MAG: MADISON IS (SORTA) THE #5 GAYEST U. S. CITY Advocate Ranks Wisconsin’s Capitol City Among Top Second-Tier Gay Meccas By Mike Fitzpatrick much more pink than you might Madison is the fifth gayest city in think.” the United States! Or should that Albo profiled Madison as: “the be: Madison is the fifth gayest Berkeley of the Midwest - the city in the United States? east side is hippie-crunchy, A travel article written by self- there’s a brand-new gay dance proclaimed “amateur sociologist” club (Plan B), and heaps of cute Mike Albo in the February issue blond dreadlocked nuevo organic of The Advocate recently ranked farmer dudes can be found at the Madison as the fifth-gayest city Willy Street Co-op or the Farm - in America. That is, of course, if ers’ Market drinking their own you leave out places like San Francisco, New ranking in that area: -1. beer from mason jars.” York City, Miami, Key West, Provincetown, etc. Missing in Albo’s calculations are a number Apparently Albo hasn’t visited Madison in the To come up with his 15 city-deep rankings, of criteria that more scholarly researchers use: last month or so. The inches Cap City dwellers Albo created a point system that used seven things like anti-discrimination laws, gay-sup - are obsessing over at the moment won’t be criteria: same-sex couple households per portive businesses, community attitude studies found in a Manhunt profile. capita, statewide marriage equality, gay elected and so on. Lesbian women in particular might For those who might care, Atlanta - a city officials, gay dating profiles per single male also take objection to the male-dominated focus many in the South consider a first-tier gay population, gay bars per capita, cruising spots of the writer’s criteria, especially the gay male mecca - topped Albo’s list. Thanks to last per capita and gay films in Netflix favorites. In - personals profiles and cruising spots. year’s state Supreme Court ruling permitting terestingly, Albo did not appear to be good at As for the missing top-tier meccas, Albo same-sex marriage, Iowa City came in #3. math in calculating Madison’s ranking. Cities stated up front that he excluded cities that The piece can be found online at: www.advo - in states with constitutional marriage bans most LGBT people consider as gay meccas in cate.com. The print version is in the Advocate were given a minus two. Madison’s published his “subjective search (to) reveal spots that are insert in the current issue of Out magazine. World & National News scured by day-to-day struggles, and overall progress often goes unno - ticed nationally” LGBT Movement Advancement Project (MAP) Execu - “AWFUL AUGHTS” WERE VERY tive Director Linda Bush said. “By looking broadly at the last decade, GOOD FOR GAY PEOPLE this report gives a much fuller perspective on where we are today - and San Francisco - Though some mathematicians may quibble, most folks consider the first decade of the new millennium over. Pundits how far we’ve come in just ten years.” largely have given the years 2009-2009 a decided “thumbs down.” Time “From over 50 years of supporting causes that help advance equality, magazine called the 2000s “the decade from Hell,” while others we understand that making meaningful change requires time. But these dubbed it the “Awful Aughts.” facts make it clear that equal rights for gay people are advancing at an However, a new report shows the past 10 years have been a period of exceptional rate,” Ira Hirschfield, President of the Haas, Jr. Fund, said. dramatic gains in equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender “Gay people and their families deserve equal rights and an equal op - (LGBT) people in America. Two-thirds of the 36 statistical indicators portunity to participate in their communities and the institutions that compiled in “A Decade of Progress on LGBT Rights” showed significant bring Americans together. We are committed to supporting work that advances, including sharp increases in the number of LGBT Americans brings our country closer to that goal.” protected by nondiscrimination and family recognition legislation at the Matt Foreman, a longtime advocate for LGBT equality who now di - state level. Just over a quarter of the indicators were negative, and two rects the Haas Jr. Fund’s gay and immigrant rights programs, said the showed mixed results. Fund is excited by the accelerated rate of change. “While enormous and The report is a joint project of the LGBT Movement Advancement Proj - heart-wrenching inequities remain, progress over the last ten years has ect and the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr., Fund. been extraordinary.” “The remarkable achievements toward LGBT equality tend to be ob - To document the progress of the last decade, the report looked at sev - eral criteria that included: discrimination based tionships and one offered limited recognition. prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages. on sexual orientation and gender identity; Now in 2009, five states extend marriage to Homophobia in schools: The percentage of recognition of same-sex relationships; hate same-sex couples (with New Jersey and the LGBT students reporting hearing homophobic crimes legislation; the number of openly-gay District of Columbia pending at press time), six remarks in school has remained above 99 % elected officials; public attitudes toward the offer broad recognition, and seven offer more and LGBT students who report experiencing LGBT community; safer schools laws; gay mar - limited recognition. Overall, the number of harassment in school edged up (up from 83.2% riage losses and successes; the HIV/AIDS epi - Americans living in a state that offers some to 86.2%.) demic and the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military protections to same-sex couples nearly tripled, HIV/AIDS: New HIV infections among ado - service ban. from 12.7 % to 37.2 %. lescent and adult men who have sex with men Discrimination Based on Sexual Orien- Protection from Violence: The 2009 grew 10 %, from 28,000 to 30,800, as did the tation: The number of states outlawing dis - Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate percentage of new HIV infections overall that crimination based on sexual orientation Crimes Prevention Act is the first federal law to occurred among men who have sex with men, increased 83%, from 12 to 22, between 2000 specifically protect LGBT people. which rose from 51% to 53%. and 2009. The percentage of the U.S. popula - LGBT Elected Officials: The number of Military Service Ban: In spite of over - tion living in states banning discrimination openly LGBT elected officials in America rose whelming public support for the repeal of based on sexual orientation soared from 24.5 % 73 % between 2000 and 2009, from 257 to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the U.S. military con - to 44.1%, an 80% increase. In other words, 445. tinued to discharge hundreds of gay and les - today 134 million Americans are now living in Public Opinion Toward Gay People: The bian service members, with the cumulative states where discrimination based on sexual ori - percentage of the public supporting the right number of discharges under the 1993 policy entation has been outlawed, an increase of 65 of openly gay and lesbian people to serve in the nearly doubling during the past decade. The million over the decade. (When local nondis - military grew from 62% to 75%. Support for only “positive” note was that the number of crimination laws passed by cities without marriage equality has grown from 35% in 2000 annual discharges decreased from 1,241 in statewide protections are included, the figure is to 39% today; there has been an even larger in - 2000 to 619 in 2008 (the most recent year for over 50 % of the U.S. population.) Fortune 500 crease in support for relationship recognition which data are available), apparently because companies that protect workers based on sexual that involves many of the rights of marriage, of the urgent need for soldiers to fight the wars orientation grew from 51% to 88%. from 45 to 57 %. in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002. Discrimination Based on Gender Iden- Safer Schools: In 2000, only one state had a A more in-depth and longer term analysis of tity: There was an even more remarkable in - safe school law that specifically cited sexual progress toward LGBT equality can be found in crease in states outlawing discrimination based orientation and gender identity/expression for MAP’s “The Momentum Report – 2009 edition,” on gender identity and expression, which rose protection; by 2009 that rose to 13states. The which is available at: www.lgbtmap.org. from just 1state in the year 2000 to 14 states number of Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs in high MAP is a think tank founded in 2006 that pro - representing nearly 30% of the population in schools grew from 700 to 4,700, a nearly six- duces and disseminates research aimed at help - 2009. The percentage of Fortune 500 compa - fold increase. ing speed advancement of equality for LGBT nies that protect workers based on gender iden - Of course, all was not as positive as the above people. The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund is a tity jumped even more, from just 0.6% to 35%. items. The report also includes data on areas private family foundation created in 1953 which Relationship Recognition: Similarly ex - with mixed or negative results. has awarded more than $364 million in grants ceptional gains were made in the area of fam - Gay Marriage Opposition: In 2000, 5 states to support fundamental rights and opportunities ily recognition.