Queercents

“Money will buy you a fine dog, but only love can make it wag its tail” – Richard Friedman

If you poke around the website of the Gay Millionaires Club, you’ll find this review in the press tab. One client writes, “My mother always said, to my sister of course, you could fall in love with a rich man just as easily as a poor one. I must have been lurking somewhere in the background (probably braiding Barbie’s hair) because her very words came to mind when I saw an ad at the back of a gay magazine asking the question, ‘Do you want to date a gay millionaire?’ The idea intrigued me and I thought ‘What the Hell?’ and ‘Why not?’ I was on the wrong side of 40 and it was painfully clear around my eyes when I smiled that I was not going to be the pretty one forever.”

The Advocate took note of the Gay Millionaires Club and Jeremy Quittner posed this question to founder, Jill Kimmel-Hankoff: Can a service that promises to match eligible gay bachelors with men of means really result in true love?

“It’s a real-life dating service for affluent gay men ‘who don’t have the time or the desire’ to find dates on their own. It works like this: Any gay man can apply–at no charge–to meet one of Kimmel-Hankoffs nearly two dozen millionaires.” These millionaires are paying her to weed out the gold diggers.

“And pay they do. On the low end, Kimmel-Hankoff charges millionaires $15,000 for one year of matchmaking services. But the price goes up based on the complexity of the search, she says. She would not specify the upper range of the price scale. The millionaires–who must have at least $1 million in liquid assets–also submit to an intensive one-on-one grilling about their personal lives and their ideal mates. But they don’t seem to mind.”

Back on the site, Kimmel-Hankoff spins her web, “All Gay Millionaires Club clients are high achievers and are successful at whatever they do: physicians, attorneys, CEO’s, entertainment industry professionals, and investors. They are decision makers, leaders in their fields, philanthropic, civic-minded gay men. Many travel extensively, or own multiple homes.”

“The one common thread through every single Gay Millionaire is that his deepest desire is exactly the same as every one of us — To love, and be loved. Prosperity and abundance is everyone’s birthright – both financially and personally. At Gay Millionaires Club we create opportunities for our Gay Millionaires to prosper in love – fulfilling the one dream that has been elusive. Finding YOU!”

But the Advocate says the Gay Millionaires Club does have its detractors. Quittner writes, “Susan Gore of the Mentor Group, a consultancy that specializes in gay, diversity, and religious issues, says the service raises thorny concerns. ‘I think there is something troubling about being so overt about money as a qualification for love or a relationship,’ Gore says. And Jeff Titterton of PlanetOut Partners, whose Gay.com and PlanetOut sites offer means for gay people to meet potential dates, says the idea behind the Gay Millionaires Club is problematic. ‘People who define themselves by their wealth are probably not worth knowing,’ he says.”

Of course, Kimmel-Hankoff disagrees and over the years, has received thousands of applicants looking for the affluent version of Mr. Right. This brings us back to the start of this post and the mother’s advice that you can fall in love with a rich man just as easily as a poor one.

Do you agree?