Major Florida cities rank the worst at being ‘LGBTQ-Friendly,’ real estate service says

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida’s major metropolitan areas placed at the bottom of one real estate service’s “LGBTQ-Friendly Cities” ranking.

Clever, a real estate service, used specified criteria to determine which of America’s 50 major cities are most “friendly” towards LGBTQ people.

Orlando was the highest on the list, at 40 out of 50. Tampa came next at 43, Miami at 46, and Jacksonville at 48.

The cities that ranked last were Houston, Texas and Memphis, Tennessee.

Some of the criteria used includes the presence of a “Don’t Say Gay” law, percent of the given state’s population that is LGBTQ, the amount of LGBTQ activist chapters, called PLFAG, per 100,000 residents, and more.

The phrase “Don’t Say Gay” was used to falsely describe Florida’s parental rights legislation, which cracked down on sexual orientation and gender identity teachings for schoolchildren. Those rules have been expanded across Florida to include all grades.

Clever also looked at the percentage of residents who oppose same-sex marriage, how many pride events occur per 100,000 residents, how many LGBT Chamber of Commerce chapters there were, and the percent of residents who oppose “anti-discrimination” laws.

The service placed San Francisco, California in first place; Hartford, Connecticut at second; and Las Vegas, Nevada at third.

The list also provided statistics on each city’s LGBTQ status.

For example, it listed the “gay bars per capita” and “pride events per capita.”

Jacksonville, lowest among Florida cities listed, reportedly has .12 gay bars per capita and .06 pride events per capita.

Florida’s most recent state law that expands the crackdown on gender identity and sexual orientation teaching was carried by Sen. Clay Yarborough, R-Jacksonville in the Senate.

The accompanying House legislation was sponsored by Reps. Stan McClain, R-Ocala, and Adam Anderson, R-Palm Harbor.