San Francisco may be world's gayest city: report

San Francisco may be world's gayest city: report


Apr 7, 7:30 PM (ET)

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - New statistics suggest San Francisco has the highest percentage of gay men among major cities in the world, with a quarter of them HIV-positive, a top city health official said on Friday.

"Despite an overall loss in the population in San Francisco in the last five years, we think there has been an absolute gain in gay men," William McFarland, head of HIV/AIDS statistics at San Francisco's Department of Public Health, said in an interview. "From all the data I have seen ... it's the gayest city in the world."
McFarland has compiled the city's first survey in five years on gay men and HIV to be presented at a meeting next week to discuss HIV/AIDS prevention.

He said it found an estimated 63,577 gay males aged 15 and above in San Francisco, a city with a total population of 764,000. That figure represents nearly one in five of the city's males above the age of 15.

0ne out of every four gay males -- 25.8 percent -- is infected with the HIV virus, giving San Francisco an estimated total of 16,401 HIV-positive men, said McFarland, an epidemiologist who has also worked on studies in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Egypt.
The survey indicates that the overall percentage of those living with HIV has dropped since the last study five years ago.

"The major changes since 2001 are that, first of all, the gay community has grown. It's largely been an influx of more HIV-negative gay men that are here," he said. "It used to be near 30 percent.

"The absolute number of gay men living with HIV has crept up partly because of ongoing transmission and partly because of improved survival with treatment," he added.

At 40 percent, Baltimore has the highest percentage of HIV-positive men among its population in a study of five cities, with San Francisco second, according to a 2005 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

In coming up with his estimate of the number of gay men, McFarland said he took the middle point of nine previous studies.

McFarland acknowledged that it was difficult to get a precise number because of sensitivities over the issue. But he said San Francisco residents were likely to be more open about their sexuality than people in many other areas.

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Usually I don't respond to trolls, but you ask questions that maybe some other normal people who have real hobbies and a sense of self worth may be interested in.

He reckons the place is filthy and they have people begging on every corner

There is a lot of homeless, mostly because there is a lot of resources for them here. There is a place for them to eat for free every meal of every day, and to get free haircuts and the like. There are many areas that you can go though where they aren't in large numbers. The Castro for example doesn't have too many, and neither does the Church/Market area. Powell street, however, is another story.

must be a lot of rent boys there on the street

Nope, it's not really a rent boy town, not off the street anyway. There used to be a very small few in the Polk, but with the closing of a couple of bars in that area, not so much. Besides, they were usually Meth Addicts, and as well as the drugs had whithered them away. Since there are a lot of porn stars and companies here, as well as fully naked adult theaters, escorts can go for quite a hefty price tag. I have a friend who works for Falcon videos that also does some escorting. He makes more from a client than he does from making a film.

I like black ladyboys,where can i find rent boys in san fransisco,do they wait in a certain street,park?

There is a transgendered bar called Divas at Post and Polk. Prostitutes are not allowed in, so they pretty much troll one street over on Larkin. They come in all ethnicities, but a warning Mr. Sydney, they won't take a liking to some of your antics, and they have been known to defend themselves quite well.


Maybe it could be same price as Thailand if they are living in cardboard box like i heard.I would like to know where the cardboard box boys are.

A cardboard box in SF goes for about $500/month. Just kidding. I am not sure about the prices, because quite frankly, San Francisco is not a town that you have to pay for it in. We have bars catering to gays, and just about every subgroup imaginable. There are hispanic bars in the mission, neighborhood bars on upper polk, seedy bars in lower polk, a hippy bar in the Haight, leather/s&m/bear bars in Soma, two gay asian bars, circuit clubs, and sex clubs (not bathhouses) of infinite variety. And I haven't even mentioned the Castro yet. The cost of living is outrageous here, though. In many city profiles I see the cost of living here is more expensive than Manhattan many times. If you do find something for the same price as in Thailand, God love ya, cause it sure would mean you don't love yourself if you followed through.

Many people here ask me why I am moving to Thailand, and I say to them "After San Francisco, where do you go that's not a major downgrade." It's a beautiful urban city with a strong liberal feel. But if it's just sex you are after, you're probably better off going to Thailand, after all "It really is a pity when you're looking at the board and not looking at the city".

I do recall a front page article in the Sunday edition of San Francisco's morning paperwhen I was there last year that stated that San Francisco also has the most homeless per head of population of any urban centre in the US. I took that to be a variant of the old saying "lies, damn lies and Billy"

San Francisco, as many of you probably know, is a cool place to visit and even to spend considerable time. I would love to live there as it has everything you could possibly want in a city. Good theatre, museums, tourist attractions and a transport system you can actually negotiate easily and safely at a relatively cheap price. It is also incredibly easy to walk around (apart from some hills of course) but the grid system of streets and the fact that many of the places you want to see and visit are close(ish) together makes for a good city for me.

Also, the fact that there is a great gay press, gay bookshops, bars and a gay friendly Mayor and officials make this a haven for those who look for tolerant places in the world to visit. I also love the fact that you are never more than a few minutes away from water, be it the bay, the beach or the foggy dampness that descends on the city. And if you have enough of cool damp air, you can just hop on a ferry and just a short ride away is the small town of Sausalito which, on most days, will be bathed in warm sunshine (although the sun does shine on SF sometimes).

As for beggars, there are a lot and you cannot avoid coming into contact whether walking down the street or sitting at a cafe. You also have to get real and know that you cannot help everyone although the odd dollar or few cents or smoke won't hurt your pocket too much. Even the roughest looking area in SF did not hold too many terrors, and walking through these areas and generally walking around the city at night is easy.

Finally, first time I visited I was a little freaked out. Having spent several years in London I was used to people rushing around minding their own business. In SF I was a little reticent when people would suddenly start talking to me in bookshops, cafes at bus-stops etc, and even more surprised to find that only some of them were freaks and loonies.

If you have the chance its all good, or in my opinion it is.

San Francisco is a very nice holiday destination. Love the nude beach over the bridge and the pacific highway no1 out of there. Is this another study that proclaims San Francisco is the gayest place in the world after re-searching a few American cities in America?

I wonder how much they were paid for that gem of redundant information?

In SF; it took me at least ten-minutes to get picked-up; in Amsterdam it only took about three--And that was in a dry-goods store where I was looking at a feder bett. Maybe that's the Dutch secret gay code?...like handkerchief or red socks.

I wonder if that paper might pay me for a study of Thai go-go boys?
Mai phen rai--I'd just eat up all the profits--But...WTH....

[quote] I cant work out how another bloke picks up another bloke?[quote]


Understandable that you have no experience of being picked up, judging by your own description of yourself!

Edith what is a "feder bett" sounds like a farming implement? The only thing that I let pick me up were the cops, for speeding in a parking garage. Not a sexy business, not very much. American cops look like tele tubbies in tights with attitude, and you just want to piss with laughing.

The Dutch police they are a different story, fit healthy strapping good looking etc etc. After a pick up they feel so guilty they invite you to tea and before you know it, is hy je vaste friend.

Edith what is a "feder bett" sounds like a farming implement? The only thing that I let pick me up were the cops, for speeding in a parking garage. Not a sexy business, not very much. American cops look like tele tubbies in tights with attitude, and you just want to piss with laughing.

The Dutch police they are a different story, fit healthy strapping good looking etc etc. After a pick up they feel so guilty they invite you to tea and before you know it, is hy je vaste friend.

Feather bed--Douvet...doo-vay, in Yiddish. Only like a farming implement in the sense of, plowing...under one.

I avoid--Have a real phobia--parking garages.

Right about American cops...except the adoreable one who stopped me for jay-walking in New York. I wasn't jay walking...I wasn't even walking! I read him his rights. He liked them so much, he took me in. Which reminds me...Trivia question: from what B'way show is the song, I Love a Cop?

The day after the asignation (Pick-up) in the dry goods store; a very kind, young, humpy, horny Dutch policeman not only told me about a night sauna: the Eglantiere; he took me there! Everyone there knew him well--Knew: In all senses. When the place closed he took me home. Home: His place. It was his Sunday off--So he suggested we make the most of it...eat ertwhistle soup and have a flaming fart contest ("Let's see who can make a candle flame jump the highest--But no 'surprises': lumps," He said.). He was joking, of course...droll sense of humor, those Dutch; who else would open (There used to be one in lil' ol' Eindhoven.) a whore house 'staffed' by the customers. But it was, back to work, too soon. Then I met my first Thai, on a bridge over den Herengracht, near the New York Hotel. He asked if I were staying there: At the hotel; not, under the bridge: always a fairy, never a troll.
I said, "Yah," adjusted my leather cod-piece (bulge) and licked my eyebrows.
He said, Okay, I go you."
And that was that.
Some things never change.
Fortunately.

Eindhoven!!! You did get around. Oh yes I miss the saunas here in bonkers. I mean real saunas where men and woman and other family members go and relax on a wintery evening, Emelda in Belgium, just over the border is my favourite. Nothing like seeing your parents and their friends nakkerd, while you run around trying to hide your boner in a fluffy towel-et.

So a "dry goods store" is a .......I thought it was a hard-ware store?