WalletHub Study: 2015’s Best & Worst Cities for Sports Fans

With fall sports season approaching and the North American sports industry pulling in more than $60 billion annually, the leading personal finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2015’s Best & Worst Cities for Sports Fans.
To help avid sports fans maximize their spectating experience, WalletHub compared 341 cities — varying in size from small to large — across more than 50 key metrics. Our data set includes such metrics as the performance level of the city’s team(s), average ticket price of a game, number of sports bars and attendance rate.
 

	Best Large Cities for Sports Fans
	1	Boston, MA		6	New York, NY
	2	Denver, CO		7	Minneapolis, MN
	3	Pittsburgh, PA		8	Philadelphia, PA
	4	Washington, DC		9	Detroit, MI
	5	Chicago, IL		10	St. Louis, MO

 

	Best Midsize Cities for Sports Fans
	1	Ann Arbor, MI		6	Baton Rouge, LA
	2	Cincinnati, OH		7	Columbia, SC
	3	Orlando, FL		8	Buffalo, NY
	4	Gainesville, FL		9	Waco, TX
	5	Norman, OK		10	Eugene, OR

 

	Best Small Cities for Sports Fans
	1	East Lansing, MI		6	Bowling Green, OH
	2	Stanford, CA		7	College Park, MD
	3	Chapel Hill, NC		8	Morgantown, WV
	4	West Point, NY		9	Fayetteville, AR
	5	Clemson, SC		10	Oxford, MS

Key Stats

• The viewership rate for NFL games Green Bay, Wis., is three times higher than in Oakland, Calif.
   
• The average ticket price for an NBA game in New York is three times more expensive than in New Orleans.
   
• Morgantown, W.Va., has 38 times more sports bars per capita than Evanston, Ill.
   
• NHL fans in Pittsburgh are 28 times friendlier and more engaged than those in New York.
   
• The attendance rate for MLS games in San Jose, Calif., is two times higher than in Orlando, Fla.

For the full report and to see where your city ranks, please visit:
http://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-for-sports-fans/15179/

HRC Statement on the Release of Kim Davis From Federal Custody

Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, responded to the news that U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered the release of Kentucky’s Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis from federal custody and ordered her not to “interfere in any way, directly or indirectly, with the efforts of her deputy clerks to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples.”

“It is imperative that Kim Davis follow the law and allow same-sex couples to access their constitutional right to marry the person they love. Period,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “While Davis has the right to believe whatever she likes, as a public official she has no legal basis to refuse to follow the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. The overwhelming majority of public officials across this country are following the law, and history will not judge her kindly. It’s far past time for this needless ordeal to end.”

After refusing to comply with a federal judge’s order directing her to issue marriage licenses in accordance with the law, and after being denied stays on that order at all levels, including from the Supreme Court of the Unites States, Davis was held in contempt of court and jailed on Thursday, September 3. The majority of her deputy clerks agreed to begin issuing marriage licenses in her absence on September 4.

HIV & PrEP: Denver Brings It Up

Let's talk. No, let's really talk. About HIV. While we have come far, gay and bisexual men continue to bear the greatest burden of this disease in Colorado. Nearly four of out of every five individuals newly diagnosed with HIV identifies as a gay or bisexual man. We still have more work to do to get that number to zero. Let's work together to change the future of HIV/AIDS by talking about testing, PrEP and staying in care.

Since talking about HIV in the heat of the moment can be a buzz kill, why not bring it up before you get it up? By bringing it up, everyone wins.

Nice to See StevieB: Homosexuals and Jeep Repair

By StevieB

Through a series of unfortunate events, I received huge dents in my front bumper, and back bumper of my Jeep, Wrangle. My front bumper, was dented during my first and last visit to Tom's Diner. The back bumper got destroyed thanks to a drunk unemployed man in a rusted-out Subaru. A drunk unemployed man who spent the time waiting for the cops attempting to buy me off.... with the crumpled up fives in his wallet. Needles to say, he got hauled away, I got an insurance check.

Thankfully the damage on the front and back of my precious Jeep was completely isolated to the bumpers. And, if I haven't mentioned it yet, my handsome (and available) roommate is a Certified Jeep/Chrysler mechanic. Mr. Handsome was able to locate two new bumpers. This was easy because Dude/bros that buy jeeps take the first opportunity to rip off their bumpers to replace them with steel welded jobs with wenches and lights attached. The factory ones get tossed. Unless they're needed for Steve's Big Gay Jeep. So... score.

Saturday night was spent hanging out in a repair bay of Mike's Jeep dealership. Who knew to people could laugh so hard; especially in the act of car repair. By late Saturday night, I had shiny new bits of plastic, Jeeps calls bumpers, bolted onto the Jeep.

Lets see how long they last....

This post originally appeared on Steven Bennet's website Nice to See StevieB. Republished with permission.

Pet Portraits By Maurice Becnel

Immortalize your furry friends with a pet portrait by Maurice Becnel. Clients admire Becnel's ability to capture the essence of a pet's personality in his work.

Says Becnel, "Painting animal portraits, for me, is more fun than it is work. I began painting them several years ago. The first one I did was for a friend on her birthday. Because it was a gift it never dawned on me that other people would commission me to do more. Word got out and before I knew it more and more of the emails I was receiving from my website were going to the dogs! And cats!"

The Feline Fix, Colorado's Leading Spay/Neuter Source for Community Cats

Divine Feline is Colorado’s leading spay/neuter source for free roaming (“community”) cats and a significant provider of spay/neuter services for pet cats, all through their in-house clinic, The Feline Fix. 

To date The Feline Fix has performed more than 27,000 spay/neuter surgeries, preventing the births of hundreds of thousands of unwanted cats in Denver and surrounding communities. 

For more information about the clinic, or to request a reservation for your tame, stray or feral cats, please click here. 

Divine Feline is a Colorado nonprofit corporation and a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. All contributions are tax deductible. To make a donation please click here.

Happy Labor Day - Posting Will Resume Tomorrow

27 purebred Siamese cats available for adoption at Dumb Friends League

The Dumb Friends League received 27 purebred cats that were rescued from a breeder in Rocky Ford, Colo., on Thursday. The cats, which are all purebred Siamese and Balinese, were among 50 felines relinquished by their owner to The Colorado Humane Society & SPCA, an affiliate agency of the Dumb Friends League, after failing a required inspection by the Department of Agriculture’s Pet Animal Care and Facilities Act (PACFA). The Department of Agriculture called in the Colorado Humane Society to assist in the removal and transport of the cats.

Among the cats that arrived at the Dumb Friends League are approximately 17 adults and 10 kittens. The League says Siamese cats are one of the most sought-after breeds for adopters.

The remaining 23 cats were transferred to the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region in Colorado Springs.

Each of the cats and kittens will receive a medical and behavior evaluation upon arrival at the Dumb Friends League and many will be available for adoption in just a couple of days. Some may need extra socialization or medical care before they are ready for new homes.

Interested adopters should contact the Dumb Friends League at (303) 751-5772 or visit ddfl.org for more information on when the cats will be available.

Three Men and a Third-Grader: Living for Lakeside

By Todd Craig

Summer’s end is supposed to revolve around lazy days and last minute adventures. These are supposed to be days of baseball and bike rides, teary beer bottles and flaking sunburns, all accompanied with the syncopated hum of locusts, mosquitoes, and air conditioners.

For my husband, our eight-year-old son, Joshua, and myself, the end of summer proved none of these things.

Instead, our summer ended abruptly on July 18, the day our contractors showed up to repair the damage cause by a leaky roof that needed a full replacement as well as the drywall in our guest bedroom and foyer. The following week, the transmission crapped out on my 2007 Chevy Aveo, a repair that would drag on for another two and a half weeks.

Bills piled up around us like fall’s leaves, essentially signaling an end to Summer 2015 -- making it the summer that died in July.

Despite all of the problems, this past weekend remedied all that. Jobs and school and schedules and unpaid bills be damned; summer shouldn’t end with the drum beats of hammers on your roof and Netflix in the basement, I vowed.

So in a moment of Clark Griswold-inspired fatherhood frenzy, I packed up my husband and 8-year-old son, grabbed our family friend David (Smith, MileHighGayGuy columnist and owner of Stonewall Fitness) who is an expert on rides and roller coasters, and drove to Lakeside Amusement Park for a sun-baked Sunday in the shadows of suburban Denver.

Lakeside represents a lost monument to summers past. It’s dusty and decrepit, with peeling paint, and rides that groan and rattle like the bones of an aging athlete. Trees and weeds, growing through the skeletons of rides long-abandoned, have overtaken a good fourth of the park.

Lakeside looked like us: exhausted.

And yet.

We climbed into our first ride, The Whip, the oldest still-functioning ride in the park. Vaguely reminiscent of an old-timey Tilt-a-Whirl, the giggles and screams that erupted from our son started at his toes and burst from his lips with such unadulterated joy, that I swear it echoed throughout the park. The giant gears sent our pod clattering and clunking around the corners that shook the old boards at the base awake just as it stirred up the ghosts of summers past for one more spin.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Joshua exclaimed afterwards.

To paraphrase Monty Python, suddenly summer, like Lakeside itself, wasn’t quite dead.

Up next, the old Cyclone coaster with its wooden rails, worn seatbelts, and rickety, whitewashed structure enthralled my son to no end. The first lurch forward sent a shiver down my son’s spine. His hands squeezed the handlebars that had locked us into our seat together. The wind rushed by as the coaster picked up speed, clacking and clanking up the rail. The first twist and subsequent precipitous fall sent screams of terror erupting from my son; he was somewhere between hysterical panic and pure exultation.

“I thought my skin was peeling off!” he blissfully exclaimed afterwards. “Let’s do that again!”

And again we did, and with other rides, too. The Satellite with rockets where Joshua could control the up and down movement proved a favorite. Bumper cars. Bumper boats. The carrousel. The Dragon. The Chipmunk. The Spider. Ride after ride after ride went by, until time slowed, and summer breathed again with long, slow, and steady breaths.

Alive again, summer sang.

We dined on stale pizza and nachos coated with golden gooey cheesy perfection that had been ripening for months. We gulped water and sodas. We lathered on sunscreen. We rode rides two or three times spinning ourselves silly. We basked in the glow of summer’s end.

On the car ride home, our thrilled little boy, two-weeks into being a big third grader now, babbled endlessly about each ride, exclaiming each one as his favorite before declaring Lakeside as the best thing in the world.

That night, after we had tucked our son into bed, my husband and I sat on the sofa emotionally exhausted and, like our bill-inundated bank account, thoroughly spent.
Parenting can sometimes leave you like that, of course.

But you know what? Our family’s summer felt old and broken until this past weekend, overwhelmed by an old and broken roof, soggy and sagging drywall, and a car’s transmission on a mission of failure. 2015 looked like the summer that never was.

At least until Lakeside’s old bones stirred summer back to life. Suddenly, we realized that, like the Satellite ride, we could control our own up and down movements, and Lakeside magically let us soar as a family into a summer sunset as memorable as an eight-year-old’s best time ever.

Well done, Lakeside. Well done, old girl.

FINALLY! Marriage Equality Arrives in Rowan County, Kentucky

Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, praised the news that marriage equality has finally arrived in Rowan County, Kentucky. After a defiant county clerk was held in contempt of court for her refusal to follow the law yesterday, an official in the clerk’s office today finally complied with the law and began issuing marriage licenses.

“Today, the needless wait for loving and committed couples in Rowan County, Kentucky, has finally ended,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “Denied a constitutionally protected right to marriage by a public official who thought her religious opinion placed her above the law, these couples waited far too long for marriage equality in the place they call home. Justice, equality, and the law have finally prevailed.”

Citing “God’s authority,” the county clerk, Kim Davis, had refused to issue marriage licenses despite being ordered to follow the law by a federal judge and despite being denied stays on that order at all levels, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Davis was held in contempt of court on Thursday, September 3, after which the majority of her deputy clerks agreed to begin issuing marriage licenses in accordance with the law.

Are You Gay With Something To Say? Bloggers Wanted For Denver's Best Gay Blog!

Are you a new or experienced writer or blogger? Do you want to be? Or maybe you're just some gay guy with something to say? Well, what better forum for you than MileHighGayGuy?

MileHighGayGuy is looking for regular and guest bloggers to write about local news and events, do music and movie reviews, or write opinion or feature pieces from a gay perspective.

These are unpaid positions but offer the opportunity to be published in Colorado's Best Gay Blog (2010, 2011, 2012 OUTstanding Awards, Denver 2012 #WebAwards), expand your audience and gain valuable experience. There's also swag available in the form of free movie and concert tickets, music, books and other cool stuff.

If interested, shoot an email over to Drew Wilson at drew@milehighgayguy.com. And if you've got column or story ideas to pitch, this is the place to do it.

Green Party of Colorado targets vulnerable seats, elects new officers

At the annual statewide meeting held on August 29, 2015, the Green Party of Colorado (GPCO) has elected a new slate of officers, all focused on the goal of winning vulnerable seats in the state legislature and other partisan offices.

GPCO’s new co-chairs are Bill Bartlett (re-elected) of Greeley, CO; Andrea Merida of Denver, CO. Sean Friend of Centennial was elected Secretary, and Tom Hall of Broomfield was elected Treasurer.

“Someone must speak for the people that work more but have less,” said Bill Bartlett. “The Greens are here to help take our communities back to common sense government that protects and nurtures our resources and future generations.”

“Voter turnout in the November 2014 elections was at an all-time, dismal low,” said Andrea Merida. “We know the real reason is because the corporate duopoly parties no longer represent the interests of Coloradans, and we intend to aggressively advocate for their needs in electoral campaigns all over the state,” Merida continued.

Statistics about the Green Party of Colorado:
Over 11,000 statewide registered/pre-registered voters
The largest voter bloc is in Denver county, at nearly 2,000 registered/pre-registered voters
The second-largest voter bloc is in Boulder county, at more than 1,522 registered/pre-registered voters
The Green Party of Colorado first achieved Qualified Political Organization status in 1994 and achieved statewide (minor party) ballot status in 1998.

Transgender Law Center Hails New Proposed Non-Discrimination Regulations from HHS as “Enormous Milestone”

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a proposed rule to implement a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, section 1557, which prohibits discrimination in health care settings based on gender identity or gender expression. The proposed rule would protect transgender people from discrimination in health care settings that receive federal funding through HHS, including doctors' offices, hospitals, and some health insurance plans, including plans sold through the federal or state exchanges.

Transgender Law Center's Executive Director Kris Hayashi said:

"The proposed rule is an enormous milestone for all transgender and gender non-conforming people in the U.S. Access to safe, respectful health care is a basic human right, and this policy makes a huge advance towards equity in health care for transgender people. At the same time, we must ensure that this non-discrimination protection extends to sexual orientation as well. Sexism, homophobia and transphobia are all connected and sex discrimination is sex discrimination, whether a person is targeted for their gender identity or sexual orientation."

Transgender Law Center has represented several clients who have faced the kind of discrimination that would be clearly prohibited under the proposed HHS regulations. Over 500 requests come through our helpline each year about health care coverage.

The proposed rule has the potential to eliminate the widespread health insurance practice of excluding life-saving transition-related care for transgender people, even though there has been a consensus in the scientific community for years that this care is medically necessary and the same treatments are covered for non-transgender people. Since 2012, 10 states and the District of Columbia have issued non-discrimination bulletins that ban the practice of categorically excluding coverage for transition-related care in private insurance plans.

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 Just click the Advertising page or email sales@milehighgayguy.com to get started today.

The Gay Vegans: Living in Los Angeles

By Dan Hanley
 
Seven weeks.

It's hard to believe that we are already living here, already settled in, and already working our new jobs.

We had the dream, we took the risk, and we are loving it.

I remember telling people we were moving from Colorado to Los Angeles and getting the look. The look like "are you crazy?". Then all of the negative comments about how terrible traffic is in LA, how crowded it it, etc.

The traffic is definitely terrible and it sure is crowded. It doesn't take long to learn to deal with that, and even embrace it at least in regards to it being crowded.

There is so much that we already love: the diversity, the people, the closeness to the beach, the urban and mountain beauty, the food, the markets, etc. Almost every day there is something else to add to the list.

If you are vegan and a foodie, LA is one of the most incredible cities ever. Wherever I am for a work appointment, I can plug the word "vegan" into Yelp and find so many options for a meal it's crazy. And I mean good vegan options. The other day I wanted to take one of my team out for lunch and found a place called Un Solo Sol, a local Mexican place. Oh my. Delicious food and gracious hospitality. Review to come for sure. This is just one example.

As I was sitting in traffic last night on the way home from work, I looked up at the palm trees and smiled.

We live here.

This post originally appeared on Dan Hanley's website The Gay Vegans. Republished with permission.