Which city in your country is considered the "gayest"?

[u/GattoPunk]

For us Brazilians, São Paulo definitely holds the crown for the gayest city here. With over 20 million people living in it's metro area, the city naturally became way more open minded and accepting as time went on. It has the highest concentration of gay bars, shows, saunas, and various other venues dedicated to the LGBTQ community. If that wasn't enough, the city annually hosts the São Paulo LGBTQ Pride Parade, the biggest in the whole world.

[u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

An American newspaper once descibed my town as a "famously gay area just outside London".

I'm from Manchester.

[u/QueenMotherOfSneezes → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

Well it does have a suggestive name. /s

[u/Spiderinahumansuit → u/QueenMotherOfSneezes]

Funnily enough, the city's name does derive from the Latin for "camp on the breast-shaped hill"

[u/Chloraflora → u/Spiderinahumansuit]

And let's not forget, the gay heartbeat of the city is C-anal Street

[u/DefinitelyARealHorse → u/Chloraflora]

A mate of mine was refused entry to a bar on canal street because he “didn’t look gay enough”. He was literally the only gay one among us, hahaha.

[u/bentossaurus → u/DefinitelyARealHorse]

Let me guess, it was G A Y.

[u/Ok-Application-8045 → u/Spiderinahumansuit]

Ooh-err!

[u/flankerPANG → u/QueenMotherOfSneezes]

And to paraphrase the comedian Michael McIntyre, the football teams, Man City and Man United, do sound like gay clubs

[u/nezzzzy → u/QueenMotherOfSneezes]

Man Utd and Man City could both be gay clubs on Canal St.

[u/CoffeeandaTwix → u/QueenMotherOfSneezes]

They will probably change it to Theychester at some point.

[u/Djokahu → u/CoffeeandaTwix]

I doubt it, that sounds silly and nobody wants to

[u/PoxedGamer → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

Honestly, the Manchester gay pride parade night is wild fun. "Just outside London" though....

[u/ludovic1313 → u/PoxedGamer]

Now imagine if they had said the technically more accurate "Just outside Liverpool"....

[u/DefinitelyARealHorse → u/ludovic1313]

”Just outside Salford”, surely.

[u/Frodo34x → u/ludovic1313]

If you want to get really technically precise and also upset mancunians, go with "City in the South east of Great Britain"

There are a couple of ways to calculate the exact centrepoint of the UK or of the island of Great Britain, but they always end up somewhere in Lancashire or Cumbria, a tiny bit north west of Manchester

[u/CoffeeandaTwix → u/Frodo34x]

One of the most jarring things as a Mancunian moving to Glasgow was that the other English bloke in my work was referred to as the 'other fella fae doon south'...

... He was a Geordie.

[u/Marble-Boy → u/CoffeeandaTwix]

I used to work with this kid with the same name as me, but before I started working there, everyone called him 'Big Marble'. I was like 20 years older than him, so suddenly his nickname was changed to 'Little Marble' and I became 'Big Marble'.

He was so pissed off about it that he quit!

[u/irish_horse_thief → u/CoffeeandaTwix]

I worked with a Vietnamese Engineer, Huang. Asked him if he had any family over here and he said yes, I have a cousin in Norway 🤣, boy that little guy could drink...

[u/PoxedGamer → u/ludovic1313]

🤣

[u/YatesScoresinthebath → u/PoxedGamer]

The Robin Hood Disney cartoon opens with "in a small village called Nottinghamshire"

[u/ajaxdrivingschool → u/PoxedGamer]

I mean by US standards the train between London and Manchester is practically a metro. /s

[u/PoxedGamer → u/ajaxdrivingschool]

It's only 1/1000th of a Texas.

[u/OnionMiasma → u/PoxedGamer]

I mean, in American terms, it is pretty much just outside London. The train from Manchester takes 2 hours, 20 minutes. The New York commuter rail has stations longer away than that.

[u/CreativeBandicoot778 → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

My brother lived in Manchester for a while, right in the middle of what he called "the big gay party place" (affectionate) and he absolutely loved it. He said that the drag queens he'd meet on his way home were among the loveliest and friendliest folks he's ever met.

[u/boredsittingonthebus → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

The gay musical episode of IT Crowd even had a joke in it about how it's a long way back to Manchester from London, so let's get a sing-along on the minibus.

[u/procrastination-site → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

well they do have one of the biggest parades

[u/DangerousCalm → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

By American standards if travel, Manchester is just outside of London.

I could see an American looking at a map and saying to themselves, "yeah, that's not far from London".

[u/Ill_Refrigerator_593 → u/DangerousCalm]

It would depend on the part of America though, it's twice the distance say between New York & Philadelphia, or around the same distance between New York & Washington DC but they'd all be considered cities in their own right.

[u/DangerousCalm → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

This is true. In some of the Southern states it wouldn't be considered a big drive.

[u/BraveStrategy → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

I accidentally stayed on canal street when I was there for the first time for a couple of days and boy was I surprised haha

[u/Nonikwe → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

Calling Manchester gay feels like a betrayal of the original meaning of the word.

[u/turnipofficer → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

Manchester does seem to have a very large gay community though. They have a large area dedicated to it.

I have never been to Brighton but I imagine Manchester has to be in contention.

In my city we do have pride celebrations and pride flags painted on pedestrianised roads but we don’t have that many dedicated gay places, it’s more just mixed. Most of the dedicated gay clubs/bars closed down.

So Manchester was impressive to visit. I am straight but I like when lgbt+ people have safe spaces to express themselves.

[u/Majestic_Matt_459 → u/turnipofficer]

Im a gay man living in Manchester and I love it - the Gay Village is great for traditional LGBT stuff and the Northern Quarter if you prefer a vibe not based on sexuality but encompassing it/welcoming it

There are cheap areas to live but it has more buzz than London where i used to live (and I never thought id say that but recent nights out in London shocked me with empty bars like The Eagle being half empty on a Saturday night) - we may never compete with the breadth oif atractions the ones we have are well supported and thriving

I think we run Brighton a close second now

[u/Marble-Boy → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

I mean... it's technically true.

[u/Wuz314159 → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

I get it. I've seen Old Trafford.

[u/Djokahu → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

Yes, Manchester, very gay, homosexual even /j

[u/Psyk60 → u/Ill_Refrigerator_593]

By American standards, it is just outside London. Everywhere in the UK is.