Success depends on gays: Richard Florida argues the U.S. will lose in the global competition for creative talent unless more of its cities open up to gays.

Economist Richard Florida caused a stir in 2002 when he argued that acceptance of gays is an important element in a city's continued success. In his best seller The Rise of the Creative Class, Florida used no-nonsense economic terms to point out how a vibrant gay populace attracts the young scientists, architects, engineers, educators, writers, and artists that drive the new economy.

The award-winning book brought Florida international acclaim. But it also earned him the scorn of political conservatives, who dubbed him a tool of the "gay agenda." Now the 46-year-old professor, who has taught at Harvard and MIT, is back with a new book, The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent. This time he argues that the U.S. government's increasing intolerance--including its intolerance of gays--is causing an exodus of talent to more progressive nations and that the ensuing "creative crisis" poses a greater threat to the United States than terrorism.

Florida spoke to The Advocate via e-mail while on tour to promote his new book.

Some have argued that your work is a kind of gay activism.

I often start my talks by apologizing to gay activists, proponents of diversity, and all other groups who have found either hope or just plain and simple evidence in my arguments. I don't pretend to know much more than this: Regions, companies, and countries that are open, inclusive, and tolerant are economic powerhouses. I'm interested in what makes places grow and prosper, period.

What kind of opposition have you encountered?

It's interesting to note that in my 400-plus-page book The Rise of the Creative Class, which is tilled with all kinds of arguments, subtheses, graphs, charts, anecdotes, and more, the part that drew the most attention was about seven pages long, and it was about gays. People have come out in droves, accusing me of "promoting a gay agenda" or--I love this one--"undermining the tenets of Judeo-Christian society." On the bright side, I think this lively debate has helped bring these issues into the American consciousness.

How did you first come to the conclusion that gay people are so important to a city's success?

I was working at Carnegie Mellon University on regional economic development when I met a demographer who was profiling the gay community in the United States. We canto to a funny realization over lunch one day: Places with high concentrations of gays were also places that I was finding to have impressive economic growth.

What's the connection?

It's not, as we first joked, the "fixer-upper" theory: that gays move in, make neighborhoods nice, and create a vibrant region as a result. Rather, the presence of a large and Vibrant gay population is an extremely strong indicator that a region is open, inclusive, or tolerant. To put it in the framework of my three t's of economic development: Tolerance helps to attract talent, which helps to create technology.

So how does your new book build on this?

Right now we're seeing the United States close down, socially and culturally. At the same time, we're involved in a global competition for the world's top creative talent, and that talent is choosing to go elsewhere--to take their skills, knowledge, innovations, and ideas to more open places. This has serious long-term implications for the United States's ability to compete.

What's your next project? Another book?

I hate to get too far ahead of myself, but there's a major institution currently in the making in our nation's capital. I want to raise these issues and ideas to a national policy level. The current direction of our country on the economic, social, political, and cultural fronts disturbs me, and I'd like to chip in my two cents and try to do something about that.