I was having a chat today with a couple friends about places I might like to live someday and the subject of San Francisco came up. My two friends thought that SF would not be the best place for me to settle since I am a heterosexual male, and finding a mate there would be much more difficult than elsewhere. Their supporting reason: there are more homosexual people living in SF than non-homosexual. I found this claim dubious, but I couldn’t offer any substantial evidence to contradict it. They cited a vague recollection of a statistic on a TV show, which I obviously don’t give much credence to. I’d be okay with saying the concentration of homosexuals is higher in SF than elsewhere in the country, but saying they’re the majority? I was unable to turn up anything with Google so I thought I would throw the question out here and see if anyone can offer insights or hard evidence: do gays outnumber non-gays in San Francisco?
No cite (but I will start digging), but I’ve heard and been told several times that the incidence of homosexuality in SF is only slightly higher than it is in the general population. The misconception that SF has a large gay population simply stems from the fact that SF’s gay population is an open, active, and vocal community.
On the contrary. Anecdotally speaking here, but the “gay people” in SF are largely “gay men”. That improves your chances of meeting women. I live near San Jose, and my experience with SF is that a straight guy can do very well up there. It’s a fun city. I’ve heard that there are actually more gay people living in LA than in SF, but LA is spread out all over the place, and SF is pretty compact.
Wiki says:
Today, the gay population of the city is estimated to be approximately 15%, and gays remain an important force in the city’s life. San Francisco has a higher percentage of gays and lesbians than any other major US city.
Ideally, it’d be undefined, because you can’t divide by 0, but I hear that they let some straight people in there.
I spent a week in San Francisco in June. I’d never been there before and, as a straight man, was slightly apprehensive about the possible preponderance of homosexual men, especially as my old mate Bob, a renowned shirtlifter* himself and who had had a whale of a time there in the mid-80’s, had led me to believe that every second geezer was of that persuasion.
During that week, I believe I encountered just one single solitary bloke whom I categorised (however wrongly) as potentially homosexual - he was serving at the Round Table pizza place on Van Ness Avenue.
The only obvious indications of gayness were occasional rainbow flags.
Didn’t see any obvious gay people at all during my 4 hours in San Jose.
- = A homosexual male. That’s how my mate Bob describes himself, so I hope it isn’t taken as derogatory.
You were in San Francisco for a week in June and didn’t see anyone confirmably gay? You just weren’t trying.
:dubious: So where do all the lesbians hang out?
What would improve one’s chances of meeting lesbians?
Well, the tawdry truth is that the singles scene here is pretty much the same as any medium-to-big city. It just happens that there are several of them. For a window into it, check out Craig’s List, our community bulletin board, which lists nine different personals categories. While you’re at Craig’s, check out apartment rents. That’s the real barrier to living here, unless you happen to make a LOT of money.
BTW, there are several lesbian hangouts. Wild Side West in Bernal Heights is a pretty mellow one, and straight friendly.
Does anyone actually go there specifically looking to see real live SF homosexuals?
Maybe thats a topic for the other board.
I went to Haight shbury once and pointed at hippies. Does that count? 
Maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough! Or perhaps I am not that bothered. I certainly did not see any stereotypical, Village People-style gay men who, as my mate Bob confidently assured me, roam the streets of San Francisco in huge packs. Of course, he may just have been pulling my naive heterosexual leg.
A recent article in The New York Times listed the number of gay men in San Francisco around 60,000.
From the article A Good Report on AIDS, and Some Credit the Web
According to the wikipedia’s population for San Francisco (799,263), that works out to about 7.5%.
AFAIK, there are particular gay neighborhoods in SF, like the Castro. So in those areas the ratio is a bit unusual but you probably wouldn’t choose to live there if you were hetero.
Uh…pulling on a guy’s leg is a blatant homosexual move. Watch out.
They sure come to Montreal’s Village. I’ll be sitting in Kilo and tour buses will roll by.
We’re a tourist attraction now! I’m always picturing it: “Oh, look, Betty, it’s lesbian haircut #4! See, it’s right here in the field guide…”
I may not have been too adventurous. The dodgiest place in which I found myself was when I visited the Toronado bar (a truly remarkable boozer; they even had beers on hand-pump!), which I suppose is fairly near Castro - it’s on Haight Street, just around the corner from the Duboce & Church MUNI metro stop.
Unfortunately, the contents of this book aren’t available online. However, they do make a few statistics available here, among them:
[ul][li]San Francisco is indeed the gayest “large metro area” in the U.S., containing three of the top ten gayest zip codes in the U.S (Castro, Twin Peaks, and Haight-Ashbury.) Oakland is second, Seattle is third.[/li][li]However, there are several smaller cities and towns in the U.S. that have a larger homosexual population, percentage-wise; overall, SF isn’t even in the top ten, being beaten out by such places as Provincetown, MA; West Hollywood, CA; Key West, FL; and North Druid Hills, GA.[/li][li]As respects gays vs. lesbians, San Francisco is the MSA (metro statistical area) with the highest concentration of gays in the U.S. However, it only ranks fourth for lesbians, after Santa Rosa, CA, Santa Cruz, CA, and Santa Fe, NM. (Interesting naming pattern there…)[/li][/ul]
Why dubious? Most studies I’ve seen have shown that the incidence of homosexuality in men is significantly greater than in women. So, if one speaks of “gay people” per the OP, one is speaking more about men than about women. Note that I said “more” and not “exculsively”. I’m sure there are many lesbians in SF, but I’m also sure that there are many more gay men there.
If you disagree, why don’t you put forward an actual argument or come up with some stastics that counter what I’ve said. If I’m wrong, I’ll be happy to admit it.
Off the top of my head, I’d say do some research to find out if there are popular places for lesbians to hang out and go there. If not, then most cities certainly have bars that cater to lesbians. But you knew that…
A lot more than “a bit” in the Castro. It would be almost impossible NOT to see a lot of gay people if you drove or walked around in that neighborhood.
My wife works for the SF city government, and having discussed this very question me one night, she discovered officially there is no statistic available.
That being said, most people she tried to get an estimate from, including those who would probably be the most knowledgable (HIV/AIDS advocates), generally agree that overall, the percentage of homosexuals is only slightly higher than the national average (2%-25%, depending who you believe).
There are certain sections of the city (e.g. Castro) where gay men are probably a majority (if not, certainly a plurality) of the population. There are also certain professions (e.g. design) where you will likewise see clustering. This is probably responsible for impressions that people have about a majority of SF being homosexual men.
Other reasons include ones listed above:
(1) Homosexual men in San Francisco are more likely to be open about their homosexuality - hence, the number who admit (to an interviewer) that they are homosexual may be greater than in other parts of the country.
And a few that aren’t:
(2) The statistic that your friends’ television show may have is the number of men who have engaged in homosexual behavior - not men who identify themselves as homosexual. There is a large population of men who have sex with other men (MSM’s) who will adamantly deny being homosexual (or even bisexual) but behavior-wise engage in the same activities as homosexual men. This is of particular concern to the department of public health.
(3) The number and size of the homosexual community may appear higher because of heterosexual sympathizers, who will march in parades, act as advocates, and even refer to their (heterosexual) spouses as “partners” to show solidarity. These behaviors are reserved for homosexuals in other parts of the country, and people who see, say, 300,000 people turn out for a gay-marriage rally may mistakenly assume that all 300,000 are gay.
Finally, to go back to the original premise of your post …
While San Francisco proper may be a great place to meet women (I neither contest nor confirm that claim), it should be noted that the SF Bay Area in general is generally regarded (again, neither contest nor confirm) that this is a poor area to meet women, due to the overwhelming numbers of heterosexual males involved with the tech industry. Some women consider Silicon Valley to be replete with available young men with above-average disposable income.
Top cities to find a rich, single woman:
http://www.teasley.net/frich.pdf
San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose is ranked 14th, but is ranked 155th in the ratio of single females to single males.
Happy hunting.