10 Best Cities for LGBT 20-Somethings

In honour of Toronto hosting the 1st North American World Pride Day next weekend, we have been celebrating Pride Month here on the blog as we do each year in posts like What Does Pride Mean to You?, Pride Toronto is a time to Celebrate Who We Are, Where We’ve Been and Where We Are Going, 4 Nonprofits Advancing the LGBTT2SQI Community, Toronto #WorldPride Month Kicks off with #ProudToPlay and the 10 Most Gay Friendly Countries in the World. Toronto is an inclusive, diverse city so it was no surprise that our hometown was bestowed the honour of representing the LGBTTIQQ2SA community on the world’s stage. To build on this theme, I’m featuring the 10 best cities for LGBT 20-somethings from a list posted by Mic, an online news source with a “simple idea: Young people deserve a news destination offering quality coverage that’s tailored for them.”

The caveat for this list is that it does not include the most obvious cities like New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, Berlin, Provincetown….you know the list. Mic felt that by always including these cities other progressive, exciting cities might be overlooked by LGBT youth. So they set out to compile a list of “slightly more under-the-radar cities for LGBT urban dwellers” and to do so they “took a number of factors into consideration: legal protection, social acceptance, LGBT nightlife and economic opportunities (jobs are key).” Based on these selections, the top 10 cities are:

1. São Paulo, Brazil – Brazil hold the Guinness World Record for the largest Pride Parade as over 3 million people attend the event.
2. Tel Aviv, Israel – While same-sex marriage isn’t legal, they do recognize marriages performed outside Israel, and they give the same rights to same-sex couples afforded to common-law marriages.
3. Stockholm, Sweden – Stockholm boasts a vibrant LGBT community – the “city is spread over 14 different islands and gay/gay-friendly clubs and bars are integrated on all of them.”
4. Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Amsterdam has always been a leader when it comes to LGBT activism and “in 2001 the Netherlands became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage.” Plus “since 1996 Amsterdam has hosted an annual pride festival and the city’s nightlife is notoriously raucous.”
5. Toronto, Canada – Canada was the 4th country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage in 2005 and “while there are certainly “gayborhoods” in Toronto, the city as a whole is very open-minded and many businesses catering to or owned by LGBT people are integrated throughout the city.”
6. New Orleans, Louisiana – New Orleans is a very diverse and accepting city that has “a thriving young queer and trans population, and the African-American LGBT community may be one of the largest in the U.S.“
7. Sydney, Australia – While Sydney has yet to legalize same-sex marriages, they are moving forward in regards to opinion. “Sydney is home to a number of gay-friendly beaches and wild nightlife spots catering to the LGBT community. Its world-renowned Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras takes place annually, drawing enormous crowds and big sponsors.”
8. Seattle, Washington – This is one of the most progressive cities in the United States and “same-sex marriage was legalized in Washington in 2012. During the last weekend of June, Seattle holds its annual Pride Parade, which draws well over 50,000 people.”
9. Mexico City, Mexico – Mexico is also very progressive in their LGBT legislation as they “legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, trans* people have the legal right to change their gender on government documents and queer couples can adopt children together.”
10. Buenos Aires, Argentina – Argentina was the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriages; they didn’t rank higher because they don’t have any “laws forbidding discrimination against LGBT people that have passed on the national level.”

This list illustrates that the world is becoming a more tolerant place and that there are many vibrant inclusive cities all young people can look for opportunities.

Happy Pride Month! Share your story or join the conversation today with #MYWORLDPRIDE.

___________________________________________________________________________________

For nonprofit fundraising, CSR business and other news, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Pinterest or subscribe to our RSS feed.

Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions  and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.