[shadowofneptune]

San Fransisco is the main port of the west coast. The Oregon Trail gets all the fame, but ship was usually how newcomers came to California and the other western states.

During WW2, that role was naturally even a bigger deal than in peacetime. It's also where you got dumped if you were dishonorably discharged. That's why the gay community of California was so unusually concentrated into one district of one city.

[mistrial9]

historically lots of mixed-heritage from the Latin lands, too.. German-Mexican and such.. San Francisco used to be a large Catholic landing pad.

[wizofaus]

> the other western states

But the midwest is not the western states...?

[shadowofneptune]

Read what I said again. People went from east and mideast to west by ship, and SF is the best port.

[cwalv]

It's not. Not sure what the official boundary is (if there even is one), but Midwest is far east of Western. It would better be called 'Norcentral' these days, but the name is probably left over from times when St Louis was considered western