MGM helps produce an LGBT wedding album

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PR Newswire

Sat, Apr 14, 2018 (2 a.m.)

MGM Resorts International is renowned for hosting concerts, and now it can claim to have produced its first record: Universal Love, an LGBT-focused effort with Sony Music that surfaced online last week and will see a limited-edition vinyl release April 21 for Record Store Day. It features six covers of wedding favorites with the lyrical pronouns switched; participants include Kesha, St. Vincent, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party and none other than Bob Dylan, who turns the standard “She’s Funny That Way” into “He’s Funny That Way.”

MGM sees the endeavor more as an extension of its inclusive values—which has previously included Pride sponsorships, commitment ceremonies and helping establish a local chapter of the Human Rights Campaign—than an attempt to lure more LGBT guests.

“The fact you are allies with this community ... I don’t consider that marketing,” says Phyllis James, MGM’s chief diversity officer. “But to this community, which has been ostracized so much, it’s a statement in and of itself. It translates into consumer loyalty.”

This story originally appeared in the Las Vegas Weekly.

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