Despite San Diego's reputation as a Republican stronghold, the gay neighborhoods are as out-of-the-closet and gay-friendly as anywhere.
Couples hold hands, gay papers are stacked at store entrances, and straight businesses advertise in the gay press.
The Republicanism here seems not to be the fundamentalist type. In 1995, a court blocked a small group of zealots called "The Normal People" from marching in the huge pride parade down University Avenue.
There's an open lesbian on the seven-member City Council. And she's a Democrat. San Diego's gayest and most cosmopolitan neighborhood is Hillcrest, centered at the intersection of Fifth and University avenues.
Bars, coffee shops, restaurants, bookstores, and kitsch outlets - many of them gay-owned - stretch along University from Third Avenue to Park Boulevard.
The strip also features America's only all-gay Ace Hardware store. Several other neighborhoods - including North Park, University Heights, Normal Heights, and Kensington - have large gay populations and a smattering of gay businesses.
The bear/leather scene is centered in North Park. There are about 30 gay bars (plus eight more 15 miles south in Tijuana) and a full range of gay businesses and organizations here in America's sixth-largest city.
Hotels that charge about $50 a night may still be found throughout the city; and at least four in Hillcrest target gay consumers. Black's Beach, an extremely popular nude beach with a half-mile-long gay section, is one of San Diego's unique gay offerings.
It is 12 miles north of downtown below the Torrey Pines Glider Port. (Exit I-5 West on Genesee Avenue.)
The sun shines here more than 300 days a year. The ocean is warm enough for swimming about half the year. But be warned: San Diego has been "discovered," and it's become more and more difficult to find inexpensive housing.
(http://www.planetout.com)
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