This is fascinating. For some reason it makes me really appreciate the modern economy and mobility when someone can choose their job and home based on a video game community.
Well unsure about other minority groups but at least with LBGT communities the biggest are specifically in urban coastal cities. San Francisco is smaller than, say, San Antonio or Columbus but obviously has a much higher % of LGBT residents and more gay culture.
Gay guy here in San Antonio who has lived in the Bay Area, thought I would chime in with my perspective since you mentioned the city. There is definitely more gay culture in SF/large coastal cities, but I don't think it's as desolate as one may think.
There are for sure way fewer bars, but the few that are here are always packed on weekends. The scene is also less centralized, so I don't think I meet as many LGBTQ people randomly as I would in say SF.
On the other hand, I would say that a good percentage of my friends are LGBTQ. I also my met my husband here, gone to our Pride events many times, have seen a bunch of live drag, and generally feel comfortable being out.
If someone's thinking of moving to a smaller city and the perceived lack of gay culture was the only thing holding them back, I would say just go for it.
Jew here (oh boy that sounds funny). While I can, sort of, voluntarily "factor out" the possibility that if I live far away from the centroids of the Jewish community, I might be spat at or beaten up in the street for being Jewish - that happens in Brooklyn or LA anyway these days - the thing is, I grew up in dense, highly urbanized/suburbanized parts of the country. I'm miserable when I live "five miles from everywhere", even in relatively "accessible" inner-ring suburbs.
(An actually rural area along the lines of my old college town is another matter. Driving half an hour on freeways to get "anywhere" is intolerable in a way that bicycling through Nature for half an hour is not.)
So yeah, between one thing and another, there would need to be a pretty strong incentive for me to ever move to "the burbs" or "the middle". Give me a city, give me a village or kibbutz, but don't give me that rubbish people put in the middle!
I mean, I know Jews and most Asian nationalities have a bigger representation in cities than in small towns. Like the LGBT community, usually the bigger the city, the bigger the difference in representation. I can only assume this is for similar reasons. People like to be around similar people.
I found a job here and love being closer to so many people I can share my favorite hobby with.