It's manna from heaven for the local tourism bureau. Four times in two years, free national publicity has fallen into the Bloomington/Monroe County Convention and Visitors Bureau's lap in connection with its gay tourism initiative.

First came a couple of references in national newspapers in December 2003. That set off a TV comedy-show feeding frenzy, culminating in Saturday Night Live's satirical take on the bureau's motto "Come Out and Play."

Second was the release of Bill Condon's award-winning biopic Kinsey last November. In an interview with Bay Windows Online, Rob DeCleene, the bureau's services manager, spoke of Kinsey as a turning point and potentially the single most galvanizing influence on gay tourism in Bloomington.

Most recent were an Out Traveler article and an OUT&ABOUT Travel Award, announced August 15 by online media company PlanetOut.

PlanetOut honored Bloomington as the best of 2005 in the category of tourism development "for breaking into the gay and lesbian travel market by showcasing itself as a progressive college town with cultural opportunities surprising for its size and location."

The PlanetOut award coincided with the launch of the visitgaybloomington.com section of the bureau's Web site and the publication of a specially targeted brochure. Prospective gay and lesbian tourists can now receive tailor-made packets of materials for planning visits.

Despite all its national exposure, the bureau plans to concentrate on the market within a four- to six-hour driving radius, says DeCleene.

Local gay tourism was the brainchild of bureau President Valerie Peña, sparked by a meeting she had in 2000 with Tom Roth, president of Community Marketing in San Francisco. Since then, Roth has continued to encourage and mentor, while Peña has done a careful inventory and assessment of local assets and taken advantage of low-cost marketing opportunities.

She has become "the most brilliant and pro-active CVB director I've met with regard to the gay market," says Roth. He adds that she is among only 60 directors worldwide who are working that market.

Peña regularly attends or sends a representative to annual meetings of the International Conference on Gay and Lesbian Tourism. In 2002, the bureau joined the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association. And this fall, Peña is teaching a gay tourism class at IU-Bloomington, having earlier taught the class at IUPUI.

"It's another sign," says Roth, "that Valerie wants to make a difference for the gay and lesbian community worldwide."

But clouds loom on the horizon. The state of Ohio was dishonored this year with a "Rock Bottom" award from PlanetOut in recognition of its "harshly-worded constitutional marriage ban," deemed "egregiously anti-gay behavior worthy of a gay travel advisory."

That ban is virtually the same as the constitutional amendment that passed its first hurdle in the Indiana General Assembly this past spring, with help from area legislators Peggy Welch, Vern Tincher, Richard Bray, and Brent Steele.

Roth says it's important for tourist bureaus to advocate for safe and welcoming environments, through policy and publicity if not through outright political involvement.

"Gay and lesbian tourists are very aware of social policies, and they vote with their wallets," says Roth. "Both gay and non-gay businesses lose out" when an anti-gay climate is created. "Think South Africa," he says.

But the bureau seems hesitant to protect its investment.

"We stay politically objective," says DeCleene. If Indiana voters pass a constitutional amendment in 2008 like Ohio's, "Bloomington will look even more like an oasis," he speculates hopefully.

Less hopefully, PlanetOut travel editor Ed Salvato says PlanetOut could consign Indiana to the worst-travel-destination category some year soon.

"We'd continue to honor the efforts of bureaus like Bloomington's," he says, "but the spill-over effects would make their work even more challenging."

John Clower can be reached at:jclower2@yahoo.com.