Pittsburgh the 5th Gayest City in America! (Bellevue, California: neighborhood, living in)

[madg0at]

The more stuff like this I read the better I feel about relocating up here from Virginia. Now if the snow and bitter cold would stop I could take a look around

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Denton56

Is that the population that the city fathers want to attract?

Sure, why not? We'll take anyone interested in contributing productively to the area, gay, straight, or whatever.

I would think that some families would look at that list and decide not to move to the top gay cities.

That would be very sad of them. Also pretty silly--gay-friendliness is spreading so rapidly in the U.S. that there is pretty much no major U.S. metro where you could go and be guaranteed it won't be just as gay friendly in a few more years. Basically, if your hypothetical family is that concerned about openly gay people being treated as normal by their neighbors, they will need to build themselves a commune in the wilderness somewhere.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by youngabe

That absolutely warms my heart to hear that! That's so great that you are raising your child to become a well rounded, socially educated individual! Kudos to you and that's exactly the kind of progressiveness that makes Pittsburgh an even better place than it already is.

It is also very practical. Our kids are going to live in a world where gay people are considered as normal as Lutherans, and it just makes sense to prepare them for functioning in such a world.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

It is also very practical. Our kids are going to live in a world where gay people are considered as normal as Lutherans, and it just makes sense to prepare them for functioning in such a world.

Lutherans are normal?

Frankly, I don't care who lives next door to me, just maintain your house.

No doubt still some homophobes out there, I just don't want any Amish moving into my 'hood.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by Denton56

I would think that some families would look at that list and decide not to move to the top gay cities.

Why would it? It doesn't seem to keep families from moving to any other of the top gay cities. It certainly doesn't keep them from moving to the DC metro area. Nor does it keep families from vacationing at Rehoboth Beach (even though that's supposedy the "gay" beach). Like it or not, times have changed and the vast majority of Americans don't consider this a big deal anymore.

[BrianTH]

By the way, the idea of gay people crowding straight people out of all these cities is simply impossible--gay people don't make up a high enough percentage of the overall population for that to be possible. In that sense, as gay-friendliness spreads, gay-friendly neighborhoods are increasingly going to have only a slightly higher than normal percentage of gay people.

[gg]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

By the way, the idea of gay people crowding straight people out of all these cities is simply impossible--gay people don't make up a high enough percentage of the overall population for that to be possible. In that sense, as gay-friendliness spreads, gay-friendly neighborhoods are increasingly going to have only a slightly higher than normal percentage of gay people.

It is going to be mostly unnoticed unless you go to certain areas that bars and such that advertise to that population are a bit more prevalent. I think it is good to show Pittsburgh is tolerant of people and most people just live and let live.

[TechieTransplant]

Originally Posted by Hopes

That's not going to happen in Pittsburgh. This region is very tollerant.

I wouldn't go that far. I think those of us who live in the city and are open minded are tolerant. But the Yinzer mentality is a different story. I remember a young guy from Butler being interviewed recently by WTAE regarding the repeal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy in the military. He was currently serving in the military himself, and his reply when questioned on how he felt about the whole issue was straight out of red neck ignorance 101.

[BrianTH]

The more rural/far-flung parts of the Metro likely are more socially conservative. That said, there is always the question of how abstract attitudes translate into practice, and I do think that many people here who may not have the most progressive attitudes toward gay people in theory, or when discussing religion, politics, or so on, still end up being reasonably tolerant in practice simply on general live-and-let-live principles.

[TechieTransplant]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The more rural/far-flung parts of the Metro likely are more socially conservative. That said, there is always the question of how abstract attitudes translate into practice, and I do think that many people here who may not have the most progressive attitudes toward gay people in theory, or when discussing religion, politics, or so on, still end up being reasonably tolerant in practice simply on general live-and-let-live principles.

I also think there is a strong underlying intolerance that is not revealed unless the party is comfortable revealing it. We were eating at Cali's one night and we started talking with this older couple who had lived on South Braddock forever. They must have felt comfortable talking to us, because they made some pretty offensive comments towards gays to us.