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General Information
To ensure you have an enjoyable stay in Las Vegas, it is important to understand the primary draw to Las Vegas is gambling. The city is an economic community; not a social community. Many visitors have expressed a desire to visit Las Vegas have more interest in sexually-oriented activities, rather than in gambling. Sadly, the availability of same-gender activities is minimal at best. "Where do all the cute boys go?" is a frequent question in the local chat rooms. There is no definitive "hangout". Again, its all about the money. There is much to see in Las Vegas, including many marvelous resorts, attractions and many other non-gaming sites and activities listed on the Area Attractions page. Las Vegas, the 24th largest city in the country, is not the same town it was a few years ago. In fact, it has been growing steadily at a rate approximately 6,000 net people per month for about 10 years now. No state has more growth in home construction than Nevada, where one in three dwellings didn't exist in 1990.From 1990 to 1998 the national average was 10%. Nevada led the pack by an incredible increase of 48% followed by Utah 22%, Idaho 21%, Arizona 20%, and Georgia 20%. Last year over 38.566,717 visitors came to Las Vegas, 105,662 per day, spending over $32 Billion Dollars. Las Vegas has more hotel rooms, 135,313, than any other city in the nation, and 16 of the 20 largest hotels in the United States. Gone are the days when the mob ruled the Las Vegas Strip. Nowadays the casinos are run by large publicly traded corporations. Most people who come to Las Vegas only see the road from the airport to the casinos. The image most people have of Las Vegas is that of a wild drinking, gambling, drug filled sex-oriented atmosphere. Typical perceptions of visitors are that all local residents work for the casinos and our days and nights are filled with wild partying. In fact, "Sin City" is merely an image promoted by the media. The number one reason to visit Las Vegas is to gamble. The "Sin" in Sin City is all about the money, not wild times with the local residents. Visitors are usually surprised to find that off the strip there is a regular city filled with people leading normal main stream lives. 85.4% of local residents work in non-hotel/gaming fields and only 29% of local residents gamble. Latest estimates (June 2006) indicate there are approximately 1,932,099 people living in Southern Nevada now, and fewer than half work for the casinos. Projections are that the Las Vegas Valley will have over 3,000,000 people by the the year 2021. Off the Strip, Las Vegas is like any other town. Questions frequently asked by tourists are "Which hotel do you live in?" and "Have you hit the big one yet?" This mystifies us and proves that many tourists tend to spend their time at the blackjack table rather than to explore the greatness Southern Nevada itself. By the way, the "A" in NeVADa is pronounced like the A in BAD, not BAUd. Also, Local Las Vegans prefer "Las Vegas" to just "Vegas". Las Vegas is economically a great place to live. The cost of living is very reasonable, real estate is inexpensive compared to other nearby areas and there are plenty of investment and employment opportunities available due to our outstanding growth. Additionally, Nevada has no state income tax. Las Vegas weather is great most of the year with warm summers, mild winters and great springs and autumns. Las Vegas is not without challenges however. Understandably, the three most pressing challenges in Southern Nevada are overpopulation, traffic congestion and pollution. In light of the extremely high growth rate the city has its growing pains. While the governmental entities are working as hard as possible, the infrastructure is falling behind in the impossible race to keep up with growth. Real estate developers do not make money selling streets and public facilities. They constantly push the laws, asking for vacations of proposed street alignments and variances to narrow street widths and driveway lengths, creating as many saleable lots as possible. This overcrowds areas not originally planned for a huge population. Sympathetic to developer's needs, Planning Commissions, City Councils and the County Commission are usually happy to approve these actions. By vacating minor streets developers in essence push traffic onto the major arterials, resulting in crowded and freeways and long waiting periods at intersections. Grading of developments has produced amounts of dust in our valley, sometimes to unhealthy levels. Prevailing winds from the west blow the pollution and dust easterly and eventually out of the valley. The Las Vegas Gay and Lesbian community is greatly diverse. The majority of the members of our community lead mainstream lives, work in hundreds of types of jobs throughout the city, and live in the suburbs. Because there is no specific gay neighborhood, area, or "ghetto". The GLBT community is essentially assimilated into the mainstream community. 1998 brought us our first gay pride parade which proceeded our gay pride celebration. This growing event is attended by thousands each year. Our community seems to unite best when fighting for common causes such as aids awareness and equal rights. Several of the local governments, casinos and businesses have adopted a "domestic partner" inclusion in their health insurance plans. The State of Nevada, County of Clark, and City of Las Vegas governments are gradually becoming progressively minded. The Clark County government includes sexual orientation their employee anti-discrimination policy. Our current mayor, Oscar Goodman campaigned promising a rainbow coalition in his office. 1993 saw many changes for the State. That year legislators abolished the anti-sodomy laws which had been Nevada Law since the turn of the century. In 1994 Lon Mabon and the Oregon Citizen's Alliance sent his hate-motivated extremists to Nevada. Their mission "from God" was to gather signatures in support of anti-gay legislation similar to that in Colorado. Our Governor invited Mabon to leave the state. The gay community watched proudly as our former Mayor, Jan Jones, told Mabon face to face there was no room in Nevada for his hate and to get out. Unfortunately, we haven't seen the last of shallow, judgmental thinking. We recently reelected our first openly gay assemblyman, Mr. David Parks. As a community have come a long way since the closeted days of the past. We're very proud of David for introducing and having passed a gay rights bill outlawing discrimination against gays in the workplace. Thank you, David and Governor Guinn! Once in the city you might want to purchase a Friday Review Journal, the local mainstream newspaper, for local events during the weekend. The Gay Las Vegas nightlife can be a lot of fun. It would be a good idea to check out the ever popular Fruit Loop when in town. The Gay and Lesbian Center, 953 E. Sahara, Suite B-25, in Commercial Center, is helpful for community information. Their number is (702) 733-9800. Get Booked is the local gay bookstore and a great place for information. Get Booked offers a selection of merchandise including compact discs, exotic jewelry, cult videos, posters and alternative lifestyle books. They are located at 4640 Paradise Road, 1 block north of Tropicana. (702) 737-7780. Gayvegas.com is offered as a free community service without commercial advertising. It is our contribution to the local, regional, national and international gay community. Its purpose is to provide information to the local community as well as to our visitors. It is the sole discretion of the webmaster and owner of Gayvegas.com to post solely information which is deemed to benefit the community. We receive a lot of email from people looking for information that is already posted on Gayvegas.com, so be sure to visit ALL of the linked pages, especially the Frequently Asked Questions Page in order to answer all of your questions about Las Vegas. Chances are the answers to your questions will be here. When you visit the listed businesses, tell them we sent you. If you have any questions feel free to Email us at the info@gayvegas.com. Again, please visit ALL of the linked pages. While the site is maintained as needed, additional information and suggestions are always appreciated. We hope you enjoy your stay while here. Thank you, The editors at Gayvegas.com |