Which city is the most LGBT-friendly? New York City and Boston ranked (albeit not very high), but Philadelphia didn’t make the list. (Read on before you start calling us jabronis.)
Nestpick, “an aggregator for furnished apartments across Europe,” asked more than 2,500 people in 40 countries about lifestyle, safety and LGBT rights, and ranked each city.
The top five gay-friendly cities for 2017 are Madrid, Amsterdam, Toronto, Tel Aviv and London, the poll found. New York City had a perfect score in dating but ranked ninth overall. Boston scored the lowest in “openness in the city” and made the top 100 list at 52.
Philadelphia isn’t on the list, but not because the City of Brotherly Love isn’t showing love to the LGBTQ community. Philadelphians simply weren’t polled.
Nestpick asked participants about factors like the vibrancy of the cities’ dating scene, LGBT nightlife and the open-mindedness of other residents. Out of a possible score of five, a city had to score a minimum of two in each to be considered for the final shortlist.
Next, Nestpick factored in public data from police departments to rank the cities on safety. The city with the lowest number of hate crimes reported was awarded a maximum safety score of five, and the city with the highest number of crimes reported was awarded a minimum score of one.
The fifth category focused on the rights of LGBT citizens in each of the final 40 countries. In order to score a five, the countries had to allow same-sex marriage, adoption by same-sex couples, LGBT citizens to serve in the military, for anyone to change their gender identity and to ban all anti-LGBT discrimination.
The poll’s maximum score was 25 and the margin of error in the polls for each city was +/- 4.5 percent.
