New Gallup Study Finds Gays Everywhere in America

A new analysis of Gallup survey data is offering perhaps the most detailed data yet about where people in the LGBT community live.  Cities in the West lead the way in the percentage of residents who identify as LGBT, but the analysis also finds that gays are pretty much everywhere across America - even in backwaters of ignorance and bigotry in the South.   Gays also tend to be more numerous in college and university towns that attract more educated populations that bring increased tolerance.  Overall, the conclusions are bad news for the Christofascists who claim gays are much less numerous than is the case and for the anti-gay GOP which can lose a close election if the LGBT vote goes heavily Democrat (as has happened in Virginia).  A piece in the New York Times looks at the findings.  Here are highlights:

The Gallup analysis finds the largest concentrations in the West — and not just in the expected places like San Francisco and Portland, Ore. Among the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas, Denver and Salt Lake City are also in the top 10. How could Salt Lake be there, given its well-known social conservatism? It seems to be a kind of regional capital of gay life, attracting people from other parts of Utah and the Mormon West.

On the other hand, some of the East Coast places with famous gay neighborhoods, including in New York, Miami and Washington, have a smaller percentage of their population who identify as gay — roughly average for a big metropolitan area. The least gay urban areas are in the Midwest and South.

Significant as these differences are, the similarities are just as notable. Gay America, rather than being confined to a few places, spreads across every major region of the country. 

Nationwide, Gallup says, 3.6 percent of adults consider themselves gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. And even the parts of the country outside the 50 biggest metropolitan areas have a gay population (about 3 percent) not so different from some big metropolitan areas. It’s a reflection in part of increasing tolerance and of social connections made possible by the Internet.

One factor behind the data — in Portland and elsewhere — may be people’s willingness to tell a pollster that they’re gay, lesbian or bisexual. In addition to having a larger gay population, places like Portland may also have a larger share of their gay population who publicly identify as such.

It’s no accident that some of the country’s most educated metro areas have some of the largest gay populations. Gay and lesbian Americans are not substantially more educated than the rest of the population, according to Gary Gates, a co-author of “The Gay and Lesbian Atlas,” who has studied the Gallup data. But university campuses — and the spillover neighborhoods from them, where college graduates congregate — have long been more accepting.

Boston, a city famous for its colleges, is the only East Coast metropolitan area to crack the top eight of Gallup’s ranking. Austin, home of the University of Texas, joins New Orleans as the only Southern city to be so high on the list.

Besides education, a few other factors correlate with having bigger gay populations. Metro areas with a greater share of gay and lesbian residents tend to lean Democratic. They have more adults under the age of 45 and larger Latino and Asian-American populations.

Many of the areas with the lowest percentages of L.G.B.T. people are in the South, and none have a lower share than Birmingham, where 2.6 percent of the population identifies as gay. Throughout the South, conservative Protestantism has shaped many people’s views.  

Below is a list of all 50 of the largest metro areas, along with Gallup’s estimate of the L.G.B.T. population in each:

San Francisco, 6.2 percent

Portland, Ore., 5.4

Austin, Tex., 5.3

New Orleans, 5.1

Seattle, 4.8

Boston, 4.8

Salt Lake City, 4.7

Los Angeles, 4.6

Denver, 4.6

Hartford, 4.6

Louisville, Ky., 4.5

Virginia Beach, 4.4

Providence, R.I., 4.4

Las Vegas, 4.3

Columbus, Ohio, 4.3

Jacksonville, Fla., 4.3

Miami, 4.2

Indianapolis, 4.2

Atlanta, 4.2

Orlando, Fla., 4.1

Tampa, Fla. 4.1

Phoenix, 4.1

New York, 4

San Antonio, 4

Washington, 4

Riverside, Calif., 4

Philadelphia, 3.9

Baltimore, 3.9

Buffalo, 3.9

Detroit, 3.9

Sacramento, 3.9

San Diego, 3.9

Charlotte, N.C., 3.8

Chicago, 3.8

Dallas, 3.8

Cleveland, 3.7

Kansas City (Mo. and Kan.), 3.6

Minneapolis-St. Paul, 3.6

St. Louis, 3.6

Oklahoma City, 3.5

Richmond, Va., 3.5

Nashville., 3.5

Milwaukee, 3.5

Houston, 3.3

San Jose, Calif., 3.2

Raleigh, N.C., 3.2

Cincinnati, 3.2

Memphis, 3.1

Pittsburgh, 3

Birmingham, Ala., 2.6

Note the percentages for Richmond and Virginia Beach.  I suspect Northern Virginia has even higher percentages but doesn't make the list due to how metro areas are defined.  The Virginia GOP needs to take note and accept the reality that its anti-gay bigotry is helping to make it non-competitive in state wide races.