According to the Advocate, a national gay magazine based in Los Angeles, Minneapolis can stand proud as the Gayest City in America. The magazine took into account a number of factors, including same-sex couples, gay-marriage equality, gay bars, the number of gay films on Netflix favorites, the number of dot.com (a dating website) profiles per city, the number of gay elected officials, lesbian bars, gay-friendly congregations and gay yellow page listings. I’m not sure about the rest of you readers, but I am simply tickled rainbow at the thought of it!
The Toronto Sun also ranked Minneapolis as the 4th Best Place to Celebrate Gay Rights in the world, sighting Jack Baker and James Michael McConnell’s determination to be married in the 1970s (In 1971 the couple was married before a Methodist minister in Minneapolis. This marriage is highly-contested).
All this talk about our beloved Minneapolis being the gay-friendliest city got me to thinking about what it really means to be gay friendly. And I wondered, how the hell are we supposed to be the best place for gays to live when our government still insists upon treating gays as second-class citizens?!
True, it was a milestone to see Gov. Mark Dayton, the first Minnesota governor to participate in the parade, walking amongst the masses of people flooding the streets on Sunday. But when you consider the inexcusably infuriating state of gay rights in Minnesota (and the nation, and THE WORLD), it becomes apparent that we seem to be faced with that bitch of a Minnesota-nice reality: the way something appears is not necessarily how it is. It looks to me like we’re dealing with a little bit of a band-aid effect.
So, although attending the gay pride parade was indeed an exhilarating pleasure, I have to admit that the whole thing has left me feeling pretty crappy. You can march something down the street with a big-ass bow on it—you can coat people and floats in stickers and ribbons and flowers and pamphlets—but where’s the CHANGE, Minnesota?!
Looking to get involved in ending this confounding bigotry once and for all? Click below (it takes a whole two seconds to sign the petition opposing the amendment to ban gay marriage):
mckenzie malanaphy 
Do tell.