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Supporters of same-sex marriage fill the streets in the Castro district following the California Supreme Court's ruling to uphold Proposition 8 May 26, 2009 in San Francisco, California.
In Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas, 5.4% and 5.3% of the population identifies as LGBT, respectively, well above the national average of 3.6%.
Salt Lake City, Utah also made the top 10, at 4.7% - a somewhat surprising find, given Utah's reputation as one of the most conservative states in the union. As the survey notes, however, Utah remains one of the only states to have passed a law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
After interviewing 374,325 randomly selected adults in all 50 states, researchers found that the most "gay" metropolitan areas were in the West, while the least gay were in the Midwest and South. In Birmingham, Alabama only 2.6% of adults identify as LGBT - the lowest percentage of any of the 50 largest US cities.
Pittsburgh and Memphis, Tennessee also rank among the lowest, with 3% and 3.1%, respectively.
The survey notes that while explanations for these low percentages vary, the cities ranking in the bottom ten are generally influenced by conservative religious values and are therefore less accepting of LGBT individuals.
Judges in Alabama recently made news for refusing to allow same-sex couples to marry despite a federal court order.
Read the full analysis of Gallup's survey data here.
