Top Gay Neighborhoods

[FreeThinker]

Chicago's Boystown has been voted the best gayborhood in the world by the readers of Out Traveler, beating out The Mission in San Fancisco, Boystown in Hollywood, and areas in Madrid and Barcelona. A slideshow at the bottom of this article lists the most gay friendly zip codes in the US.

1. 94114 The Castro in SF

2. 92264 Palm Springs, CA

3. 02657 Provincetown, MA

4. 92262 Palms Springs, CA again

5. 33305 Ft. Lauderdale, FL

6. 90069 West Hollywood, CA

7. 94131 Noe Valley, SF, CA

8. 75219 Oak Lawn, Dallas, TX (I want some of what they were smoking when they came up with THIS choice)

9. 19971 Rehobeth Beach, DE

10. 48069 Pleasant Ridge, Detroit MI

I nominate just about any zip code in Oklahoma as the most gay-unfriendly in America!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/02/boystown-chicago-best-gay_n_4533208.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay%20Voices

[Merkin]

I'd have to say that gaybois who flock to Chicago can't read a national weather map.

[Guest Dabeagle]

Chicago is a great town - wish I could tell you why. But I get a good vibe every time I'm there. I also like seeing permanent reminders of the type of neighborhood I'm in, like the famous streetlights in that area of Chicago.

[Cole Parker]

My god, I'm surrounded by these places. I need to get out of the house more!

C

[Chris James]

The only one I can speak to is Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Spent at least a few weeks there every summer while I was in my twenties. Gay bars, eh, but yes they did have them. Gay guest houses were always fun, sleeping in a six by eight foot room where you had to go outside to change your mind. Nude men running up and down the stairs to the community bath or the natural sunbathing in the back yard surrounded by flowering bushes.

Been to San Francisco, did the Castro. Been to Venice Beach to ogle the muscle men. But Rehoboth was a quiet little town in the 70's. What could be bad about a town that has a gay beach at the end of Queen Street? I'm sure the city planners had no idea about the free publicity that gave the town. Gays were not readily accepted by the locals until they realized how much money was coming in. I've written a story about all that stuff and one day you shall see it.

[Guest Dabeagle]

I thought Rehoboth was in Maryland? Is there more than one?

[Cole Parker]

Aren't Maryland and Delaware basically the same place?

C

[FreeThinker]

I would nominate several zip codes in Austin, as well. A progressive city with fantastic music, a laid-back attitude, and amazing food, trapped in one of the most regressive states in the country. I miss living in Austin. I have friends in Seattle, Portland OR and Burlington VT who sing the praises of those cities as well when it comes to communities that are gay-friendly and progressive.

[Chris James]

I thought Rehoboth was in Maryland? Is there more than one?

Rehoboth is definitely in Delaware, the next major beach town south of there by about 12 miles is Ocean City, Maryland. That's a hundred some blocks of asphalt and concrete with condos eroding the landscape.

Rehoboth has expanded along the coastal highway but right along the ocean it is still a small town with lots of tourist stuff backed by suburban neighborhoods...and lots of gay attractions these days.

[Merkin]

Aren't Maryland and Delaware basically the same place?

C

Yes, after global warming finishes melting the ice floes.

[Cole Parker]

Yeah, as in, "Hey, remember when there was a state called Maryland?"

"Aren't you thinking of Delaware?"

"Yeah, that too."

[The Pecman]

I can't believe they left out Key West, Florida! All kinds of gay bars and hotels down there.

West Hollywood is not the gay enclave it used to be. A lot of the bars and hang-outs from the 1980s are gone, and the neighborhoods are a vast mixture of different cultures, particularly immigrant Russians that have moved into the area. The apartment building my partner and I were in started off as about 50% gay in the late 1970s, and by the time we moved out around 1985, it was 60% Russians and maybe 10% gay and 30% "miscellaneous."

[dude]

I would definitely add Key West and probably delete Palm Springs from the list entirely.

Yeah, the last two mayors here have been gay, and lots of public organizations supporting the incredibly high population with HIV and AIDS, but it is not a place where you see people of the same sex freely showing PDA's or even holding hands.

In the almost six years I've lived here I have only once seen two males holding hands in public... two fourteen-year-old boys (cousins) locking fingers on a bus. I gave them a thumbs up after a woman scowled at them.

This is definitely GOP country, and I don't mean the Log Cabin Republican variety!