I've never been a big fan of surveys unless I know what they are using as criteria. At one of my last jobs, the Dean was so ecstatic that our school was ranked 4th in the South East, but come to find out, only one student from our university and one from the number one school participated. Great results.
So when The Advocate came out with a new survey of the QUEEREST CITIES IN AMERICA, we wanted to see what they were looking at in each city (click image for larger view).
Hmmm, gay rodeos, gay bowling teams, and W.T.F. is a Pwr Bttm tour date? No, it's not a bunch of power bottoms roaming the country, but instead it a band having one of its concerts. So the fact that a band chose to have a gig in a city and that people have signed up their home for gay strangers to come and stay helped cities make the Top 25.
San Francisco, West Hollywood and New York have become symbols of LGBT life and equality, but using its own, unique criteria, The Advocate has once again identified an unexpected list of metropolises that are this year’s “Queerest Cities in America.”
Using its own unique and irreverent criteria, The Advocate found a surprisingly diverse group of cities. While the criteria does include important elements such as offering LGBT Centers and Trans Pride Parades, it also includes more light-hearted factors like lesbian bars, gay bowling teams and theaters screening the film Moonlight. The full list of criteria can be found at Advocate.com.
Each of the cities on the list had a population of 250,000 people, and the results were weighted based on the total population of the city.
I think they were using the cheeky or saucy definition of irreverent and hopefully not one of the others.
So who made the list based on The Advocate's "own unique and irreverent criteria?"
The 2017 “Queerest Cities in America” are:
25. Long Beach, CA
24. Seattle, WA
23. Anaheim, CA
22. Minneapolis, MN
21. Plano, TX
20. Anchorage, AK
19. Tampa, FL
18. Greensboro, NC
17. San Francisco, CA
16. Miami, FL
15. Durham, NC
14. Henderson, NV
13. Chula Vista, CA
12. Toledo, OH
11. St. Louis, MO
10. Irvine, CA
9. St. Paul, MN
8. Pittsburgh, PA
7. Cincinnati, OH
6. Atlanta, GA
5. New Orleans, LA
4. Buffalo, NY
3. St. Petersburg, FL
2. Orlando, FL
1. JERSEY CITY, NJ
We definitely do not want to knock any city on the list. I've been to 11 out of the 25 and they were all great cities. The fact that they made it to the Top 25 seems pretty amazing (all thanks to power bottoms, I mean PWR BTTM). Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been a little snarky about the survey, but there is something to learn from it.
What do these results say about cities like Miami, San Francisco, and New York? The first two made the list way down at 16th and 17th respectively, but the latter did not. And cities like Chula Vista (just South of San Diego), Irvine (just South of Los Angeles), and Jersey City (just West of New York City) are popping up as gayer cities than their larger neighbors. Are we seeing the gays not only moving out to the suburbs but also bringing their social activities with them making the burbs the place to be? But then again, these aren't just the burbs, these are cities that have a population over 250,000.
If you had to generate a survey of the Queerest Cities, what would you use as criteria?
h/t: The Advocate