Gayest Cities

[urbpan]

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 capita (there goes Salt Lake City's chances), and then some weird web-based ones including cruising spots and Netflix favorites.

Why do I care? Because gay-friendly cities are more liberal and more well-educated and more cultured, and those are the kinds of places I want to live. Sorry if it's a stereotype, but gay people being out of the closet strongly correlates with art museums, colleges, and Democrats.

So the Advocate's site spreads the results over 6 pages, probably to boost ad revenue. I've listed them behind the cut for your convenience:


15. Albuquerque, New Mexico
14. San Diego, California (on our long version of our short list of where to move)
13. Springfield, Massachusetts (practically my home town!)
12. Asheville, North Carolina (a friend recommended this to me 5 years ago or so--seems like a small hippy island surrounded by hillbillies to me)
11. Gainesville, Florida (Don't I know someone who lives there? Was it propaddict?)
10. Seattle, Washington (Whatever, nevermind)
9. Austin, Texas (also on our list, although it's another island in a hostile sea--that idea makes me nervous)
8. Portland, Maine (What about that other Portland?)
7. Fort Lauderdale, Florida
6. New Orleans, Louisiana (Really? I didn't think there was enough of a city left to have subcultures)
5. Madison, Wisconsin
4. Bloomington, Indiana
3. Iowa City, Iowa (I think these last three are some kind of Gay in-joke or something. I know Iowa passed marriage equality, but I didn't think any gay people actually lived there)
2. Burlington, Vermont
1. Atlanta, Georgia (Did someone say island in a sea of hostility?)

I'd love to hear reports from those of you that live in these places as to how accurate you think the list is.

Comments

[pangolin.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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

[teratologist.livejournal.com]

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.

[mycologynerd.livejournal.com]

First off Palm Springs should be on that list
secondly I agree where is Portland Oregon we are SUPER DUPER gay here

[sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com]

cruising by on friendsfriends, but for real, Iowa City - enormous number of gay people; very gay friendly; gay bars; gay community organizations; domestic partner benefits at the U; legalized gay marriage; and located in the most Democratic county in Iowa. So no, not an in-joke.

[urimancy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Austin's pretty gay. I mean, after ten years in San Francisco I'm certainly surprised that it didn't make the list, since gay culture is just so celebrated there and it makes it seem huge (which, in my opinion, it actually is). But Austin is very gay friendly in a different way -- more integrated, I think. There isn't really a gay district (I've wanted to move to a gayborhood, but I haven't found one), and there are only a few specifically gay bars, but there are plenty of gays here, who seem quite comfortable with their orientation, and I've yet to see any signs of discrimination against them, personally. It's just not a big deal. Can't imagine when Texas will allow them to marry, though.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

I live in Gainesville, FL!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

That's who I was thinking of! So, is it pretty gay, or what?

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Gainesville has, from rumor, quite an active lesbian population, and I believe was home to one of the best-known lesbian communal living neighborhoods for a few decades (most of the remaining living inhabitants have moved to a land in Alabama, but many of them have died).

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

I personally know 3 gay people, which is more openly gay people than I have ever known before. I would describe Gainesville as a liberal college town. I like Gainesville's atmosphere. It's the climate (e.g. temperature) that I can't stand. I melt in the summer! We definitely have alligators, so your puppies would have to watch out. Like you mentioned about some other cities on the list, it is an island of liberalism in a sea of christian conservative republicanism though.

[tsunami-ryuu.livejournal.com]

Huh. Save for Asheville and Seattle, I wasn't expecting any of those cities to make the top 20 list. Especially not the islands in the Midwest and South... except Florida. But I was thinking Key West, not Fort Lauderdale.

DC is a mixed bag. Fairly gay-friendly with trendy gay neighborhood in Dupont, working towards marriage equality (hopefully!), always leans Democrat, but with a conservative streak in some parts. I'm a bit surprised it's not on the list, though.

[gigglingwizard.livejournal.com]

I'd believe that about Bloomington. I was at a pagan festival at a campground near Bloomington when some friends and I went to hang out in town for a while. Seems like a typical artsy, hippyish college town, so much so that it would surprise me to learn that they weren't gay-friendly. Given Indiana's history with the KKK, though, I'd say it's definitely that island-in-a-hostile-sea effect you're talking about. We have something similar going on in Ohio, except that there are so many of these islands--Columbus, Cleveland, Athens, Yellow Springs--that it keeps things kind of balanced out. When you look at our electoral map, you see a red state with a few blue blobs, but the blobs are pretty densely populated.

[dosboof.livejournal.com]

The whole "San Diego but not San Francisco" and "Springfield but not P-Town" thing is really making me scratch my head. They might as well have just said right from the start "Top 15 Gay Cities Except for the Four You Already Know About."

[xiloxoch.livejournal.com]

Living in Chicago, neither Bloomington nor (especially) Madison surprise me. I'm sure they're too cold for you, but Madison is especially nice. Reminds me a lot of Northampton. The Midwest is overall more liberal than you'd perhaps think--at least in the sense of keeping their noses out of other people's business.

[propaddict.livejournal.com]

Asheville is a hole.

San Diego is a GREAT town, but I don't think of it as a "Gay" town so much as a "Navy" town. (Please, no jokes. I've heard them all before). My issue would be how ludicrously expensive the cost of living is. You could almost live in Hawaii for those prices (but though our zoo isn't as nice).

Gainesville is pretty blah. No snow in winter, no beach to go to in the summer, still freezes, though, and still gets 90+ degree temps. It wants to be a college town, but is rednecky and kinda big for that.

Lauderdale is nice; parts of it are downright dangerous. Others are downright unaffordable to all but the super rich.

The traffic alone in Atlanta is reason not to move there.

NOLA is very diverse; much more than Mardi Gras and French Quarter, you ignorant tourist American, you. Very tolerant and progressive for a Southern town. Nice folks, too.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the input. I loved the Honolulu zoo, but I got a behind-the-scenes, so that colors my outlook.

What's so expensive about San Diego? Housing costs (judging by Trulia.com) are pretty reasonable by California standards. Is it taxes? Car insurance? Food?

I've been curious about New Orleans (giant swamps, warm weather, major city) since before Katrina, but I still get the impression that I'd need a Blackwater escort to visit safely.

[urimancy.livejournal.com]

New Orleans is an amazing place. I think it has the most unique culture of any city in the U.S., and I love to visit, and I always imagine myself living there someday when I do. It has its problems, though, so I'm never sure I'd really be able to do it. You should at least check it out, in my opinion -- so much fascinating history, lots of great food, interesting people, beautiful architecture, and just an overall personality that is unlike anywhere else I've been.

[calypso72]

Re: Traffic in Atlanta. Yes, it is bad if you live in the 'burbs but intown has very little traffic to speak of and that's where the concentration of gay people is anyway.

[calypso72]

Yes, it is amazing how gay Atlanta is. Even more interesting is that Atlanta is a haven for gay men, but Decatur is the place to be for lesbians. People have studied the economic reasons for this (in a nutshell, Atlanta is more expensive and gay men are more propserous, being multiples of generally higher-earning men while two women have a double jeopardy in earning potential and housing is generally cheapter in Decatur).

[http://users.livejournal.com/purplebunnie_/]

I read this list to boyfriend, and he said that most of these places have naval bases.

[grace-batmonkey.livejournal.com]

Austin isn't as much of an island as it may seem. Loads of the smaller towns that fill in between it and the bigger cities have healthy gay populations because of the prevalence of gay-favoured businesses for the tourists and daytrippers. Houston & Dallas both have HUGE gay populations that are very out and very, very, very proud, so they spread the tendrils further.

Sure, there are places where tolerance does not rule (to say the least...hello, Jasper, TX!), but it's easy-peasy to stay on the sunny side. San Antonio isn't any good, as a specific.

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

Re: Gainesville: given your alt-comix ties, you might have known someone in the Jeff Mason crowd. I know Tom Hart and Jon Lewis lived there for a couple years, for example.

Re: NOLA: I've been reading that young white hipsters have been flocking in since Katrina, drawn by the urbanity, laid-back culture, and low, low property values.

Re: Iowa City: yagagriswold insists that IC's freak quotient is for real and serious. She lived there for a while after graduating from nearby Grinnell, and describes it as another one of those oases you were talking about.

[(Anonymous)]

Atlanta is okay-gay, but why don't they have Decatur up there?

If it's per capita, I'd expect De-GAY-tur and Noho to beat out most of these. But that's just me...

Exciting list though. lolz @ sf's conspicuous absence.