. "It actually allows me to put a bank branch in every house where there is a computer."

Internet banking remains in its infancy, howeverso G&L has had to do extensive research and development. That effort is headed by G. Kay Griffith, G&L's president.

Ms. Griffith, 53, originally from Columbus, Ohio, worked for major bank groups in California and Florida and was president of Admiralty Bank in Palm Beach County until 1994 when she formed a consulting company in Fort Lauderdale. She closed the business after taking the G&L job in March.

"There were a few moments when I candidly sat and said, 'Hmmm, there are going to be questions asked about me,'" said Ms. Griffith, who is heterosexual. "But that took only about a second."

She had always been interested in civil rights and the opportunity to be part of such a pioneering effort was too attractive to pass up.

The bank's 11-member staff is almost equally split between homosexuals and heterosexuals. Staffing at its Pensacola headquarters is expected to increase to about 25 employees after opening.