What do you think is the midwest mecca for gay people?

I sure think it's Minneapolis. We have a lot. As a straight girl, it is SO hard to find a straight guy in this city! Every guy is gay. I love gay guys, but for pete's sake not EVERY one of them! The reason for this I believe is due to the culture we have and the fact that the population tends to be very "artsy." Gay guys we love you, but straight guys please move here!

Are there any statistics out there?

Madison seems very gay to me, but for a city of any size, probably Minneapolis.

#1 Columbus
#2 Chicago
#3 Royal Oak

:dance:

Here's a "2nd" for Madison. Just had some big gay pride bash here recently.

based on raw numbers - chicago (duh)

based on percentage - i'm sure i have no idea.

i live in wrigleyville which is right on the edge of boystown, so my little world here in chicago is very gay-friendly. the annual pride parade which was held two weekends ago attracted half a million people, so the gay community is certainly thriving here in the windy city.

surprisingly, Indy has a solid and active gay community. Compared to places like Cincinnati and Cleveland, Indy is much better. Most of the gay establishments are downtown and Mass Ave is regarded as teh "gay area" of town. I really anticipate some sort of identifying features along Mass Ave in the coming years similar to North Halstead in Chicago. Also, the majority of "gays" tend to live downtown, concetrated around Mass Ave, the Old North Side, Herron-Morton and Fall Creek Place. Being gay, it has been nice to watch this City really grow into it's own since the mid-nineties when I came out.

Gay Pride was a huge success this year too!

i was walking down state street with my girlfriend yesterday (in Madison) and saw a sign on a store window stating "Madison supports its Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans Community"

i'm going to 3rd Madison, not just based on that, but the fact that it is nationally recognized as one of America's gay capitals, along with the likes of San Fran and many others.

Milwaukee has a Pride Fest every year at the Summerfest grounds. It usually draws about 20,000 people. This year they snagged Ru Paul to perform.

It's becoming more and more common and accepted to be opnely gay in this city traditionally associated with beer and motorcycles. The Bay View neighborhood has become known in some circles as Gay View, as this rapidly gentrifying neighborhood draws gay couples into really cool little houses easily accessible to Downtown. Bay View is also down the street from Walker's Point, which houses the city's greatest concentration of gay bars.

But aside from Pride Fest, Milwaukee doesn't really have any more or less of a "gay" thing going on than any other mid-sized city.

As for the biggest Midwestern city for gay pride and culture, I'd have to go with Chicago. I have seen nothing comparable to Boys Town anywhere in the Midwest.

Prolly in Chicago

In general I think the big midwest cities are really accepting of gay people. Living in Minneapolis I have never experienced any negativity toward the gay community. Going to school in Denver however was a different story. I noticed those in Denver were very intolerant and ignorant. I am not sure about the other midwestern cities but I know that Minneapolis and Chicago are very gay friendly cities.

But, that detracts from the point. The point is we need more straight males in MPLS.....please guys do it for the hot swedish minnesota blonde girls like me!

Madison seems very gay to me, but for a city of any size, probably Minneapolis.Listen to this guy, he's always right.

The Bay View neighborhood has become known in some circles as Gay View

:lol: :lol: I've never heard that one before!


anyway, I don't see a lot of openly gay people in this city.

Well, I was going to say Bloomington, Indiana--but I thought it would be laughable. Turns out, Bloomington has the largest percentage of co-habitating same-sex couples in the Midwest in the 2000 Census. That doesn't mean it's the "gayest" necessarily--there are plenty of old married queers here! Hahaha...but it's one measure...

Madison was second, Iowa City was third...

http://www.gaydemographics.org/USA/2000Census_Gay_msa_rank.htm#TOPMSA

Minneapolis had a gay parade recently and it was the third largest in the country behind NYC and SF. Based on that, I would say that Minneapolis is the gayest in the Midwest. According to the MN daily (UMN's newspaper), 421,000 people attended.

http://mndaily.com/articles/2005/06/29/64723

I knew it!

Cincinnati's problem is too few gays. Someday they'll wake up.

St. Louis is definately the gayest city in the midwest....lol

Ok, all kidding aside, the winner is Chicago.

Geez. Now people are debating about which city is gayer...is that a word? Lol. If I were to guess, it would go like this:

Gayest: Chicago
Gayer: Minneapolis
Gay: St. Louis?

That's really surprising that 421,000 people attended the gay pride parade in Minneapolis considering the population of the entire city is only 380,000.

Anyway, I see what you're saying bmc343, there are a lot of openly gay folks in Minneapolis.

I'm a hot, straight, Norwegian/Irish guy though, but I already have a girlfriend.

^^Actually, 421,000 is the number for the total attendance of the parade and festival combined. 110,000 attended the parade and 320,000 attended the festival. Thats still huge though. Its good that there are a lot of gays in the city, that leaves more hot Minnesota ladies for us straight males :).

In general I think the big midwest cities are really accepting of gay people. Living in Minneapolis I have never experienced any negativity toward the gay community. Going to school in Denver however was a different story. I noticed those in Denver were very intolerant and ignorant. I am not sure about the other midwestern cities but I know that Minneapolis and Chicago are very gay friendly cities.

But, that detracts from the point. The point is we need more straight males in MPLS.....please guys do it for the hot swedish minnesota blonde girls like me!

Where have you been looking?

^^Actually, 421,000 is the number for the total attendance of the parade and festival combined. 110,000 attended the parade and 320,000 attended the festival. Thats still huge though. Its good that there are a lot of gays in the city, that leaves more hot Minnesota ladies for us straight males :).

Actually, for every gay guy, there's probably about 1.2 lesbians (or whatever the man-to-woman ratio is)

Lots of gay people from Northern Ontario move to the US, mainly Minneapolis.

Compared to places like Cincinnati and Cleveland, Indy is much better.

Perhaps better than Cincinnati (probably equal), but in no way better than Cleveland and some of the Cleveland suburbs, which is actually better in terms of civil rights protections.

As far as I know Indianapolis still does not have civil rights protections for gays and lesbians via a local gay rights ordnance. Regionally, it shares this distinction with Cincinnati, Dayton, and I think Akron. For me, one of the markers of acceptance or tolerance from the larger community is the existence of these kinds of laws...they would not be politically possible if a community was not tolerant or accepting.

Oddly, for Indiana cities, Fort Wayne has a gay rights ordnance, and its not thought of as a gay mecca nor particularly liberal.

As far as bars, social life, etc, most larger cities have that so thats not so special any more.

Photo from the Minneapolis Pride parade:

http://www.mndaily.com/daily/2005/06/29/p3prideF.jpg

This settles it for me. The winner is Minneapolis.

Here's a "2nd" for Madison. Just had some big gay pride bash here recently.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Almost every city had a gay pride festival in the month of June. You see that's when we celebrate. It's our month. You hetero's have the other eleven.

For the gay communities that I've witnessed and in terms of size, activity and feeling of belonging:

Columbus

Chicago

Minneapolis

Indianapolis

Cleveland

Nearly any large college town

Everybody else

no, Indy doesn't have a "gay ordinance," as it was defeated last month. HOWEVER, check back in September after it goes back up for vote, I promise it will be in place.

The Indy gay community definitely has a sense of place and a strong community.

:lol: :lol: I've never heard that one before!


anyway, I don't see a lot of openly gay people in this city.


Which is very interesting to me because, and I'm not exaggerating at all right now, I can't think of more than one or two straight male friends off the top of my head [from milwaukee]. Most of the guys I know are gay...and all of the girls, if they aren't lesbians, are fag hags. I guess it's just a Different Circles thing. And I supposed that living in the little bubble world around UWM makes a difference, too.

Now, that doesn't mean that I think Milwaukee is the Midwest's "gayest" city. It's not.

:lol: :lol: I've never heard that one before!


anyway, I don't see a lot of openly gay people in this city.


I'm sure you didn't mean anything by your :lol: but I gotta tell you it's jokes like that that insinuate one's ignorance and prejudice. For instance instead of St. Louis Park you call it St. Jewish Park or instead of Edina you call it Vagina. Catch my drift? Some jokes are insulting.

no, Indy doesn't have a "gay ordinance," as it was defeated last month. HOWEVER, check back in September after it goes back up for vote, I promise it will be in place.



Oh, I didnt know this was being attempted!

Best wishes on that forthcoming vot, too...good to see you all are making another try. It took about four or five times before they finally passed one in Louisville, so dont give up. :-)

For instance instead of St. Louis Park you call it St. Jewish Park or instead of Edina you call it Vagina. Catch my drift? Some jokes are insulting.

Edina-Vagina? I'll have to use that sometime! I've heard the St. Louis Park one before, but not that one.

no, Indy doesn't have a "gay ordinance," as it was defeated last month. HOWEVER, check back in September after it goes back up for vote, I promise it will be in place.


Yeah, I heard Julia Carson totally ripped into the African American City Council members who voted against the ordinance. So hopefully her weight will get them to change their votes this time.

I'm sure you didn't mean anything by your :lol: but I gotta tell you it's jokes like that that insinuate one's ignorance and prejudice. For instance instead of St. Louis Park you call it St. Jewish Park or instead of Edina you call it Vagina. Catch my drift? Some jokes are insulting.


And sometimes excessive political correctness is embarassing. Point being?

All big midwestern cities have big gay populations. St. Louis has had a Domestic Partner Registration for around ten years and has one of the top Gay Pride events in the country according to 2005 Fodor Travel. The mayor of St. Louis was grand marshall at this year's parade.

Yeah, I heard Julia Carson totally ripped into the African American City Council members who voted against the ordinance. So hopefully her weight will get them to change their votes this time.


NOT just the african-american members but the whole damn democratic caucus! She laid in to them! This is the first time dems have controlled the consolidated city and they should be getting their agenda through, but instead, they are squabbling within.

And sometimes excessive political correctness is embarassing. Point being?

First I don't think I'm being excessive nor am I embarassed. With your comment like "Point being?" Maybe you're excessively numb or stupid but probably both, perhaps you should be embarassed for being both. It's idiots like this who keep this society in it's recessive cycle of hatred. Grow up!

Midwest I'd say:

1.Chicago
2.Minneapolis
3.Madison/Milwaukee

Wisconsin's gayest zip codes (from an article i read, i can't seem to link it here):
53704, 53711 and 53207

NOT just the african-american members but the whole damn democratic caucus! She laid in to them! This is the first time dems have controlled the consolidated city and they should be getting their agenda through, but instead, they are squabbling within.

Bless that woman!

First I don't think I'm being excessive nor am I embarassed. With your comment like "Point being?" Maybe you're excessively numb or stupid but probably both, perhaps you should be embarassed for being both. It's idiots like this who keep this society in it's recessive cycle of hatred. Grow up!


Excuse me whilst I go and oil my "recessive" cycle of hatred, folks. It seems to be squeaking.

Ahh, there we go. Much better. Suddenly I feel nothing but joy and love for the world. My desire to hate and oppress my homobrethren is transforming into an irrepressible desire to bleach my hair and buy new lip gloss. Like, wow. You were right...it is totally uncool to have a sense of humor about things like "Gayview." That is just mean and icky and not funny. I'm SURE a gay person DIDN'T think that up.

The Twin Cities have a very large gay community and it is pretty well accepted these days.
As to straight guys in the area. It all depends on where you are looking. I am another one of the many straight and single guys out there. I do not want more straights moving here. It cuts back on my chances. ;)

5 Iowa cities have Gay Civil Rights laws:

Ames, Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Iowa City.

Excuse me whilst I go and oil my "recessive" cycle of hatred, folks. It seems to be squeaking.

Ahh, there we go. Much better. Suddenly I feel nothing but joy and love for the world. My desire to hate and oppress my homobrethren is transforming into an irrepressible desire to bleach my hair and buy new lip gloss. Like, wow. You were right...it is totally uncool to have a sense of humor about things like "Gayview." That is just mean and icky and not funny. I'm SURE a gay person DIDN'T think that up.

Don't commit your hate crimes here, CG5! HATE CRIME!!!

I for one cannot fathom what was so terribly offensive about the :lol: that neqquah used. Gayview. Haha, see how its a little play on words there, do ya get it? Sorta sounds like Bayview... Its a humorous commentary on the social trends of an emerging gay neighborhood... I certainly wasn't offended at it. All CG5 did was point out that political correctness should have its limits, and then he gets labeled as stupid and regressive. wow.

Actually, the only people I have heard use the term "gay view" are openly gay folks.

That being said, the term has hardly become something in the civic conciousness of the city as a whole. I doubt most Milwaukeeans would even be aware of the term "gay view" or even that Bay View is emerging as a gay enclave.

This thread got me thinking about the presence of gay pride and culture in brew city ... our Pride Fest draws a goodly number of people, considering it costs 10 bucks to get in, but as much as I would welcome a flamboyant, over-the-top Gay Pride parade on the streets of Downtown Milwaukee I'm afraid that for too many of my fellow Milwaukeeans that kind of thing would be a shock.

Pride Fest attempted to bring itself to the next level in 2003, expanding entertainment offerings, and advertising heavily in Mpls and Chicago. They spent a lot on this venture, but the huge crowds never came. So they ended the festival with over $150,000 in debts to their vendors.

The Fest almost didn't happen in 2004, but the community really came to bat for Pride Fest, raising the money necessary to pay off its debts and to put on a scaled-back festival in the summer of '04. This year, the Fest was back to its pre-2003 scale, hitting an all-time high attendance record -- 21,000. Still a drop in the bucket to the pride parades and festivals in other cities, however.

So why did the crowds never materialize in '03? Was it that folks in the gay communities in Chicago and Mpls saw no need to travel to Milwaukee for this festival when they have huge gatherings in their own cities? Was it the economy? Or was it a sense that Milwaukee is too stodgy and conservative a place to go to really express yourself?

Chicago, Minneapolis, Madison.