for the 300-page "xy survival guide" special issue, we decided to scientifically and authoritatively analyze the quality of life for young gay men in cities around the world. we combined statistics with opinion polls from the website to arrive at our final results.
i looked at other city comparison guides, such as the places rated almanac for ideas on how to compute each city's score. in the end we focussed on civil rights [hate crime legislation, discrimination in the workplace legislation, etc.], security [crime statistics], age of consent, gay social life quality, arts & entertainment, population diversity [ethnic, religious, racial mix], outness, under 21 gay scene, drinking age [as this affects the ways in which young gays can socialize], the 21 gay scene, weather, physical city [appearance, layout] and affordability.
most non-u.s. cities scored very well, with london, amsterdam, paris, sydney, toronto, montreal all scoring very well. the top-rated american city was new york [san francisco is quite expensive and not incredibly exciting for young gays]. the worst-rated american cities were mormon salt lake city, conservative las vegas and the punitive cities of texas.
an incredible amount of staff research went into the data gathering and number crunching, which i used to prepare the feature, all of the data tables and the 3d maps which i laid out over 10 pages.
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