Proud All Year: The Most Gay-Friendly U.S. Cities

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St. Louis just managed to get into the Advocate’s top ten list, thanks in part to its First Annual Trans Family Picnic in October 2010. St. Louis was also chosen out of four hundred cities to be featured in the book 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live.

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A 2006 travel survey of lesbians and gay men in the United States asked about the most gay-friendly places to travel within the country. Not surprisingly, San Francisco nabbed the top spot, with Key West, Florida, not far behind. But the Palm Springs area, which used to be known more for golf and retirees, was voted number ten in the United States due to its increasingly vibrant gay culture.

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It just wouldn’t be a proper list without including the city that hosts the biggest Pride celebration in the country—a city that will be hosting its forty-first parade in June 2011. San Francisco has been a beacon of light to the gay and lesbian community and its allies for many years. It continues to be a place of acceptance and love, regardless of who you are or whom you love.

Boston’s Pride Week is large and legendary, but this other Massachusetts city might soon give it a run for its money. More than a few eyebrows were raised when the Advocate ranked Springfield the thirteenth gayest city in the United States. However, the inclusion might’ve prompted Springfield into an even more embracing mindset—the city will host its first official Pride Week this year. That might seem like small potatoes compared to San Francisco, but every city’s got to start somewhere.

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Austin’s often thought of as the most open-minded city in Texas, but according to a 2007 TIME magazine profile, the state’s “lavender heart” is actually found in Dallas. Website The Daily Beast also picked Dallas as one of the “top gayest cities” in the United States. Reasons include the fact that members of the LGBT community hold prominent positions (the county sheriff, Lupe Valdez, is a lesbian), as well as that the city hosts the Cathedral of Hope, the world’s biggest Christian congregation with mostly LGBT outreach.

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San Francisco may have the Castro, but Seattle is teeming with active gay-friendly neighborhoods like Capitol Hill and Queen Anne. After this June, it will have hosted thirty-seven Pride parades, though it’ll be hard to top 2010’s momentous occasion—a rainbow flag flew from the top of the Space Needle for the first time ever. That might not happen this year, but there will surely be many other impressive events taking place.

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The Advocate named Atlanta the most gay-friendly city in America in 2010 because of its significant number of LGBT-supported and -supportive businesses. Atlanta is also home to the country’s first African American lesbian to become a state legislator (Democrat Rep. Simone Bell). Atlanta has its Pride Festival every October, as well as Black Gay Pride Weekend, which calls itself the “world’s largest Pride celebration for African-American lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” in late August.

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As if the picturesque beaches and perfect weather weren’t reasons enough to visit Hawaii’s capital on the island of Oahu, the city is also known for its bustling and merry LGBT nightlife around Waikiki. But 2011 offers an even better reason to go. Governor Neil Abercrombie announced that this June won’t be known as “Gay Pride Month” any longer, but as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Questioning Pride Month” instead. It’s a mouthful, sure, but also a major step in the right direction.

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With neighboring New Mexico’s Albuquerque and Santa Fe getting more attention for their gay-friendliness, Phoenix isn’t commonly thought of a city with a flourishing LGBTQ culture. However, it has Pride celebrations throughout April and a Gala Awards event in June, the state’s only gay and lesbian theatre (The Alternative Theatre Company), and two openly gay state legislators (Robert Meza and Kyrsten Sinema).

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Roughly 476,150 people attended the Twin Cities’ (Saint Paul and Minneapolis) GLBT Pride Celebration in 2008, making it America’s third-largest Pride-related event. Speaking of thirds, Minneapolis has America’s third-highest concentration of GLBT couples as well. But this Midwestern city goes one better in terms of pure GLBT population, coming in second only to San Francisco. For these reasons and more, Minneapolis is easily one of the most gay-friendly spots in the United States.