Austin, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah
are included in NerdWallet's annual list of top LGBT-friendly cities
in the United States.
Austin ranks third, while Salt Lake
City ranks eighth in NerdWallet's
third annual list.
San Francisco topped the list this
year, followed by Portland (2), Providence (4), Baltimore (5),
Philadelphia (6), Seattle (7), Los Angeles (9) and Orlando (10).
NerdWallet said its rankings were based
on four primary factors, including the percentage of the population
identifying as LGBT in each metro area, the number of LGBT-related
hate crimes, HRC's Municipal Equality Index and HRC's number of
leaders in LGBT health care equality.
With the exception of Austin, gay and
lesbian couples can marry in all of the included cities.
Of the decision to include Salt Lake
City, editors wrote: “Utah is known as a conservative state with
deep Mormon roots, but Salt Lake City has often been a bastion of
liberalism and progressiveness.”
More than 4 percent of Salt Lake City
metro area residents identify as LGBT.