What’s America’s Gayest City?

[TotallyOz]

What’s America’s Gayest City?

The Advocate’s research team “took a number of signifiers of gay-friendliness”—including elected openly gay officials, gay-friendly religious congregations, and, ahem, number of Gay.com profiles — for each city, assigned points for each signifier, added them, and divided the scores by the city’s population to arrive at the per capita homosexuality.

The Advocate calls this method a “completely unscientific — but still strangely accurate — statistical equation.” The publication says its list “demonstrates that the homosexual agenda is spreading across the 50 states — from Washington, D.C., to Vancouver, Wash. — and especially, it seems, in the heartland. Like it or not, America, LGBT is more a part of the USA than ever before.”

Is your city on the list?

15. Miami

The Florida metropolis “has finally graduated from party town to something more sophisticated.” But adds, “Thankfully, there are still hordes of hot tanned and toned guys cruising South Beach.”

14. Oakland, Calif.

Since “San Francisco’s too pricy for most of the middle class—including artists and the funky gays—Oakland has become the Brooklyn of the West Coast.”

13. Denver

With its new Gay and Lesbian Center, its gay state senator, Pat Steadman, and its newly appointed gay supreme court justice, Monica Marquez,” the “Mile High city” exemplifies that equality is inevitable—and hard fought.

12. Cleveland

As host of the 2014 Gay Games, the Ohio city “is about to become a major gay destination.

11. San Francisco

Dubbed “the gay daddy of American cities” with “the gay-friendliest straight mayor in history, Gavin Newsom.”

10. St. Louis

The “Gateway City” is the “open-minded heart of the Midwest,” and while “Anheuser-Busch just made a cash donation to the gay and lesbian centric Gateway Business Guild” it’s “last October’s First Annual Trans Family Picnic, put on by local advocacy group TransHaven …that most signals how St. Louis has become a welcoming city for queer folk.”

9. Seattle

The birthplace of grunge music “has always had a creative, fun gay scene,” plus this is where “the graceful and hip Ace Hotel chain got its start. It’s where The Stranger hosts its yearly homemade porn film festival. It’s the home of gay spokesman Dan Savage, founder of the It Gets Better Project.”

8. Washington, D.C.

The U.S. capital’s “large thumpy dance clubs like Town, which periodically hosts variety shows by LGBT troupe Crack and monthly nights have cropped up all over the city, such as Taint” and also notes “the gay center of the city has migrated east from Dupont Circle to Logan Circle.”

7. Atlanta

The Georgia capital ”is awash in burgeoning gayborhoods, from business district Candler Park and eclectic East Atlantic Village to the tree-lined Virginia Highland area, where residents elected the lesbian Councilmember, Anne Fauver.”

6. Vancouver, Wash.

“A lot of those groovy gay and lesbian Portlanders are mellowing out and coming here to settle down. The city of around 165,000 has six gay-friendly churches, and its Skyview High School has a student-led gay-straight alliance.”

5. Pittsburgh

The Pennsylvania city is “the historic home of daddy Andy Warhol, mommy Gertrude Stein, and cool lezzie aunt Willa Cather.” Also note that gay and lesbian people “are taking advantage of the bargain housing prices in this beautiful, cleaned-up urban landscape.”

4. Orlando, Fla.

The Advocate writes that the home of Disney World “is coming out as a hotspot for gay and lesbian life and a hotbed of progressive attitudes. Last November, when Orange County leaders voted 6-1 to add sexual orientation protections to its private-sector anti-discrimination law, not a single resident or religious organization opposed it.”

3. Las Vegas

Besides “dozens of flashy shows every night,” being the “home of Siegfried and Roy,” and “the setting of the campiest film ever made (Showgirls),” Sin City is “the top destination for American lesbians, as well as the number two destination for American gay men and gay seniors (after New York City).”

2. Santa Fe, N.M.

“This is where seasoned gays come to center themselves, but not in a boring way: LGBT retirement community RainbowVision has raucous drag shows at the Silver Starlight Lounge. Not only is Santa Fe home to plenty of body workers, reiki practitioners, and shaman-type hippie gays, it also has the most restaurants per capita of any city in the country and boasts the third largest art market.”

And the winner is...

1. Minneapolis

Simply put, “Minneapolis has become the gay magnet city of the Midwest. …People here are no-nonsense, practical, and don’t deal well with hypocrites. This is where the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America took a historic leap forward and voted to accept gay and lesbian pastors, including the Rev. Mary Albing, the denomination’s first openly lesbian pastor. And Minnesota senator Al Franken introduced the Student Non-Discrimination Act to protect LGBT youth from school bullies.”

http://daily.gay.com/travel/2011/01/whats-americas-gayest-city.html

[Guest CharliePS]

I don't know how the Advocate defined "city," but Palm Springs (with almost 50,000 people) is classified as such in California. By most estimates, at least 40% of the population is openly gay (try beating that, Minneapolis!), and a majority of city council members--including the mayor, who is legally married to his husband--are openly gay. The White Party, for gay men, is the second biggest event of the year (the Dinah Shore tournament, for lesbians, is third), and the gay resorts and bars are the mainstay of the economy. There is a big gay pride parade, and a gay film festival (the biggest event of the year, the International Film Festival, also features many gay films), as well as smaller events with gay themes. I can't imagine we don't fit somewhere on that list.

[RA1]

I have only been to the PSP airport on biz so what I know about it is only from reading. It sounds quite the attractive place for any number of reasons even regardless of the "gay" impact. However, the only really small "city" on this list still had over 3 times the population of PSP. The others were very much larger. What does that mean? Well, let's do one of those "we are the fastest growing whatevers" remarks. If the population of town A is 50 people and 10 move in, it had a growth rate of 20% during that interval which likely would put it into the "fastest growing community in (whatever) state or country". But they still only added 10 people. I readily concede this to be an extreme example and I am not suggesting PSP is not wonderfully gay. But, no doubt, you see my point.

As the disclaimer pointed out, it wasn't scientific but had some validity from known or unknown sources.

Bottom line: If I were looking to move, this kind of information would either be the #1 consideration or very far down the list of considerations.

Best regards,

RA1

[kjun12]

I think this poll or whatever it is lacks accuracy and is a blatant pile of crap.

[Guest CharliePS]

I have only been to the PSP airport on biz so what I know about it is only from reading. It sounds quite the attractive place for any number of reasons even regardless of the "gay" impact. However, the only really small "city" on this list still had over 3 times the population of PSP. The others were very much larger. What does that mean? Well, let's do one of those "we are the fastest growing whatevers" remarks. If the population of town A is 50 people and 10 move in, it had a growth rate of 20% during that interval which likely would put it into the "fastest growing community in (whatever) state or country". But they still only added 10 people. I readily concede this to be an extreme example and I am not suggesting PSP is not wonderfully gay. But, no doubt, you see my point.

As the disclaimer pointed out, it wasn't scientific but had some validity from known or unknown sources.

Bottom line: If I were looking to move, this kind of information would either be the #1 consideration or very far down the list of considerations.

Best regards,RA1,

I went by the population within city limits. The smallest city on the list is Santa Fe, with only 20,000 more people than Palm Springs. The Coachella Valley metro area, of which Palm Springs is just one city, actually has three times the population of the Santa Fe metro area (which is why it has a much bigger airport than Santa Fe). The rest of the valley, of course, is less gay than PS, so perhaps the gayness to overall metro population ratio is less than for Santa Fe.

In case you hadn't already guessed, I originally planned to be a demographer, before I realized how limited the job market was.

RA1

[Guest CharliePS]

Somehow I screwed up and got my reply inside RA1's quote.

[RA1]

Getting inside my quote can be a turn on.

You are correct, I "forgot" SAF. I was there twice last summer and was totally impressed, not favorably, both times. Very much too expensive and the folks seem overly impressed by where they are or think they are. It is just a very small town at a high elevation with nothing to support the area other than "tourists". Nothing really wrong with that except perhaps the attitude about same.

At the airport, where general aviation does it business, two things struck me, one, the cucumber flavored water they were passing off as something "important" and two, the small statue of a figure with a dove or something at the top (about 14 inches total) which was easily reachable by any small fry lurking about (kids on the loose) which was offered for the "bargain" price of $6,000. No, thanks.

Best regards,

RA1

PS---I thought the "big" airport was because of either Bob Hope or Frank Sinatra or both.

[axiom2001]

I think this poll or whatever it is lacks accuracy and is a blatant pile of crap.

Kjun, I am with you 100%! I've kept us with assessments similar to this one, and I can truly say that this particular poll is truly "whacked!" :frantics:

[Guest FourAces]

The list does not seem correct to me either. That is probably due to the criteria used to create the list. For example, I live in Dallas where there is a very large gay population. My bet is like most southern cities there are not going to be as many profiles posted on gay.com then a more liberal city like DC which is not even a city lol. I've lived in 3 of the cities on the list and do not feel any of them are more gay friendly than Dallas is.

And as Charlie pointed out lets not forget what is missing for the list. Palm Springs, as an example, should be somewhere in the top ten cities. I also feel that San Diego as a city could make the list.

Whatever all these lists tend to be fun to glance at but I hardly plan my life around them.

[Guest EXPAT]

Maybe the gay travel bureau in Minneapolis paid for this article. These things tend to be PR stunts anyway. It would be hard not to include New York City in that last or even West Hollywood in that list frankly.

[Guest twinklover]

The top 5 other than Orlando are surely misplaced. Vegas is still a Mormon city and Pittsburg, I doubt, is very gay-friendly. I agree with Orlando in the top 5 and would definitely include San Francisco, NYC, West Hollywood and Palm Springs, with honorable mentions to San Diego, Washington DC and Key West.