It’s official, the census says: Gay male couples like San Francisco. Lesbians like the Berkshires

Gay male couples tend to gravitate toward big cities on the U.S. coasts, while lesbian couples tend to prefer smaller, more pastoral cities or towns, according to 2020 census figures that reinforce some preconceived notions about LGBTQ+ communities in the U.S. Counties with the highest concentrations of male same-sex couple households were those that include San Francisco, Manhattan, Boston and Washington, D.C., according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released last week. Some of the highest concentrations of female same-sex couple households were in Hampshire and Franklin counties in the Berkshires, a rural region of western Massachusetts that is home to several colleges, art museums and theaters. The differences play into some traditional stereotypes, but they also may boil down to where male and female couples feel most at ease, whether it’s a feeling of community or safety in smaller towns or the comfort of “gayborhoods” in big cities, said Amy Stone, a sociology professor at Trinity University in San Antonio. “There have been a lot of lesbian institutions there for a long time.” San Francisco County had the largest share of male same-sex couple households, at almost 6%.