By Karen Talley

(This article was originally published Sunday.)

Retailers are becoming a lot less closeted.

They are turning their attention to gays and lesbians, a group that wields substantial buying power but isn’t fully integrated into mainstream advertising. Similar to other moves to attract different minority groups, the push comes with risks, as it could threaten the retailers’ relationships with some of their longtime shoppers.

Nonetheless, from J.C. Penney Co.’s


/quotes/zigman/237947/quotes/nls/jcp JCP
-0.90%



high-profile hiring of openly gay television personality Ellen DeGeneres as its spokeswoman to Target Corp.’s


/quotes/zigman/253872/quotes/nls/tgt TGT
-0.02%

This article originally appeared on: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/retailers-look-to-market-to-gay-consumers-2012-07-09