Comments | urbpan: Gayest Cities

urbpan

Gayest Cities

Jan 23, 2010 13:41

The Advocate just published their list of the 15 Gayest U.S. Cities. What's most surprising are the omissions. NO San Francisco, NO Provincetown, NO Key West. The criteria used to determine gayness were: Same-sex couples per capita (anti-single bias!), Statewide Marriage Equality (So long, California cities!), Gay Elected Officials, Gay Bars per ( Read more... )

gay rights, springfield, austin, marriage equality, moving, seattle

Comments 24

pangolin January 23 2010, 19:19:11 UTC

Well, it's nice to see that Seattle is on the list, as that's pretty much at the top of my list of where I'd eventually like to move. I can pretty much confirm that Austin is one of those Islands, and probably a fairly big one at that, since Texas is so spread out. I think however I would avoid the other mentioned "Islands" as a place to live. The South has so few cities of notable size, that I imagine Atlanta just gets all the gays from all over the South.

says_bomb January 23 2010, 19:21:27 UTC

I'm gay and a native Bostonian who now lives in San Francisco and has been to 2/3 these places. And this list is totally bullshit.

No place I've ever been are as pervasively gay as San Francisco or Provincetown. Gay is part of the culture in these places. The Advocate's methodology obviously doesn't capture this, and it's hard to take their measures seriously if these cities don't appear somewhere in the list.

Instead, I agree they seem to have arrived at gay islands, where enough concentration is achieved only because the hostility of the surrounding areas makes those cities a catchment.

buboniclou January 23 2010, 19:23:13 UTC

NOLA totally still has a thriving gayborhood. I was there for "Southern Decadence" Labor Day weekend, which is one of the biggest pride events in the country. It's basically like Austin and Atlanta--an oasis of tolerance in the ocean of the South. You can love whoever the hell you want, and people in New Orleans are like, ok, whatever :)

bdot January 23 2010, 19:23:57 UTC

other than san diego and maybe albuquerque, i have no desire to live in *any* of those places!

teratologist January 23 2010, 19:27:04 UTC

5,4, and 3 might be a product of the island effect; they're all college towns in square-ish states, so even if they're not terribly liberal from where I sit they're probably a LOT more hospitable than anything in the vicinity.

I'm actually most surprised by Gainesville. I mostly associate that town with (het) serial killers.