May 15, 2019
Thom Carroll, File/PhillyVoice
Much of Philadelphia's inaugural LGBTQ State of the Union on Tuesday night focused on the need for inclusion. Racism remains on the minds of many in the community, especially in light of ongoing accusations of discrimination in the Gayborhood. “Yes, we’ve struggled,” said Lee Thomas, board president of Philly Black Pride.
Based on factors like the number inclusive vendors in the city and it's population of same-sex households, a recent report ranked Philadelphia as the second-best city in the U.S. for same-sex couples to wed.
Just behind New York City, Philly averaged high scores for LGBTQ+ couples planning a local ceremony. The categories measured things like same-sex households and the number of inclusive vendors for a wedding party, as well as precipitation and inbound flight availability.
The report, conducted by The Black Tux, a Los Angeles-based wedding apparel company, used eight different factors to compare major cities for a possible perfect score of 50 in its rankings.
Philadelphia scored a 33.0 on the report, with perfect scores of 5.0 in the inclusive wedding vendor, city non-discrimination ordinances, average cost of a wedding, and prevalence of LGBTQ+ hate crimes categories.
The northeastern U.S. plays host to seven of the report's top 15 cities, and the top 50 on Black Tux's list were rounded out by Oklahoma City, Memphis and Virginia Beach in the last three spots, respectively, due mainly to their low inventories of inclusive vendors, the report found.
Follow Emily & PhillyVoice on Twitter @emily_rolen | @thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice
Add Emily’s RSS feed to your feed reader
Have a news tip? Let us know.
