In the February issue of The Advocate, America's best-known LGBT-interest magazine, the publication has its second-annual list of the country's "gayest cities." On the list are places such as Oakland, California ("Now that San Francisco's too pricey for most of the middle class -- including artists and the funky gays -- Oakland has become the Brooklyn of the West Coast.") and Cleveland ("Who knew? Cleveland is about to become a major gay stomping ground.")
But conspicuously missing from the list is a strong South Florida presence. Miami ("there are still hordes of hot tanned and toned guys cruising
South Beach") made the article as number 15, last on the official list
behind surprising places like
Pittsburgh ("gays and lesbians are taking advantage of the bargain housing prices in this beautiful, cleaned-up urban landscape") and Atlanta ("awash in burgeoning gayborhoods").
Also not on the list are places like New York, New Orleans, and all of Southern California, so we shouldn't feel too bad. As a matter of fact, the magazine used some funky arithmetic to calculate the final list:
For each city, it counted up the number of Gay.com profiles, the number of gay weddings within 50 miles, elected openly gay officials (more points for mayors and governors, so there might be a recount in order), Tegan and Sara performances over the past five years (really), lesbian bars, gay-friendly religious congregations, and entries on YellowPages.com with "gay" in the business description and then added it all up. Then it divided that by the population of each place.
Somehow, Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors managed to slip through the cracks. They didn't even make the alternate list, the "Best of the Rest," which includes Indianapolis ("Those gay friendly Indianapolites can't be suppressed") and Dallas ("this city has always been a little light in its cowboy boots").
By the way, the magazine declared Minneapolis ("the gay magnet city of the Midwest") the gayest city in America.
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