Advocate magazine names top 25 ‘queerest cities in America’

Jersey City, New Jersey, is the “queerest city in America,” according to the annual list released today by Advocate magazine.

“The Garden State’s second-biggest city scored well on numerous aspects of our criteria, including multiple showings of ‘Moonlight’ and queer B&B hosts opening up their homes to visitors. It also scored 100 on the [Human Rights Campaign’s] municipal equality index,” according to the story. “Instead of tagging along with New York’s Pride festival, nearby Jersey City has hosted its own for the past 17 years.”

The top five queerest cities rounded out with Orlando and St. Petersburg, Florida; Buffalo, New York; and New Orleans. Atlanta made the list at No. 6.

“The star of the South is really becoming one of the country’s great queer centers,” the magazine said. “Basically, it nailed nearly all aspects of our criteria of what makes a queer city. The city also makes a concerted effort to assist homeless and/or struggling LGBT youth.”

Advocate staff examined cities with more than 250,000 people, looking at nine “partly serious, partly silly” criteria this year: number of lesbian bars, Trans Pride parades and festivals, gay rugby teams, tour dates for the band Pwr Bttm, theaters screening “Moonlight,” available LGBT bed and breakfast hosts, LGBT centers, gay rodeos and gay bowling teams. The raw score for each city was then divided by its population “to provide a ranking based on a per capita LGBT quotient.”

Other Southern cities that made the top 25 were Durham and Greensboro, North Carolina; Miami and Tampa, Florida; and Plano, Texas.