It’s been a good week for progressives in Seattle.
First, they unanimously raised their minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour. Now, it’s been declared the most LGBT-friendly city in America.
Seattle snagged the top slot in Nerd Wallet’s annual rankings, unseating San Francisco and last year’s winner, Palm Springs, based on their legislative equality, strong LGBT presence, and safety of the community.
Seattle’s growing percentage of households with same-sex partners boosted the city to the top; in 2014, 2.6% of households had same-sex partners, up from 1.8% the year before.
Seattle was followed by San Francisco, the historically progressive and gay-friendly city, and Atlanta, where a low-hate crime rate brought the southeastern city into this year’s top ten, despite the fact it didn’t even make the top 20 list in 2013. Three California cities made it onto the list, San Francisco was followed by Oakland and Long Beach holding up the fourth and fifth slots. Texas’ Austin moved from last year’s 19th place to this year’s seventh place thanks to a low number of hate crimes—the lowest of all the top ten cities—while New York was notably absent from the list. The northeastern city has suffered from a series of high-profile hate crimes this year, but it was ultimately outranked thanks to the growing LGBT communities in other cities.
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