gays and thinking outside the box, what makes us better

[Wesley]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-a...es-in-america/

go to page 2 for second page at URL


From the obvious (San Francisco) to the surprising (Columbus), Richard Florida and Gary Gates crunched the numbers to rank the top gay cities in the country.

The U.S. metropolitan region with the largest concentration of gay and lesbian people is San Francisco. ThatтАЩs not exactly news, but there are more than a few surprises in the Gay/Lesbian IndexтАЩs metro-area rankings. Developed by Gary Gates, a demographer at UCLAтАЩs Williams Institute, the Gay/Lesbian Index value tells you how the proportion of same-sex couples among all households of a given metro area compares to the average for the entire U.S. An index value of 2, for example, means that the proportion of same-sex couples in that metro area is twice that of the nation.

View Our List of the Top Gay Cities

HP Main - Gayest Cities
AP Photo (4)

New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington, D.C., Boston, San Diego, Denver, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon, all make the list of the 20 gayest metros. But so do Dallas, Columbus, Ohio, Santa Rosa and Sacramento, Springfield, Massachusetts, Portland, Maine, and college towns like Eugene, Oregon, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Ithaca, New York.

The idea that most gay people live in urban enclaves like the Castro in San Francisco or Chelsea in New York City is something of a myth, Gates notes. "Gay people live everywhere," says Gates, "in cities, suburbs, and even in the countryтАФone in seven same-sex couples live in rural areas." The 2000 Census found same-sex couples living in 99 percent of U.S. counties.

While politicians and voters continue to debate whether LGBT people have the right to marry, to adopt children, or serve openly in the U.S. military, a growing body of research suggests that considerable benefits accrue to those cities and metro areas that have sizeable, visible concentrations of gay men and lesbians. Income levels are higher, as are many other measures of life satisfaction.

Research I conducted with Charlotta Mellander revealed that metro areas with higher proportions of gay men and lesbians also have higher housing valuesтАФa finding that landed me on The Colbert Report. A study I conducted with Gates in 2001 discerned a close association between regions with higher proportions of same-sex couples and concentrations of high-tech businesses. And thereтАЩs more:

тАв Ronald InglehartтАЩs World Values Survey has found that tolerance in general, and tolerance toward gays and lesbians in particular, is associated with the shift to a more modern, more democratic, and more affluent тАЬpost-materialistтАЭ political culture.

тАв Soul of the Community, a study conducted by the Gallup Organization, found that more open and tolerant attitudes toward LGBT people (as well as to other groups) was one of two key factors, along with natural beauty and environmental quality, that corresponded with higher levels of satisfaction with and emotional attachment to a community.

тАв A cross-national study by Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute for International Economics found that tolerant attitudes in general correlated with more open attitudes toward globalization, as well as with higher rates of economic performance.

As Gates and I have pointed out elsewhere, the presence of LGBT people isnтАЩt a sufficient condition for wealth creation in and of itself; gay men and lesbians are no more sophisticated, economically productive, innovative, or entrepreneurial than any other group on average. But places that attract gay people and lesbians tend to have the same open-minded attitudes and business styles that foster innovation. A visible LGBT community is the proverbial тАЬcanary in the coal mine,тАЭ signaling openness to new ideas, new business models, and diverse and different thinking kinds of peopleтАФprecisely the characteristics of a local ecosystem that can attract cutting-edge entrepreneurs and mobilize new companies

[Bob]

I'm not sure you realize how apropos your title ("Gays and thinking outside the box, what makes us better") is given that the word "box" is a euphemism (and/or slang) for vagina. In any event, I found the title interesting. :sharm:

[Wesley]

ha ha ha only you would think of a vagina!

[Beachlover]

I'm not sure you realize how apropos your title ("Gays and thinking outside the box, what makes us better") is given that the word "box" is a euphemism (and/or slang) for vagina. In any event, I found the title interesting. :sharm:

Aren't we just taking our thinking out of one "box" and into another? Take a step up. From pussy to butt. :happy7:

My hypothesis is that the more advanced urban centres don't necessarily contain "more gays" to start with. They just have more gays who are out of the closet, so they are more visible and there are more venues, amenities and services catering to them. This in turn, attracts more gays.

The reason there are more gays out of the closet in these areas is they tend to be areas, which are more culturally connected with the rest of the world, broadly exposed, liberal and open-minded in thinking. This leads to greater tolerance and speedier progress in changing mindsets.