Gosh, some of you people don't get out very much...Asheville is in no way a mini San Francisco..I've been to San Francisco and the closest vibe I get to the bay area on the East coast, is downtown St. Petersburg, FL...for the LGBTQ folks and artists, it's heaven....
About being weird, there are lots of cities that use that slogan; Portland, OR, Boulder CO, Capitol Hill in both Denver and Seattle, Austin TX.....Boston and Minneapolis both have artsy vibes but I've never seen the slogan used there....
Artsy and Gay go hand in hand...they co-exist!!!!