WHEN Expedia decided to begin running on television this month a commercial it had introduced online in October, about a father’s trip to attend his daughter’s wedding to another woman, the media plan was drawn up to include Logo, the cable channel aimed at gay and lesbian viewers. But the commercial is also running on networks watched by general audiences, like CNN, History, MSNBC and the National Geographic Channel.

“As we were making our Web site more personal, we wanted to get back to the idea that travel is really personal,” said Sarah Gavin, director for public relations and social media at Expedia in Seattle, and “equality is a core part of who we are.”

The Expedia decision is indicative of a significant change in how marketers are disseminating ads with so-called L.G.B.T. themes, for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. For the last two or three decades, such ads were usually aimed at L.G.B.T. consumers, placed in media those consumers watch and read, and then supplemented with tactics that included event marketing like floats in Pride Month parades.

Recently, however, L.G.B.T. ads have been getting broader exposure. While targeted media and events remain part of the game plan, they are also running in mainstream media that, in addition to general cable channels, include magazines like Family Circle, newspapers like The New York Times and social media like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube.