This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Salt Lake City is slipping from gay radar, dropping from the "gayest" city in the nation last year to sixth place this week.

The Advocate magazine has fun coming up with the annual list, and dubbed Tacoma, Wash., as the gayest city this year.

Under the entry for "No. 6. Salt Lake City (pop. 189,899)," Advocate editors wrote, "Last year's gayest city isn't exactly country, but you'd never know by visiting the Trapp, a welcoming, wood-paneled bar that serves cocktails in jam jars."

"Though many clubs are very quiet during the week, on the weekends the college crowd and queers from all over the metropolitan area descend on Jam and Paper Moon. Sugar House is a gay-friendly hood, and the Tower Theatre has long been an LGBT meeting spot and cultural touchstone."

Advocate editors called the ranking a "totally accurate, albeit totally subjective and constantly changing criteria," but two news items tipped the scale: gay marriage and the election of gay politicians.

"Although we shake up the criteria each year — a mix of more predictable, well-reasoned, and off-the-wall — we never know which cities will make the list until we start tallying the points," Matthew Breen, editor in chief of The Advocate, said in a statement. "So it's a nice surprise to us as well when an unexpected place delivers more gay cred than we expected. But the dialogue this list sparks is the ultimate goal."

The magazine also considered the following: transgender protections, bisexual resource groups, and the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index 100s. Those factors were each assigned a point value, the points were tallied, and the raw scores were divided by the population, which must be greater than 150,000, to calculate each city's "per capita homosexuality." Top 10 gayest cities

1 • Tacoma, Wash. (pop. 200,678)

2 • Springfield, Mass. (pop. 153,155)

3 • Spokane, Wash. (pop. 210,103)

4 • Washington, D.C. (pop. 617,996)

5 • Seattle (pop. 620,778)

6 •Salt Lake City (pop. 189,899)

7 • Eugene, Ore. (pop. 156,929)

8 • Madison, Wis. (pop. 236,901)

9 • Atlanta (pop. 432,437)

10 • Twin Cities, Minn. (pop. 676,201) —

Top 10 gayest cities

1 • Tacoma, Wash. (pop. 200,678)

2 • Springfield, Mass. (pop. 153,155)

3 • Spokane, Wash. (pop. 210,103)

4 • Washington, D.C. (pop. 617,996)

5 • Seattle (pop. 620,778)

6 • Salt Lake City (pop. 189,899)

7 • Eugene, Ore. (pop. 156,929)

8 • Madison, Wis. (pop. 236,901)

9 • Atlanta (pop. 432,437)

10 • Twin Cities, Minn. (pop. 676,201)