Twin Cities are "a Midwestern gay mecca," says Advocate's 2013 ranking of gayest cities

Image by Tatiana Craine

MSP: Gay, but not as gay as we were two years ago, according to the Advocate.

In 2011, the Advocate's algorithm named Minneapolis the gayest city in the entire U.S.A. St. Paul was added to the mix last year, and the Twin Cities fell to seventh.

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The Advocate just came out with its 2013 ranks, and turns out MSP is getting straighter by the year -- we're now only the 10th gayest city. Nonetheless, the magazine still gives the Twin Cities props in describing our metro as "a Midwestern gay mecca," complete with pilgrimages to the Town House Bar.

As always, the Advocate's 2013 methodology is a little bit quirky:


Much to the chagrin of the late Michael Leisner, the Twin Cities scores lots of points when it comes to having a gay-friendly corporate environment. Here's the Advocate's full breakdown:

10. Twin Cities, Minn. (pop. 676,201) The formerly "just roommates" cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are now fully domestic partners and have become a Midwestern gay mecca, and it's not just because of pro-LGBT senator Al Franken. It might have something to do with early antidiscrimination ordinances, a no-nonsense attitude, the hunky Mayhem rugby team (MayhemRFC.com), and the Town House Bar (TownHouseBar.com), popular with the ladies. (Don't even try to resist the Mall of America -- you'll need a car to get there and lots of trunk space to haul your wares home.)

But despite the "Midwestern gay mecca" line, according to the Advocate's formula, MSP isn't even the gayest city in the region. Here's the full ranking:

15. St. Louis
14. Salem
13. Colorado Springs
12. Providence
11. Oakland
10. MSP
9. Atlanta
8. Madison
7. Eugene
6. Salt Lake City
5. Seattle
4. Washington, D.C.
3. Spokane
2. Springfield, Mass.
1. Tacoma

Okay, Advocate. It's one thing to say Madison is gayer than Minneapolis, but it's another to say that St. Louis is somehow gayer than unranked San Francisco. Until your methodology gets straightened out, we're going to have to come out and say that these rankings should be taken with two big gay grains of salt.