AbstractData are presented on a national sample of gay bars in the United States. Analysis reveals a diversification of type of gay bars with increasing urbanization. This diversification seems to reflect an increasing heterogeneity of gay life‐styles in the larger cities. The reasons for such diversification are the same economic and cultural ones that produce diversification among heterosexual institutions. Such diversity of gay life‐styles appears to induce a substantial volume of migration by gays to the larger cities, much as the bright lights of the big city seem to appeal to single heterosexuals. It is suggested that gay and single heterosexual life‐styles are similar in many ways and will become increasingly so in the future.