So say creative-classicist Richard Florida and UCLA demographer Gary Gates over on The Daily Beast, where this morning they tout their Gay/Lesbian Index's metro-area rankings culled from a 2008 U.S. Census Bureau survey. And while Florida notes a handful of caveats that come with crunching the numbers, he also notes that "a visible LGBT community is the proverbial 'canary in the coal mine,' signaling openness to new ideas, new business models, and diverse and different thinking kinds of people -- precisely the characteristics of a local ecosystem that can attract cutting-edge entrepreneurs and mobilize new companies." Which reminds me: Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau is giving away a package to Pride Weekend in September.
So, then, to the Dallas entry, which is filled with references to 2004 and 2007:
Same-sex couples per thousand households: 4.88
The city of Dallas, like much of Texas, is known for its Marlboro Man machismo and tough-guy, football-focused culture. Now, though, it's also becoming known for its burgeoning gay scene. So much so, in fact, gays have infiltrated the city's super-conservative political culture: The sheriff's a lesbian (not to mention a Democrat), and the openly gay former city councilman Ed Oakley ran for mayor in 2007. True to the state's male-driven culture, gay men dominate Dallas: 62 percent of gays there are male.
