How is LGBT life for you where you live (country/state/city)?

Terrible. I live in the deep south of the US, one of the worst places in the country for an LGBT person. A hate-preaching church is around every corner, there are no laws protecting LGBT people from hate crimes, and the attitudes of the people are awful. The students are extremely homophobic, using various gay slurs as insults more than 40 times a day in some cases. The teachers make no effort to prevent this, and some teachers are actually "openly anti-gay". I'm moving up north as soon as I get the chance.

 

I'm pretty lucky to be in Melbourne, there's a lot available to me that's not around in other cities, like Joy radio and Minus18. I cop it at school sometimes, but in general Melbourne's a pretty good place to be for someone LGBT.

 

Very great.
The fact that my city is fairly close to San Fransisco makes it a pretty liberal city. There's a couple of out gay people in my school and so far, only one disaster has occurred where gay bashing was involved in my high school career (still hoping nothing happens this year and my senior year).

USA/CA/BAY AREA

 

It's amazingly great here. I'm right near Boston which has a very sizable LGBT population. I love Boston a ton too so I'm moving there as soon as I get the chance.

 

I live in Carlisle, the most northernly city in England, according to the posters on the bus, and the LGBT scene here is pants, it is pretty much non-existant, and the small community there is are all about going out and getting drunk/wasted/high all the time and basically all sleep with each other and can't hold down a relationship. There are exceptions, but they are very rare. Due to the lack of an LGBT community with a half decent public image, Carlisle is pretty crap to live in if you are LGBT and not into getting high and contracting clamydia. And because LGBT have such a bad public image, homophobia is a huge issue, you can expect to get verbal and/or physical abuse if you walk down any street with your partner. The joys lol.

I'll be moving out of here as soon as I can....

 

Like Gunstarre above, I'm pretty close to San Francisco, which is fortunate. Sacramento is pretty open and culturally diverse, and the LGBT population here is pretty close-knit. I feel pretty safe to be "out and about".

Besides, it IS California, that wacky kooky state of mine, lol! Everyone keep your fingers crossed for Prop. 8!!! The election is just around the corner!

 

me too. what city are you in?

in livermore, we hardly ever get shit. the attitude of most is its your life and we wont do anything about it, at least not to your face. the huge exceptions are the mormons and jw's. theres a uu church in town with a rainbow flag out front and nothings happened to them really.

 

Well, I'm in western Massachusetts, so near Boston and NYC, so it's really awesome.
Plus our whole campus is like a freakin' gay pride parade... every day :roflmao:
Not really, but the majority of the people here are LGBTQ

So yeah.... life is good.

 

Massachusetts is first on my list of places to move when I get that option. Not only do I need to get away from the extreme homophobia down here, but the neocon Bible-thumpers are killing me. And the heat. I'm a southern boy who doesn't like heat. What the fuck.

 

It's pretty okay in Minnesota. I live only an hour away form Minneapolis, which has a significant gay scene. As for my city, I know of a lot of gay people but I only know a few personally. We don't have much of a community, but I also never hear of any discrimination issues.

Our college is fantastic though. We have an LGBT center on campus, and they recently flew the pride flag for a week next to a *giant* coexist banner

I think it was for ally week or something, possibly coming out day or something like that. October is a pretty gay month in general :]

 

My state hasn't voted Democrat since the 1960's. :eek:

I might live near the capital, but the the suburban area I inhabit is a far cry from liberal.

 

Hm well they're pretty good here, I mean every once in a while someone mentions being homophobic but if they do everyone gets mad at them for being such an ignorant jerk.

 

I live in Massachusetts, so it's ok...no one cares what you are .

 

London great for being quite open! especially if you are in the City of London, no-one will bat an eyelid. However, not many people actually live in the centre of town so it is still a bit "odd" to see openly gay people in the suburbs!

 

Here in Iowa, it really depends on where you are. Iowa City is called "The San Fransisco of the Midwest", and is extremely liberal and (or so I've heard) has a great LGBT scene. So is Grinnell(which has the highest percentage of gay residents in the state). Des Moines(but not the DSM suburbs) and Ames(where I will be going to college) are also fairly progressive. And the East side of the state is just generally more liberal.

Here on the Western side(which is very conservative), it's more of "if we don't see it, we don't care". There is some homophobia, but it isn't terrible. But I also live on the edge of a mid-sized city, so things probably get worse the farther out into the middle of no-where you go. Overall, not exactly a good place to be openly gay, but not exactly hell either.

And Omaha, DSM, and (I believe) Iowa City have a Pride parade every year. Omaha and DSM Pride isn't that big of a deal, but at least it's there.


If I end up staying in Iowa, I'll probably live in DSM. Maybe IC, but it would depend on if I could get a job there. I also really like Chicago and Minneapolis, which are accepting places. Deep down I think I really want to live out somewhere in New England, but I don't know if I could stand to be that far from my family.

 

What a coincidence I am also in Sacramento and I agree with you.It is very open and diverse.If my parents knew I would definitely be "out and proud"

 

Starshine!!! Hee hee, a fellow Sacramentan!!

Nodnarb said it above (and Starshine may know what I'm talking about geographically): it seems as though the closer one gets to a cultural/artistic center, usually a "downtown" or near a college, the better it is for us gay peeps. I only recently moved down into the city of Sac from a small town in the foothills called Auburn, and let me tell you, it may only be 25 minutes "up the hill", but the people there are SOOOO conservative. It's like taking a trip back in time!!

 

Yeah, it does seem like that. College towns are always more progressive(unless its a religious school), and it seems like most cities have a "gay-district" somewhere downtown. Even cities(like Omaha)that are generally very conservative.

 

Dublin... is a strange one. It's by far the best place in Ireland to be for an LGBT person, but it's nowhere near as queerfriendly as other major European cities. All the gay bars here are in the city centre, within about a mile of each other (there are only 4 gay bars in the entire city - The Dragon, The George, The Front Lounge and Pantibar) so the scene tends to be very clustered. There is an LGBT community centre in Capel St called Outhouse, and there are various groups that hold events there. There are the usual college societies too, but in general the LGBT societies here tend to be very insular and cliquey.

It's a lot harder outside of Dublin (and Cork city to a lesser extent) to live as an LGBT person. People in rural areas tend to be much more conservative than people in Dublin or Cork, and their views are much more influenced by the Catholic church.