And the Gayest Cities Are…

The Advocate's list of super gay cities in the U.S. doesn't include Philly or New York

The Advocate published its list of 15 gayest cities in the U.S. again this year. “Using a completely unscientific – but still strangely accurate – statistical equation,” Mike Albo writes, “The Advocate has come up with a diverse and surprising list of where gay people are living, loving, voting and creating communities.”

We have a bone to pick, Albo.

Philly – where you get your history straight and nightlife gay – did not make the list. And neither did New York, the home of Broadway, Liza and all those lesbian mommies in Brooklyn.

But do you want to know which cities did make the list? Not surprisingly: San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta and Washington D.C. But none of these LGBT meccas ranked first. That’s because Minneapolis took the top prize. Yes, Minneapolis. Apparently, they like gay pastors in Minneapolis. They also have Al Franken, lots of Bears and a gay rugby team. And they introduced a bill to stop school bullying.

That’s it?

Not for nothing, Philly has a gay priest saying mass on the Main Line. We have Mark Cohen trying to legalize gay marriage (and three openly gay folks running in local primaries for judge and city council). We also have The Bike Stop and a gay flag football team, gay rugby team, gay soccer and softball teams. We even have a metro magazine publishing an exclusively gay publication (yep, that’s us tooting our own horn). The list could go on and on. We think even a few of these things should at least give Philly some real estate on the list.

If that’s not enough, you may be interested to know that quite a few other places also beat out Philly, including Cleveland; Orlando, Fla.; Las Vegas; Denver; Oakland, Calif.; Seattle; St. Louis; Santa Fe, N.M.; and Vancouver, Wash. And Pittsburgh. Yes, folks, The Advocate thinks Pittsburgh is gayer than Philly. Need we remind them that while Queer as Folk was set there, it wasn’t actually filmed there. And Andy Warhol, sure his museum is there, but he left the second biggest city in the state for New York City, which, as we already mentioned, is also missing from the list.

And apparently we aren’t the only ones calling foul. The Daily Show sent Jason Jones to investigate why San Francisco isn’t gay enough to be called the gayest city in America – and what the wild and crazy gays do in Minneapolis to make it so darn gay (hint: it involves banana bread and an afternoon at Target).

Check it out: