I would call my beloved hometown of Anaheim many things: wonderful, Anacrime, home to a corrupt, clueless City Council, diverse, seething working-class, Disneyland, Little Arabia, Filipino, St. Boniface, Romanian, Samoan, Katella–would call it many, many things. But one of the last things I'd call it is gay. Not that there aren't many wonderful LGBT folks in the city, but it ain't exactly gay like, say, Laguna Beach, and doesn't even get close to the flock of mariposas that dominate SanTana.
And it's nowhere near as gay as Long Beach, the undisputed gay capital of Southern California that's not West Hollywood. Yet stunningly, The Advocate's list of the gayest cities in America for 2013 has Anaheim ranked ahead of the LBC.
Somewhere at Ripples, a gaggle of old queens curse Disneyland's Gay Days for stealing their crown.
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That's the only possible explanation of how Anaheim could be gayer than Long Beach. Even by The Advocate's cheekily subjective criteria for this year–LGBT elected officials, Whole Foods in the city limits, any cameos by Glee members, gay rugby, among others–Long Beach easily beats Anaheim. Methinks Long Beach has at least two gay councilmembers right now–Robert Garcia for sure, and maybe someone else?–while Anaheim has none, unless Jordan Brandman knows something we don't. Long Beach is ground zero for LGBT advocacy groups, while OC's LGBT orgs congregate in SanTana. Shit, Anaheim doesn't even have one openly gay bar anymore (there's a couple on the down-low), while Long Beach is so packed with them that when we did a list of the 10 Best Gay Bars in OC, half of them were in Long Beach–and not one in Anaheim.
So what could possibly make Anaheim gayer than Long Beach? The only plausible theory is Disneyland. Not only is Disney famously gay-friendly as a company, but they also host Gay Days–but that's only a week. There are no gay neighborhoods in Anaheim, next-to-no rainbow flags, not even a damn gay parade (Disneyland's spectacles notwithstanding). Seriously, Advocate: having Anaheim as gayer than Long Beach is like having Irvine as more Vietnamese than Little Saigon.
Or maybe the Advocate knows about all of Anaheim's gay cholos? FABULOUS!
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