Plus, our city hall is prettier.
The Sixteenth Annual Gay and Lesbian Tourism Report is out and Houston is listed as one of the top twenty business and leisure destinations for American and Canadian LGBT travelers. Three Texas cities made the top twenty and, in a ranking I’m sure Houstini’s Dallas Voice overlords are itching to rub in, Dallas scored best, tying for 10th place. Austin and Houston tied at 18th. [The complete ranking is after the jump]
The study, produced by San Fransisco based Community Marketing, surveyed over 10,000 LGBT respondents in the U.S. and Canada about their travel habits and what motivates (or demotivates) them to pick a destination. It doesn’t say what would posses someone to pick Big D over the Bayou City as a destination, so we’re left to simply guess. As someone who’s lived in both cities I feel uniquely qualified to wager that guess and so, in no particular order, follows five reasons to pick Dallas over Houston as your LGBT travel destination:
5. You base your travel decisions on which city has the most severe crystal meth problem.
4. Who cares about art or culture when Dallas has such great shopping! You can go the Highland Park Mall, or to… um, (isn’t there some kind of department store downtown?) You can go to the Highland Park Mall!
3. You find mayors who don’t support LGBT inclusive policies sexy.
2. You enjoy the existential angst of trying to figure out why someone would spend $93 million to build a bridge over a drainage ditch.
1. Harvey Milk lived there once, for like six whole months.
(got a reason to visit Dallas over Houston? Leave it in the comments.)
Top 20 business and leisure destinations for American and Canadian LGBT travelers
(According to the Sixteenth Annual Gay and Lesbian Tourism Report)1. New York
2. Chicago
2. Las Vegas
2. San Francisco
5. Los Angeles
5. Washington DC
7. Fort Lauderdale
7. San Diego
7. Boston
10. Atlanta
10. Dallas
10. Miami
10. New Orleans
10. Orlando
10. Palm Springs
10. Philadelphia
10. Seattle
18. Austin
18. Baltimore
18. Denver
18. Hawaii
18. Houston
18. Key West
18. Napa
18. Phoenix
18. Portland
18. Provincetown
18. Sonoma
18. Tampa/St.Pete
Also having lived in both cities I have perhaps a unique perceptive. Undoubtedly Dallas came out over Houston because of its classy or class-conscious attitude, fond memories of Frank Caven and his famous bars over Charles Armstrong’s inherited Caven bars, great fun on Central Expressway as opposed to navigating 45 around downtown Houston, a preference for a football team called “Dallas” that is not even in Dallas over the Houston team sitting on 610 Loop. And on a personal note, Dallas where my business was oppressed by fellow gay merchants as opposed to Houston where the powers that be rushed to include my partner, Bill, and I in the AIDS and political work at hand. The fact that I have not been back to Dallas since 1995 says it all for me.