November 9, 2007
D.C. Named 8th Gayest City in U.S.
Washington, D.C. makes yet another top ten list. A new study names our beloved city as the 8th gayest in the country. Frankly, a couple of us here at DCist thought we were gayer than that.
The study, by Gary J. Gates of UCLA's Williams Institute, analyzed data on same-sex couples from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. censuses along with that from American Community Surveys (ACS) between 2002 and 2006. Cities and states were ranked based on the number of same-sex couples per 1,000 households. Nearly 13.5 such couples per 1,000 -- an estimated 3,520 couples total -- live in D.C.; top-ranked San Francisco has 28.72 per 1,000 in comparison. In the state rankings, Vermont takes the top spot with 9.71 couples, while Maryland sits at 13th (7.28 couples) and Virginia at 27th (6.38 couples). If D.C. was a state -- and alas, 'tis not -- it would easily take top honors. Our 8th place ranking is a two-notch slip from 6th place based on the 2000 census. That ranking was down from 5th in the 1990 census.
One has to wonder about the study's accuracy, though. Neither the decennial census nor the ACS surveys specifically ask if a household resident is lesbian or gay. Rather, they ask about relationships between the head of household -- "Person 1" in the surveys -- and each individual resident; "unmarried partner" is among the relationship options. Unless Person 1 lives with an unmarried partner of the same gender, there really isn't a way to determine whether a household has any LGBT inhabitants. Single gay people appear to have been totally left out.
Photo by hanvnah.
|
Dude, that's so gay.
This is BS - Washington DC should be in the top 5. This city is as gay as the cherry blossoms.
The diversity of the gay popolution here in the city is incredible (look at all the bears, twinks, jocks, preps, latinos, gay foreigners, etc etc).
So maybe we ARE the gayest, it's just that all of our gays have commitment issues.
You can't be gay by yourself, silly.
This study presents data and conclusions with Bruno's report that the gayest place in America is in fact Alabama. It's too bad there aren't any crossfire-style debates/shouting matches on Da Ali G Show.
That's just what I was thinking, Jen!
I mean really, if you think about how difficult it is to find a decent straight man in this town (you know, for dating and such), no reason why it shouldn't be just as difficult to find a gay man who's after more than your ass.
This study presents data and conclusions which conflict with Bruno's findings that the gayest place in America is in fact Alabama.
This study presents data and conclusions which conflict with Bruno's findings that the gayest place in America is in fact Alabama.
I can't wait for the day they just come out and ask is anyone in the household homosexual - it would definitely move DC up the ranks a bit if they included single people as 'gay and lesbian.' I'm suspicious too about the finding Maryland just edged out Utah for the 13th gayest state. Utah!!
DCster, do you mean the domestic household, or the US Household of Representatives? And does anyone know if DC becomes gayer or less gay when the politicians leave for the weekend?
How does New York not even register on this scale???
I am not surprised, look at how many Republicans are losing elections.
Yey!
Also, Minneapolis is number 3??? I would've though it was too cold for the gays up there (I mean you'd get frostbite going out in leather chaps...)
I'm really not surprised to hear about Minneapolis. That city is pretty effing ghey.
I think calculations of where to live are more helpful when they're based on things like community-reported surveys of quality of life, comprehensiveness of legal protections, etc. I mean some of these "gay couples" are students who live in group houses. I know there have been task forces out there to try to find ways to capture the data better, but as DCist suggests, we're really making a few leaps here with the surveys we do have.
I think a lot of my fellow 'mos here in DC are undercounted. DC is pretty damn gay. Nothing concrete to back this up, but it's always felt to me like we have a lot more gay people here than there are in other cities. A whole bunch of DC gays would never answer 'gay' on a survey or census for fear of being outed, hounded, careers jeopardized, etc......... a few years ago that would sound paranoid, but given the data collection our government now admits to, imagine the things they don't admit to...
"I mean some of these "gay couples" are students who live in group houses."
Would students in a group house file taxes as "unmarried partners"?