Carlsbad made the top 15 list of The Advocate’s “Queerest Cities in America,” according to an article published Jan. 12 in the national LGBT magazine.

The goal of the annual list, formerly known as “Gayest Cities in America,” is to highlight unexpected lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender-friendly cities around the United States, according to a news release from The Advocate. Carlsbad made the list at No. 15.

“LGBT-friendly metropolises like New York and Los Angeles are not the only places where we live and thrive,” Advocate Editor-in-Chief Matthew Breen said in the news release. “We seek the unexpectedly queer-friendly places in America, using criteria that changes each year.”

According to The Advocate’s article, Carlsbad made the list for two key reasons — tolerance and advocacy within local religious and surfing circles.

“Carlsbad is the location of Congregation B’nai Tikvah, an LGBT-friendly synagogue. It is also home to openly lesbian surfer Cori Schumacher, who enjoys the ocean along with other queer surfers,” The Advocate reported. Schumacher “also began the Carlsbad-based Inspire Initiative, a nonprofit that works to empower women through surfing and to encourage diversity and acceptance in the surfing world.”

Congregation B’nai Tikvah, on its website, states that it welcomes a diverse community: “We welcome interfaith and same sex families, seniors, adults, couples, singles, young professionals and college students.”

Schumacher has written extensively about gender equality, diversity and surfing on her website, www.corischumacher.com, and for publications such as The Guardian and The Inertia, according to her site.

Carlsbad was the only California city to make the list. Boulder, Colo., ranked No. 10; Madison, Wisc., ranked No. 5; and Dayton, Ohio, ranked No. 1.