Little Rock, Ark.
The Advocate today posted its third annual list of the 15 “Gayest Cities In America,” which the national LGBT publication admits is totally subjective. The goal of the list seems to be giving props to some of the smaller, lesser-known gay-friendly cities, and the point-scoring criteria include things like number of softball teams that competed in the gay softball world series, transgender protections, and number of combined concerts by Gossip, the Cliks and the Veronicas since 2009.
I’d have to check with Rich Lopez on the concerts, but it looks like Dallas lost points for things like not having a gay bookstore, not having on out elected city official and not having a WNBA team.
Anyhow, according to the Advocate’s criteria, Salt Lake City is the Gayest City in America. And, having lived in Utah for three years, I can tell you from a good deal of firsthand experience that this designation is not entirely untrue.
The only Texas city to make this year’s list is Austin at No. 13, and Dallas, Houston and San Antonio didn’t even get honorable mentions. But the news is not all bad for our region, as I-30 neighbor Little Rock came in at No. 11. Little Rock? Yes, Little Rock. Here’s what the Advocate says:
The River Market District is the main gay area, and many businesses that don’t advertise as specifically LGBT are friendly and open. The compact city has Backstreet (1021 Jessie Rd.) and U.B.U. (TheAquarium.bizland.com) for the over-18 crowd, and those of legal drinking age can check out SixTen Center Street Bar, TraX, Miss Kitty’s/Saloon (all three at TraxNLR.com). But not all LGBT life happens in a bar: According to GayChurch.org, nine of the city’s churches advertise as LGBT-friendly. Amen!
No surprises there! With a city that claims both John Wiley Price and George Bush among its’ more ‘illustrious’ citizens, it is a wonder that The Advocate doesn’t disqualify Dallas as an American city altogether. Big D may be the GRAYest, most bass-ackwards Republican city in America, but gay it ain’t.
I couldn’t agree with Phil Esteen more. We give keys to the city to dog killers, we are the home to the most right wing nutcases on the planet, Rober Jeffress is on the cover of D Magazine, The A List is representin’ us, and having the largest gay church is not exactly a tourist grabber. The fact that Little Rock is number 11 and we are not even on the list speaks volumes. The Round Up is what keeps us on the gay map.
We have a rainbow colored phallus in our skyline.
Points for Nude Yoga, WNBA teams, and concerts by Gossip and the Veronicas? Come on Advocate, surely there are better criteria for your ranking. How about points for most Sushi Restaurants with Wi-Fi hotspots? The criteria is the silliest I have ever seen, and I guess that is the point. The rating is a joke.
We’re just two little girls from Little Rock
Who came from the wring side of the tracks…
After reading the first three comments above it is apparent the Voice and some of its readers have the most self-pity and prejudice of everyone in Amercia. Their lack of knowledge and negative obsession makes me want to run very far away from them.