I live in Spokane, and with the exception of one gay bar downtown and one monthly paper, the gays are not a force here. As a matter of fact, this whole idea of a gay district is being met with a strong show of resistence by the community. IOW, we are ignoring them. Just as we ignore their infantile gay "pride" parades.
Thanks to you and Scott and Maigret for your replies. I wasn't very political back then, beyond wanting a Republican president to be elected because I didn't like the democrat party platform.
Now that I live in one of the most gay-friendly states in the nation, CA, maybe my perception is a little colored. After all, it was 16 years ago, and I'm older, but not necessarily smarter.