Kansas, And Friends Of Dorothy

I just saw this article of U.S. census stats that shows something surprising: Seattle has passed San Francisco as the American city with the highest proportion of gay households. It's not by much, but it does show that our perception of cities isn't always accurate. San Fran is second, with Minneapolis third. Hopefully now they can be more honest about their relationship with St. Paul. Yeah, sure, you're "twin" cities. That's why you spend so much time together.

At the other end of the scale, El Paso has the fewest gay households. Fort Worth is next, so we can assume they'll continue to disguise their relationship with Dallas using macho names like "Metroplex." And then there's Colorado Springs, which is also a major military site, so we'll see if that status survives the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell.

But the reason I found these stats interesting is the gender breakdown. Part of the reason for Seattle getting to number one is that they have a close-to-equal ratio of male and female couples, while San Francisco's gay community is disproportionately male.

And that brings up a question I've long wondered about: when we think of gay areas in major cities, we usually think of gay men. But lesbians have to live some place too. So where do they live? According to the article, the answer is Wichita, Kansas.  There, 88% of gay couples are female, the highest proportion in the nation. 

So I Googled "Wichita Lesbian Neighborhood" to see what came up.  It was surprisingly tame.  The results didn't mention any particular part of the city, but there is one lesbian bar, and using Street View, here it is:

 So now you know what a lesbian neighbourhood looks like.