Places that are more liberal or LGBTQ friendly than you'd think they are...

Des Moines, IA is much more gay-friendly than you might expect.

Iowa? Is that where the wiiiiiind comes sweeping down the plain?

Breckenridge, Colorado

R1 I’ve heard that Des Moines is a pretty awesome city overall.

That’s Oklahoma, Rose,

Virginia suburbs of DC

Virginia suburbs of DC

Virginia suburbs of DC

Salt Lake City!

Colombia.

I've always assumed that Hell is a lot more liberal and LGB friendly than we'd all think it is.

I mean, they've been telling us for a couple millennia that all the gays are going, so we must be a huge power block by now with a lot of very smart people from da Vinci to Alexander the Great to Michelangelo. I mean the place must be lousy with fabulous paintings, music, movies, sculpture, and an overall vibrant art and literature scene.

Oklahoma City

Native Iowan here (although haven't lived there since college). The cities in Iowa are fine...but watch out for the rural parts. It was the fine rural folks in northwest Iowa who reelected the odious Steve King two years ago with more than 60% of the vote (and that was diluted by thousands of liberal voters from Ames, so the rural portion skews even more King-y). Des Moines has become more fun and gay-friendly in recent years. The East Village area has some fun bars, restaurants, shops, etc.

Eureka Springs, AR

Iowa people are so much friendlier than Indiana ones. As a Chicagoan, I'd rather live in Des Moines than Indiannapolis.

R15 Sorry to generalize but that whole region of Indiana-Ohio-Michigan-Pennsylvania produces a lot of trash people.

Intercourse, Pennsylvania

R16, Don't feel bad about generalizing, it's true. Indiana is the worst of all the ones listed though. Indiana, more so than other places, attracted racist Southerners and the KKK in large numbers. It explains a LOT about the state. Not to say the surrounding states are utopias by any means, but they are compared to Indiana.

Any places in Alaska that are gay-friendly?

San Francisco - I knew it would be tolerant and accepting of gays. I never believed it would allow them to fist each other in the streets, but they do.

R16 but....but...but Petey is from Indiana. He’s divine.

Kansas City, MO

R22, I've driven through Kansas City and it seems like a cool city.

Bump-Ass Hell, CA (Lassen County)

Louisville, KY

I think most big cities, even in Red America, are relatively gay friendly.

I was shocked that Nashville is.

R23, it has a large swath that is pretty dicey. Murder rate approaches Chicago levels, but you don't hear about it much, because it is itself eclipsed by its uglier, bitchier, older hag sister St. Louis.

Any town named "Bum Fuck" sounds pretty friendly.

Dunedin, FL. We live here, and its more inclusive than Chelsea in the 90s when we lived there.

Asheville, NC

Asheville is renowned as a gay Mecca

Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso. (Austin is already known as hippie liberal)

Madison, WI

Madison has had a liberal reputation for decades, being a college-town and all...

Another vote for some place else besides Indiana.

North Carolina's Research Triangle region, which includes Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, has long been a liberal oasis in the state (along with Asheville).

At Home with Amy Sedaris is set there and is full of inside jokes as Amy grew up in Raleigh.

Gabon is trying...

Surprised someone hasn’t mentioned Nashville...very liberal, very gay friendly

R38, see r26.

Bangor, ME had a big old rainbow flag up downtown and Pride was a week or two before.

St. Olaf, MN

Ugh, just because the gays and libs in a town put on a parade does not mean its a liberal city/town. There are conservatives and liberals in every city/suburb/town etc.

Houston, TX - big ol gay town. I go there for work often (or used to, pre-COVID19 crap) .

Mobile, AL and Savannah, GA

r43 Honey I have had dick every color of the rainbow in Houston. Good looking men attached to them, too.

Dique-Suq, Quebec

The Republican Convention. Outwardly homophobic, privately crawling with 'mos

R31, Asheville is crazy lesbian central. They check the size of your clitoris at the city limits before admitting you.

Salt Lake City ranking among the nation's most gay-friendly cities completely shocked me.

R49, why does it surprise you that Christians are friendly?

Mormons aren’t Christians

Albuquerque is Lesbian Shangri-La.

I second Louisville.

Kansas City, apparently?

I'm going to Kansas City

Kansas City here I cum

Umm, R51, yes we are. You Catholic bigot.

R56, at least my God has a plan.

R57, if this is God's plan, I'll pass.

Spartanburg, SC, which is getting Asheville spillover.

Greenville, maybe. But Spartanburg? Really?

Mexico City and to a lesser extent Guadalajara.

Istanbul, Beirut, Bahrain

Madison WI. Great place to grow up in and come out in,

R57 does your invisible friend talk to you?

My parlor

Girls, girls, both of your fairy tales about a rage-filled, thunder hurling, sky pal with bad aim are equally batshit crazy.

It's all in the colleges, r60. Consider the colleges in Greenville (Bob Jones?) Vs Spartanburg.

Are gay men flocking to Wofford U? And lesbians to Converse (not new)?

Greenville is charming, Spartanburg is not

Ireland was not just gay friendly but decidedly queer in unexpected places far from Dublin. Saw same sex PDAs, blatant gay male cruising, and obvious gay people interacting everywhere with complete normalcy, even in rural areas. This was 4 years ago. The people really are very nice. My husband and I traveled as a married couple and no one batted an eye.

R70 - not to derail this topic - but where would you recommend traveling in Ireland?

Winston-Salem

Allentown Pa.

On the other side of the coin , Woodstock ,Ga is the LEAST GAY FRIENDLY place , I've ever been . I'm older in my Mid Fifties . There's a local Mexican Restaurant where I've been called MF , Whitey , snowflake , Faggot . Been coughed on, spit on , and almost physically attacked. '

Why do you go back?

R75 , I had one incident there 1 year ago , stopped going there for a year . When places started to reopen , I went back several times with no problem . I was in there about a month ago , a man with no mask coughed in my direction . I asked him to please step back and cover his mouth . All hell broke loose with the Trumptards . WILL NEVER GO BACK .

Phoenix

[quote] [R49], why does it surprise you that Christians are friendly?

R50 things like this, while these Christians are extreme, there are plenty of Christians who are very much like this.

R29? Watch out for the sinkholes!

[quote] [R16], Don't feel bad about generalizing, it's true. Indiana is the worst of all the ones listed though. Indiana, more so than other places, attracted racist Southerners and the KKK in large numbers. It explains a LOT about the state. Not to say the surrounding states are utopias by any means, but they are compared to Indiana.

R18, I was born in the Midwest and have lived in many states there. Indiana I found to be shockingly backward.....and unfortunately, ignorant.

I lived in Kentucky (doesn’t know what category it falls in: South? Midwest? No Man’s Land?) as well for my first job, and even though I found it to be difficult; it was surprisingly easier than Indiana.

I have family in Indy who are deep on the Trump/Pence train. I avoid them at all costs although it’s challenging when they show up on the doorstep here in beachy SoCal unannounced.

Someone mentioned Eureka Springs, AR, and Hot Springs is supposed to be as well.

Methuen, Massachusetts

Grozny

Long Beach, Ca, We even have an out gat mayor, about 50,000 of us gays live here.

gat/gay

Luxembourg

Madison and Maplewood, NJ. It's surprising because these towns are surrounded by several very conservative (yet very beautiful) towns; e.g. Millburn, Summit, etc.