Soon I'm going to be moving out of my parents house

I don't know much about San Fransico because I only visited as a tourist but may I say that it's actually an awesome city!

I'm not sure if it was because I was tourist but people there were very friendly and the weather appealed to me more than the rest of California because the temperatures are lower and closer to those in England (the rest of the time I was in America I was boiling because I'm not used to such heat ^^').

The city was also very diverse with lots of different ethnic enclaves and of course, as you say it's also a place well known for it's LGBT community (of course...I didn't visit that area though ^^')
However I did find that there's also a high population of homeless individuals in the area which is sad (I would caution you about that)

Perhaps if you make friends in the area (no matter if they're LGBT or straight) then they could help guide you into the preferred lifestyle you want to be living.

I wish you the best of luck! This all sounds very exciting ^_^

(P.S. I have a similar situation with my parents too, I'm trying to get away ASAP)

 

I've relatives who live in the Bay Area and have visited San Francisco a few times.

As far as moving there, on the 'pro' side, you'd be hard pressed to find a more actively LGBT friendly city. The climate is nice, but if you live only an hour away, you probably already know that

That said, and on the 'con' side of things:

From what I've heard, the cost of living (rent in particular) is astronomical. Unless you're going to be working a job that pays six figures (and possibly with the first number being higher than a '1') right from the start, you are going to be lucky to get a place larger than a broom closet if you're living in the city. As you move farther away, costs drop, but if you're within commuting distance, you're probably going to be tying up a huge chunk of your income on rent.

If you're not out to your parents and they are unsupportive and you're only an hour away - that can be problematic if they are the sort to drop in on you unexpectedly. Let's say you get out on your own and dive into the LGBT community and make lots of LGBT friends and either bring guys home sometimes or have a boyfriend (or just have some pornographic materials around the house (calendars, birthday cards, etc.). How are you going to handle your parents showing up without warning when you are around these people and things?

If you really want to live in SF and are confident you could afford it, and deal with the parental issues, then go forth and conquer says I. However, if any of these look like they could be problematic, you might want to look at other options.

The Human Rights Campaign maintains a yearly index that rates different employers by how LGBT friendly they are. You can find it from their website. You could use this as a resource when job hunting. With a bit more online research you can also find out information on how LGBT friendly different states, cities, and localities are, what kind of climate they have, job opportunities in your field (if you can work from home, you may be able to live anywhere, although this might be hard to do when just starting out), cost of living, etc.

Make yourself a nice spreadsheet with each of the major factors you need to consider listed and then start adding cities/states that look like they meet all or most of your criteria. When you have a solid list of a dozen or so options, start narrowing it down based on whatever factors are most important to you. If possible maybe narrow it down to 3-4 and visit those places. Focus on getting a job in the one of those top 3-4 and then move there.

My 2c worth,

Todd