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San Francisco

The junction of Castro and 18th Street is known as "the gayest four corners in the world", but in fact the whole of this laid-back West-Coast city is a welcoming environment for gay men and women. San Francisco's reputation as a centre for tolerance dates back to a time when navy ships would off-load any suspect homosexuals in the harbour. In the early 1970s disgruntled gay New Yorkers began to move here after the Stonewall riots, and Armistead Maupin immortalised the city's queer life in his Tales of the City. Now that California is one of only two states in the US which permits same-sex marriage, San Francisco has become a favourite venue to get hitched.