Esteemed researchers, rank amateurs and just plain nosy looky loos love to ask which U.S. cities are gayer, and audiences love to parse the results. But when Atlanta makes every single list, we feel pretty damn gay. Well, ready your rainbow celebration flags again, because there's a new ranking that we can really hang our hats on.
“Gayest cities” polls and studies come out about as often as former child stars, so Atlanta being among the winners is nothing new. We’ve got an awesome Pride (photo), we're all over the Advocate’s annual dip into weird science, we’re tops in gay sugar daddies, and we cocktail in some of the world’s best gay bars. Basically, pollsters love gay Atlanta.
Still, there’s something awfully satisfying about how well the gay ATL does every single time, even when other cities come and go. But the stats whores at Nerd Wallet really give us something to celebrate. Unlike the Advocate's "How many Tegan & Sara concerts there were in the last year," Nerd Wallet lays out measurable criteria that matter in their Most LGBT-Friendly U.S. Cities study.
Just in time for our gayest month of the year, Atlanta lands at No. 3 based on Census data, LGBT-friendly laws and opportunities in HRC’s equality indexes, and LGBT safety and tolerance. There's even a shout-out to AGLCC.
The only southeast city in the top ten, Atlanta ranked highly due to its perfect equality score and its low rate of LGBT hate crimes. The Atlanta Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce promotes economic growth and development of LGBT and allied business and non-profit members in the community.
No word if this BeltLine incident or that MARTA atrocity would have pushed us down the rankings.
Austin at No. 7 is the only other city below the Mason-Dixon line to make the Top 10, and New York’s rise in anti-gay violence in the last year kept it out of the Top 10. California is the biggest state winner, but assumptive winner San Francisco was nudged out by… Seattle. Here’s the Top 20.
1. Seattle, WA
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Atlanta, GA
4. Oakland, CA
5. Long Beach, CA
6. Minneapolis, MN
7. Austin, TX
8. Jersey City, NJ
9. St. Paul, MN
10. Chicago, IL
11. Portland, OR
12. Denver, CO
13. Baltimore, MD
14. Philadelphia, PA
15. New York, NY
16. San Diego, CA
17. Dallas, TX
18. Los Angeles, CA
19. Phoenix, AZ
20. Sacramento, CA
