I was talking to a gay guy today . . .

[Floogeldy]

. . . and he said that my town (OKC) has 80,000 gay men and that is the, or one of the, largest gay populations in the country, per capita.

Anybody know if this is this true?

[qnr]

1. Sounds like a lot. I have no idea though n/t

[RoyGBiv]

2. Not sure ...

According to some study done in the 90's, the highest "per-capita" town was a small town in SE Oklahoma. OKC came close, IIRC. Such things are difficult to figure, of course. Polling data is weighted to account for those who aren't openly gay, and how it is weighted varies depending on the organization doing the interpreting.

80,000 seems exaggerated, since OKC proper only has ~250,000 male residents of all ages. You'd think there'd be more gay oriented clubs than there are if that were an accurate number. That's nearly triple the generally accepted national average.

OnEdit: I do know since moving up here five years ago, I've worked with more openly gay men and know more gay women than I did living where I did before, which was in fact the town I alluded to above. OTOH, of my closest friends (four males, two females) in high school, three are openly gay, one "confused," and another someone who, as she puts it, "experimented" for part of her life. Me and one other guy are the only ones in that circle who lead a completely heterosexual lifestyle. Not sure what that means, if anything. I just find it interesting. None of these people came out until after high school, and only one of them was someone any of us thought might be gay.