Why I Created GayTucson.com and Why, 20 Years Later, It Still Matters

In 2006, I received a phone call I can still hear in my head 20 years later.

A gay couple was facing a move to Tucson, Arizona, because one of the men was being transferred here for work.

Instead of being excited about beginning a new chapter of their lives, they were afraid.

Really afraid.

As I listened to him talk, I could hear his voice trembling.

I could tell he was crying.

He and his husband had been researching Arizona, trying to understand what their lives might be like if they moved here. At the time, much of the news people outside our state were seeing about LGBTQ+ life in Arizona was coming out of Phoenix or was simply being reported as “Arizona.”

They were finding frightening crime statistics. They were reading stories about how gay people were being treated. And sitting somewhere far away, with no firsthand knowledge of Tucson, they had every reason to believe that what they were reading represented the city they were about to call home.

He wasn’t just nervous about moving.

He was afraid of what might happen to him and his husband if they lived here.

I remember sitting on the other end of that phone feeling my heart break as I listened to the fear in his voice.

There was something about hearing another person cry because he was afraid to move to the city I loved that hit me incredibly hard.

And it still does.

Even today, 20 years later, when I think about that conversation, I can get teary-eyed. I can still feel the emotion and pain that came across that phone line.

Because I knew something he didn’t know.

The Tucson he was terrified to move to wasn’t the Tucson I knew.

I was incredibly proud to live in Tucson then.

Twenty years later, I still am.

The Community Existed. The Information Didn’t.

It’s difficult today to remember just how different the internet was in 2006.

Today, if you’re considering moving somewhere, you can pull out your phone and within minutes find Google reviews, social media posts, videos, community groups, business directories and countless websites showing you what life in that city looks like.

That wasn’t the internet we had then.

Websites were still relatively difficult and expensive to build and maintain. There simply weren’t nearly as many of them, and factual, locally focused information for the gay community was especially difficult to find.

When I went looking for something I could give this couple, somewhere online where they could see Tucson’s LGBTQ+ community for themselves, I couldn’t find the resource I wanted them to have.

There wasn’t a comprehensive Tucson LGBTQ+ website showing the people I knew, the businesses I supported, the organizations doing good work and the welcoming places that were already part of everyday life here.

Reliable online information specifically about Tucson’s gay community was extremely limited.

And that was the problem.

The community existed. The information didn’t.

I knew gay people living happy, successful lives here.

I knew LGBTQ-owned businesses.

I knew restaurants, shops and other businesses that welcomed our community.

I knew organizations, community leaders, friends and allies.

I knew places where you could walk through the door with your husband, wife or partner and simply be yourself.

But none of that helped someone sitting thousands of miles away if they had no way to see it.

They could only make decisions based on the information they could find.

And what this couple was finding was terrifying them.

That Phone Call Woke Me Up That Night

Long after we hung up, I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

It literally woke me up that night.

I kept hearing his trembling voice.

I kept thinking about him crying.

I kept thinking about two people who should have been planning their new life together but instead were wondering whether they would even feel safe living here.

It broke my heart.

But it also lit a fire under me.

I became obsessed with making sure people knew the truth about Tucson.

I wanted people to know Tucson had its own identity.

I wanted them to know that Tucson was progressive and accepting.

I wanted them to see LGBTQ+ people living ordinary, happy lives here.

I wanted them to see LGBTQ-owned businesses and businesses that proudly welcomed our community.

I wanted them to discover our organizations, our events and our people.

Most of all, I wanted someone sitting somewhere else and considering Tucson to have access to factual, local information instead of having to piece together an image of our city from frightening stories about Arizona as a whole.

I couldn’t change everything they were reading about Arizona.

But I could show them Tucson.

So I decided I was going to build a website.

My Big Idea Was Just 10 Pages

My original plan was incredibly simple.

Ten pages.

I wanted to build ten pages showing LGBTQ-owned and LGBTQ-friendly businesses, organizations and people in Tucson.

There wasn’t a business plan.

There wasn’t a marketing strategy.

And there certainly wasn’t a real estate strategy.

In fact, the original GayTucson website had absolutely nothing to do with real estate.

I wasn’t trying to sell anyone a house.

I was trying to show people a city.

More specifically, I wanted to show them my Tucson, the open, welcoming and accepting community I was so proud to call home.

I wanted those ten pages to tell someone:

There are people like you here.

There are businesses that welcome you here.

There is a community here.

You can build a life here.

And maybe most importantly:

You don’t have to be afraid of Tucson.

There was only one problem.

I had absolutely no idea how to build a website.

So I Bought an HTML for Dummies Book

Remember, this was 2006.

I couldn’t simply choose a website template, drag a few pictures onto a page and hit Publish.

I wasn’t a programmer.

I wasn’t a web designer.

I didn’t know HTML.

So I went to Barnes & Noble and bought an HTML for Dummies book.

And I read it.

Cover to cover.

I became obsessed with learning enough to create what I could already see in my head.

At that point, learning HTML wasn’t about learning some interesting new technology.

I had a reason.

I had that couple in my head.

I had the sound of that man’s trembling voice in my memory.

And I had this overwhelming need to make sure the next person researching Tucson would find something different.

I was going to build those ten pages.

But GayTucson.com Wasn’t Mine Yet

There was another problem.

Once I knew what I wanted to create, there was one name that seemed obvious:

GayTucson.com.

Unfortunately, someone else already owned it.

At the time, a hotel company had acquired a collection of domain names beginning with the word “gay” followed by city names. As I understood it, the plan was to use those city-specific domains to market hotels.

The hotels being advertised weren’t necessarily LGBTQ-owned or even specifically LGBTQ-friendly.

That bothered me.

I didn’t want someone searching for “Gay Tucson” to land on what was essentially a hotel advertising site.

I wanted GayTucson.com to actually be about gay Tucson.

I wanted people to find our businesses.

Our organizations.

Our people.

Our community.

But I couldn’t buy the domain.

So I did the only thing I could do.

I waited.

I put a tracker on GayTucson.com so I would know if the status of the domain ever changed.

And I kept watching it.

For almost a year.

Then one day, it happened.

The company apparently failed to renew the domain.

GayTucson.com became available.

And I grabbed it.

After nearly a year of watching and waiting, GayTucson.com finally had the opportunity to become what I believed it should be: a website actually about Tucson’s LGBTQ+ community.

Looking back now, I love the irony of that part of the story.

Someone else had seen commercial value in the words “Gay Tucson.”

I saw community value in them.

And that distinction has remained important to me for the past 20 years.

Ten Pages Started Growing

Once GayTucson.com was online, something happened that I hadn’t anticipated.

There was always something else people needed to know about.

Another business.

Another organization.

Another event.

Another resource.

Another story.

Another person doing something wonderful for Tucson.

And there were always more questions to answer.

Where are Tucson’s LGBTQ-friendly businesses?

What LGBTQ+ organizations are here?

What’s happening this weekend?

Where are the gay bars?

Where can I find healthcare resources?

Are there welcoming faith communities?

What is Tucson Pride like?

What is the history of Tucson’s LGBTQ+ community?

What is it really like to live here?

Those ten pages kept growing.

Over the years, GayTucson.com developed into a broad community resource covering LGBTQ+ businesses, organizations, events, nonprofits, nightlife, arts and culture, healthcare, faith, history, local personalities, Tucson news, things to do, travel, relocation and everyday life in Southern Arizona.

Twenty years later, we’re still adding to it.

GayTucson.com Is Not a Real Estate Website

Because I have spent my career in Tucson real estate, I want to make one thing very clear about the history and purpose of GayTucson.com.

GayTucson.com is not a real estate website.

I am the creator, owner and sponsor of the site, and yes, I am also a longtime Tucson REALTOR®. Over the years, some housing, relocation and real estate information has been added because those are among the many questions people have about living in Tucson.

But that content represents only a very small portion of GayTucson.com.

The site was not created to generate real estate business.

It wasn’t created to sell houses.

It wasn’t created as a marketing project.

GayTucson.com has always been my gift to our community.

I’ve continued sponsoring and supporting it because I believe the resource should exist.

You don’t have to be moving to Tucson.

You don’t have to be buying a home.

You don’t have to live here.

Maybe you’re visiting for the weekend.

Maybe you just moved here and you’re looking for community.

Maybe you’re searching for an LGBTQ-owned business to support.

Maybe you’re looking for an event.

Maybe you need a community organization.

Maybe you’re looking for a welcoming place of worship.

Maybe you’re researching Tucson from the other side of the country.

Or maybe you’ve lived here for 30 years and are discovering something about our community you never knew.

GayTucson.com is here for you.

A “Virtual Gay Community Center”

One of my favorite descriptions of GayTucson.com didn’t come from me.

Pima County Public Library has described GayTucson.com as a “virtual gay community center for Tucson.”

I love that.

Because after 20 years, I think “community center” comes much closer to describing what those original ten pages grew into than simply calling GayTucson.com a website.

A community resource should connect you with people.

It should introduce you to organizations.

It should help you discover businesses.

It should tell you what’s happening.

It should help you learn something about your community.

And perhaps most importantly, it should help you feel like you belong.

GayTucson.com has also been recognized as an LGBTQ+ community resource by organizations including Visit Tucson and the University of Arizona.

For something that started with one emotional phone call and an idea for ten pages, that means more to me than I can adequately put into words.

From My Little Black Book to the Internet

GayTucson.com wasn’t actually the first way I kept track of welcoming Tucson businesses.

Before the website, I essentially had my own little black book.

I kept track of businesses and places I knew welcomed our community because I wanted to be able to recommend them when someone asked.

Where should we go?

Who should we call?

Where will we feel comfortable?

I wanted to have an answer.

Eventually, my little black book became something anyone could access.

It became GayTucson.com.

The technology changed.

The basic idea didn’t.

Connect people with Tucson and connect people with each other.

GayTucson.com Became Part of Preserving Our History

There was another role GayTucson.com began playing that I never anticipated when I started.

It began preserving pieces of Tucson’s LGBTQ+ history.

That has become increasingly important to me.

Communities change.

Businesses open.

Businesses close.

Organizations form.

People move away.

Buildings disappear.

Laws change.

Leaders come and go.

And if we aren’t careful, pieces of our history disappear with them.

Think about something as simple as an old gay bar.

To someone looking at an outdated business listing, it’s just a bar that closed.

But that’s not what it was to the people who were there.

Someone walked through that door for the first time terrified and walked out realizing they weren’t alone.

Someone met their best friend there.

Someone went on a first date there.

Someone met the person they would eventually marry.

Someone danced there.

Someone celebrated Pride there.

Someone finally felt comfortable holding their partner’s hand there.

Those places mattered.

Those people mattered.

Those stories matter.

Over two decades, GayTucson.com has accumulated hundreds of articles, profiles, announcements and resources documenting businesses, organizations, events and people who have been part of Tucson’s LGBTQ+ story.

What started as a way to tell people about our community has also become one small way of helping preserve it.

Our Community Was Here Long Before GayTucson.com

GayTucson.com is celebrating 20 years.

But Tucson’s LGBTQ+ community is much older.

That distinction matters enormously to me.

GayTucson.com didn’t create Tucson’s LGBTQ+ community. Tucson’s LGBTQ+ community created the reason for GayTucson.com to exist.

Generations of LGBTQ+ Tucsonans, activists, business owners, artists, organizations, volunteers, friends and allies did the difficult work that made Tucson the community I was so proud to tell that frightened caller about in 2006.

They created welcoming spaces.

They organized.

They advocated.

They built businesses.

They helped neighbors.

They stood up for one another.

They celebrated Pride.

They fought for equality.

They created families and friendships and lives here.

Every generation built something for the generation that followed.

GayTucson.com simply gave us another place to make some of that community visible.

Twenty years later, I remain incredibly grateful to the people who did this work before us and to everyone continuing it today.

From 10 Pages to More Than 60,000 Users a Year

This may be the part of the story that amazes me the most.

Remember, I started with an idea for ten pages.

Today, GayTucson.com serves more than 60,000 users a year and generates more than 100,000 annual views.

I look at those numbers differently than I might look at statistics from a business website.

Because these aren’t sales leads to me.

They’re people.

Someone may be sitting in another state researching Tucson because their husband’s job is transferring them here.

Sound familiar?

Someone may be planning their first trip to Tucson.

Someone may have just moved here and be looking for community.

Someone may be trying to find an LGBTQ-owned business to support.

Someone may be looking for something to do tonight.

Someone may be searching for an organization that can help them.

Someone may simply want reassurance that there are other people like them here.

More than 60,000 users a year now have the opportunity to find some of those answers through a website that began because one person couldn’t find them.

Twenty years later, that means an incredible amount to me.

The Most Important Number Is One I Can Never Measure

Analytics can tell me how many people visit GayTucson.com.

They can tell me how many pages people view.

They can tell me what information people are looking for.

But after 20 years, I’ve realized that the most important impact of GayTucson.com can’t be measured by analytics.

How do you measure someone finding their first friend in a new city?

How do you measure the relief of discovering an affirming organization when you thought there wasn’t one?

How do you measure someone finding a healthcare resource they needed?

How do you measure someone choosing an LGBTQ-owned Tucson business because they discovered it through the site?

How do you measure someone visiting Tucson and feeling comfortable walking into a place because they knew beforehand that they would be welcomed?

How do you measure someone sitting thousands of miles away thinking:

Maybe Tucson could be home.

And how could I possibly measure the number that mattered most to me when I started GayTucson.com?

How many people found this website and didn’t have to feel afraid?

I’ll never know that number.

But that’s the number that matters most to me.

GayTucson.com Has Always Been Free for Our Community

There’s another part of GayTucson.com that I’m particularly proud of.

Businesses have never had to pay to be included on GayTucson.com.

If you own an LGBTQ-owned or LGBTQ-friendly business that belongs in our community directory, you can submit it to us for consideration for free.

The same is true for community events.

Submitting an event to the GayTucson.com calendar is free and always has been.

That is intentional.

I didn’t create GayTucson.com to build a pay-to-play directory where the businesses with the biggest advertising budgets get the most visibility.

I created it so people could discover the businesses, organizations, events and people that make up our community.

Twenty years later, I still want GayTucson.com to work that way.

And this is where you can help us.

If you own or know of an LGBTQ-owned or LGBTQ-friendly Tucson business that should be included on GayTucson.com, please submit it.

If your organization, business or community group has an upcoming event that would be of interest to Tucson’s LGBTQ+ community, please send it to us for the calendar.

There is no charge.

Help us discover the places we don’t know about yet.

Help us find the new business that just opened.

Help us share the fundraiser, performance, Pride event, meetup, art show, community gathering or special event that deserves an audience.

GayTucson.com may be 20 years old, but it should never become simply a record of the community we used to have.

It should reflect the community we have today and help support the community we’re building for tomorrow.

Those first ten pages grew because people had more information to share.

Twenty years later, that’s still how GayTucson.com grows.

So please keep sending us your businesses.

Keep sending us your events.

Keep telling us about organizations and resources we should know about.

GayTucson.com belongs to the community it was created to serve, and we need your help to keep telling Tucson’s story.

Submit to GayTucson.com

LGBTQ-owned or LGBTQ-friendly Tucson businesses are invited to submit their information for consideration in the GayTucson.com business directory.

Businesses, nonprofits, organizations and community groups are invited to submit LGBTQ+ community events for consideration on the GayTucson.com calendar.

For 20 Years, We’ve Really Been Saying One Thing

When I think back to that phone call in 2006, I realize GayTucson.com has essentially been saying the same thing for two decades:

Let me show you Tucson.

Let me show you the businesses that welcome you.

Let me introduce you to the organizations doing great work.

Let me tell you about the people making a difference.

Let me show you where you can go.

Let me tell you what’s happening.

Let me share some of our history.

Let me show you the Tucson that those of us who live here know and love.

The internet has changed.

The website has changed.

Tucson has changed.

Our LGBTQ+ community has changed.

But the reason behind GayTucson.com really hasn’t.

Thank You to the Community That Made GayTucson.com Possible

A 20th anniversary shouldn’t just be about looking backward.

It should also be about saying thank you.

Thank you to Tucson’s LGBTQ+ activists and community leaders, especially those who were doing this work long before GayTucson.com existed.

Thank you to Tucson’s LGBTQ-owned businesses.

Thank you to the businesses that have proudly welcomed our community.

Thank you to our nonprofit and community organizations.

Thank you to our volunteers.

Thank you to our healthcare professionals.

Thank you to our affirming faith communities.

Thank you to the artists, performers, writers and creators who make Tucson more interesting.

Thank you to our friends and allies.

Thank you to everyone who has sent us an event, recommended a business, shared information, corrected something that changed or helped us tell another person’s story.

And thank you to everyone who has visited GayTucson.com.

You turned my little ten-page idea into something I never could have imagined when I sat down with that HTML book in 2006.

And Most of All, Thank You, Tucson

I created GayTucson.com because I was proud of this city.

I wanted people outside Tucson to see what I saw.

Twenty years later, I still do.

I know Tucson isn’t perfect.

No community is.

There will always be more work to do and more people who need to feel heard, represented, protected and welcomed.

But I still believe deeply in this community.

And I am still incredibly proud to call Tucson home.

What Comes Next?

We’re not done.

As long as there are businesses to discover, organizations to support, events to share, people to celebrate, resources to provide and history to preserve, GayTucson.com has work to do.

We’ll keep updating.

We’ll keep adding.

We’ll keep telling stories.

We’ll keep supporting local businesses and organizations.

We’ll keep helping visitors discover Tucson.

We’ll keep helping new residents find their community.

And we’ll continue trying to make sure that when someone searches for information about LGBTQ+ life in Tucson, they can find information that is actually about Tucson.

Because somewhere out there may be another person just like the man who called me 20 years ago.

Maybe his husband’s job is transferring them here.

Maybe she’s considering attending the University of Arizona.

Maybe they’re thinking about retiring here.

Maybe they’re planning a vacation.

Maybe someone is simply looking for a fresh start.

And maybe they’re sitting at a computer right now wondering:

Will I be welcome in Tucson?

Twenty years ago, I wanted one frightened couple to see the Tucson I knew.

I taught myself HTML and planned to build ten little pages to help them see it.

Today, more than 60,000 people a year come to GayTucson.com and have the opportunity to see it for themselves.

That’s more than I ever imagined when I started this journey.

But my answer to that question hasn’t changed.

Let me show you Tucson.

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The Story Behind the GayTucson.com Sun 

Even the GayTucson.com logo has a personal story.  The colorful sun wasn’t created by a marketing company or branding agency. It was drawn by my friend Kelly, who gave it to me as a gift. Every part of it has meaning. The mountains represent Tucson’s Catalina Mountains. The sunglasses represent me, Tony Ray. And the rainbow colors represent the diversity of our LGBTQ+ community. I have always loved the playful personality of the sun. It’s bright, colorful, a little unconventional and unmistakably Tucson. And maybe that’s why, after all these years, it still feels right. Like GayTucson.com itself, it started as a gift from a friend and became part of something much bigger.

About GayTucson.com

GayTucson.com was created in Tucson, Arizona, by Tony Ray Baker in 2006 as a community resource for LGBTQ+ residents, visitors, friends and allies.

The idea for the site began after Tony Ray spoke with a gay man who was deeply afraid about relocating to Tucson with his husband because the information he was finding about LGBTQ+ life in Arizona did not accurately represent the Tucson community Tony Ray knew and loved.

The original concept was a simple ten-page website highlighting LGBTQ-owned and LGBTQ-friendly businesses, organizations and people in Tucson.

Tony Ray taught himself HTML to build the website and spent nearly a year watching and waiting for the GayTucson.com domain to become available.

Twenty years later, GayTucson.com has grown into a broad Tucson LGBTQ+ community resource covering local businesses, organizations, events, nonprofits, nightlife, arts and culture, healthcare, faith, history, Tucson lifestyle, travel, relocation and other community information.

Tony Ray remains the creator, owner and sponsor of GayTucson.com.

GayTucson.com is not a real estate website. Although some housing and real estate information appears on the site, it represents only a small portion of its overall content.

GayTucson.com has always been Tony Ray’s gift to the community.

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