Minneapolis has long been a strong draw for "guppies" (gay urban/upwardly mobile professionals) being the second city in the U.S. to have a gay rights law in the U.S.in the earlier 70's trumping San Francisco and located in MN which has a statewide law since '93. Despite the fact that on a national level in the late 90's numerous studies found that gay men made a third less income than heterosexual men with the same level of education and income, the relatively tolerant environment in Minneapolis has resulted in a high concentration of so-called Guppies that has resulted in glbt households in the metro actually having a significantly higher income on average than non glbt households.
Minneapolis is rapidly loosing it's edge in this regard now that CA, NY, NJ, NM, HI, WI, NV, NH, CT, MA, VT, RI, MD, & MN have statewide laws banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and many other states including IA, KY, & AZ ban discrimination in government employment and/or by government contractors. Also, cities like Lexington, KY, Atlanta, GA, New Orleans, LA, Kalamazoo, MI, Dallas, TX and the state of Iowa all offer domestic partnership benefits to their employees while Minneapolis has trouble competing equally for public employees with most other comparable cities in the country as it cannot offer domestic partnership benefits like most sizeable municipal governments in the U.S. due to state law forbidding them from doing so. The conservative slant of our current state legislature may be killing the tolerant "goose that laid the golden egg" and making Minneapolis a less attractive place to live when compared to other metro areas for up and coming gay professionals. Local queer cultural infrastructure is still advanced compared to many other metro areas as such quality organizations as Outward Spiral GLBT Theater Co., Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus, Hot Bed, Gender Blur, and the 13th annual Dyke Night at the Walker this weekend attest. One good sign is the increasing racial/ethnic diversity reflected within the local glbt communities' organizations. Note that the glbt pride guide this year is in English & Spanish. Also note the growth in Soul Essence/African American Glbt Pride Festival that occurs in August in Mpls and the emergence of Flayva Cabaret(queer people of color cabaret). Minneapolis has long struggled to have an environment that could be said to be desireable(let alone highly desireable) for "buppies"(black urban/upwardly mobile professionals). Critical mass is part of the problem. Young people of talent tend to want to go where they have the broadest social as well as professional opportunities thus the drawing power one finds in Atlanta. Penumbra Theater and other institutions in the community that make the metro area more attractive to buppies are important and need community support to encourage and grow broad economic diversity within the local black community and thereby strengthen the community as whole. Such economic diversity within the local black community has to be part of increasing the economic and social health of the community overall. The local african american community experiences the inverse situation of the local glbt community. The metro area continues to have one of the greatest disparities in incomes between blacks and whites in the country and certainly the community's seeming inability to address basic justice issues such as racial profiling and brutality by the police does not help the situation much. Programs such as the African American Men's Project and others are extremely important to the future of Minneapolis. What can we do as a city and community to make Minnepolis a much more welcoming and desireable place for young buppies? How can we continue to make Minneapolis inviting to young guppies and over come those obstacles put in the way of the city doing so by the relative intolerance of our current state legislature/government? David Strand Loring Park __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
