News / Society

In a recent Gallup poll that ranked the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the country by what percentage of their population identified as LGBT, there was a clear and distinct winner and region. San Francisco is the gayest city with 6.2 percent of their population identifying as LGBT, while Birmingham, Alabama had the lowest-identifying population at 2.6 percent. The rest of the top populations were rounded out by other sprawling western cities, and some New England ones, New York, surprisingly, didn’t even make the top 10.

While the average metropolitan population identifying as LGBT was 3.6 percent (New York had 4.0 percent), the most populous cities have long been known for their progressive social and political climates, or have other things tipping the scales in their favor.

Salt Lake City, Utah, may seem like a surprise entry in the top 10 since the state itself is very conservative, but it’s one of the newest states to pass a workplace anti-discrimination law based sexual orientation or gender identity.

The top 10 cities with identifying LGBT populations:

San Francisco, California 6.2%

Portland, Oregon 5.4%

Austin, Texas 5.3%

New Orleans, Louisiana, 5.1%

Seattle, Washington 4.8%

Boston, Massachusetts 4.8%

Salt Lake City, Utah 4.7%

Hartford, Connecticut 4.6%

Denver, Colorado 4.6%

Los Angeles, California 4.6%