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

[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.