Santa Fe is great... if you like pinon nuts and isolation.
But ultimately, it's Palm Springs-lite but with the same amount of coke heads and better architecture. Which might be a nice change of pace for those used to the greater number of meth heads that make up practically everywhere else.
ABQ just ended up too much like Phoenix or Houston. a sprawling mess except you can actually escape the suburban sprawl under twenty minutes.
Still, I prefer it to most other regions. . . but it can feel isolating, like you're living on Mars, with a greater expanse of nothingness for miles around. And locales think nothing of the miles, so you definitely need to drive for an adequate social life unless you're an eldergay. Gorgeous skylines but everything gets so fucking dusty.
Personally, I'm more apt for smaller communities outside of metros and a hustler (the other kind), I just needed ample more space.
Seriously, these days, there's very few cities and towns that are anti-lgbt. So, you should round it out more by what type of scene you're looking for.
Yes, CA might be a dumpsterfire these days but there's many more diverse options to finding a comfortable space outside of the cities but close enough to visit on the weekends, if not nightly. . . with public transport and let's be real, the freeways and highways there make it easier than most states to drive virtually to them all.
You want cities you never have to leave? Bathsalt Florida is the place to be. But outside of the east coast, west coast rivalries... Florida has earned it's fucked up reputation entirely. But it's the go to place for mega whores. (though, Charleston, SC and more the surrounding smaller towns are better for pigs.)
Texas fits for that, too - cities in which lgb rarely venture outside of them -
Dallas is more scene without the poliltics of Houston.
Politics in Houston tend to be shift from ctrl-left to alt-right every other year despite most people falling left of center - the selling point: it has more options for housing and living both in the loop and outside of it.
Austin is the more pluralist cultural center but the sprawl is the worst of the three yet there's a lot more cruising than the other two and thus, probably the most outwardly gay friendly of the three.
(Corpus Christi is the chill alternative to the three primaries.. while much smaller Galveston is workable for the eldergay on a budget that wants to airbnb couple properties to the young, dumb, hung)
But if you want to maximize your dollar while living in or in closer proximity to a metro, then consider the states that the mere mention of them causes the DL to queef. Even if they're in a red state, they tend to be blue with a sizable flats and a lgbt community.
For musical queens, there's many southern and midwestern communities that fulfill the theatre niche... and yet being a hundred more times more (albeit, often unintentionally) flaming.
Again, all depends on the vibe you're looking for.
