Best Places to be A Lesbian

Posted on 29. Jun, 2009 by Sasha in Bad Sasha, Featured

lesbians Pictures, Images and Photos

Sometimes the hustle and bustle of life in Los Angels wears on my nerves and I start day dreaming about running away to Little Town USA and starting over. Maybe buying some land, putting up solar panels and buying the water rights to my very own well. You think I’m joking? I’m not.

For what I could sell my 4 bedroom, 2 bath house here in L.A. for, I could literally buy a freakin’ estate somewhere else …. almost anywhere else across the country and have a nice little nest egg. I’ve researched the markets, talked to realtors. I even convinced Remi we should just do it.

But of course I want to move somewhere gay friendly. I’m more then a little spoiled here in LA, where we have Long Beach to the south and WeHo to the north. I’m conveniently located smack dab in the middle of two of the gayest places on earth. So of course if I’m going to uproot my whole life, I want to make sure I’m not moving somewhere that will try to force me back into the closet.

After a lot of thought, I seriously considered Salt Lake City, Utah. Don’t yell at me just yet. Hold on and hear me out. SLC has one of the fastest growing gay populations in the US not to mention that for my money, I could literally afford to buy a gorgeous, renovated Victorian in downtown Salt Lake City and still buy myself that new BMW I’ve been drooling over. Not to mention enough seed money to start up a little business. Ya, not sounding too stupid now is it?

Well, we were getting all excited about the idea when I started getting in contact with the local GLBT community out there to really find out what it’s like to be gay in Utah. The unanimous opinion from every gay person I spoke to was, “It’s great out here, we have a strong, vibrant, close knit community. But make sure you stay within the city. Oh yea, and the laws suck, we have no protections, no rights and you could get fired just for being gay. But other then that, come on over!”

Eeeeeeek. Excuse me?

So I did some more research and found out, unfortunately that Utah is not for me. While there are good deals in real estate out there, I’m not about to move to a state where every one warns me to stay within the city limits for my own safety. WTF??!!! Not to mention the long list of civil right infringements that go along with being gay in Utah, No thank you.

Apparently, one of the many prices you pay for living in a gay friendly area is sky high real estate prices. Like someone said, but i can’t remember who, “I always knew I’d live in a million dollar home in L.A. I just didn’t know it would be a two bedroom, one bath.”

So for now, I’ve resigned myself to staying in sunny southern California for the foreseeable future. But out of curiosity I googled, “gayest cities in the USA” and came across this list of the top 5 best cities for lesbians.

I’ve only been to San Francisco, but I’ve got to disagree with this list. I firmly believe that Los Angeles should have made the list. But here it is anyways, for your perusal.

Top 5 Top Lesbian Cities in the United States
By Kathy Belge, About.com

1. Northampton, Massachusetts
Dubbed as “Lesbianville U.S.A.” by the The National Enquirer in 1992, Northampton, MA is the best city in America for lesbians. The Northampton area has always been a great place to live, and because gays and lesbians can get legally married in Massachusetts, it tops our list. Northampton is a small town, but because of the numerous universities, including Smith College, Northampton has all the cultural offerings of a big city.

2. Portland, Oregon
If Northampton is Lesbianville of the East, Portland is Lesbianville of the West. Lesbians flock to Portland for the same reasons straights do, it’s a great place to live. Among other distinctions, Portland was rated the Best Walking City and Best Bicycling City in America. Although voters passed an anti-gay marriage law last year, Portland residents lean more to the left than the rest of the state. Add a great music scene and plenty of lesbian hangouts to the mix.

3. San Francisco, California
San Francisco must be the gayest city on earth. And it’s not just the boys who find home here. Whether you’re a young, politcal dyke or gender queer or a six-figure power lesbian, San Francisco can’t be beat. Take a stroll in Golden Gate Park or shop for wedding bands in the Castro. With one of the nation’s best domestic partnership rulings and child protection laws, San Francisco is also a great place to raise a family.

4. New York, New York
The largest city in the world is a mecca for lesbians. Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood is where the sapphic sisters of New York tend to congregate, but the city that never sleeps has something for lesbians of every age, political persuasion and background in all of its borroughs. From the classic Rubyfruit bar to esoteric performance art in Soho. Whether you want to visit the home of gay rights Stonewall Riots or if Riot GRRL is more your scene, New York City is the place for you.

5. Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the queer capital of the South. And one of the nation’s most diverse. Whether you want to dance your feet off at My Sister’s Room lesbian bar or spend a leisurly afternoon at Outwrite gay and lesbian bookstore. With one of the nation’s largest gay pride parades, gay film festival and numerous other cultural events, you’ll understand why they call this “Hot-lanta.”

17 Responses to “Best Places to be A Lesbian”

Heather

29. Jun, 2009

Rubyfruit in nyc closed.
Deb

29. Jun, 2009

Well, I am from Atlanta, and it is indeed, very very gay. As a matter of fact, Decatur, located just to the east of downtown, is often referred to as ‘Dykecatur’. However, it is NOT a small town. And our traffic has actually now EXCEEDED LA. Yes, this is the truth. We also have the attendant air pollution, with advisories posted MANY days during the heat of the summer, NOT to exercise outdoors. Atlanta, like LA, sprawls. An interesting sidebar; Atlanta has the largest local dialing district in the world. It is a hard-assed, balls to the wall drive from the far northern ‘burbs to the far southern ‘burbs (approximately 1 – 1 1/2 hour drive) and the call is not long distance. Not that it matters anymore, with cellphones.

My ‘partner’ (I know, I know…..you struggle with this term} are seriously considering a move to Asheville NC (and environs.) It is the ‘gayest’ small town in America, very tolerant, very artsy, very liberal and….well…slightly ‘new agey’. On any given day the temperature is a good 7-15 degrees cooler than Atlanta up there.

I have grown every soooooooo weary of the city. Tired of the heat, the noise, the vagrants, the ‘homeless’ aka drunken, drugged out BUMS who have drank and drugged themselves OUT OF A FREAKIN’ HOME and then roam the streets hittin’ everybody up for money and breaking into cars and homes. Tired of the leaf blowers, car horns, car alarms, 10 garbage truck runs a week right outside my window and OH MY GOD I AM RANTING AND RAMBLING.

Clearly I need the cool, calm and quiet of a nice mountain home.

What was the question?
Sasha

29. Jun, 2009

Asheville NC, huh? Well now I must google the hell out of that … thank you

Even though I do love LA … there are many MANY days I ache for a simpler, QUIETER life. There’s not a moment in the 24 hours that the sound of traffic is not a constant in the background. Ugh.
Jessica

30. Jun, 2009

I live in Portland! It truly is a wonderful place to live, as long as you’re not a twentysomething looking for a job. Unemployment among recent college grads and college students is like 40%. But everything else about it is great. And there are a LOT of lesbians here.
Donna

30. Jun, 2009

I would move to the Pacific Northwest to some podunk town in a hot second if I had a girlfriend and a job there. As long as the town had a good library system and I had high-speed internet access and cable and a Netflix account, I’d be much happier than living in Los Angeles–where I never go to the lesbian bars or hang out in the lesbian meccas of West Hollywood or Long Beach but suffer the miserable smog and traffic and general strip-mall and concrete ugliness that goes along with life here. Unless you like moving along at 5 mph for an hour while you breathe in toxic fumes while surrounded on all sides by concrete and chrome just to meet a friend for coffee, living outside these “lesbian meccas” is equivalent to living in some podunk town, but *without* the benefits of clean air and space to think and breathe and live, let alone a decent cost of living. The meccas and the bars and the scene in general holds no appeal to someone past the age of 28 or so. (Or before the age of 28 as well.) This may sound harsh, but I’m living the spinster life as a result of these feelings (I’m walking the walk, not just talking the talk), but If you’re not a typical lesbian and not physically attracted to typical (soft butch, androgynous, butch, etc.) lesbians, there is absolutely no reason to put up with what you have to put up with to live here in L.A., unless you’ve got family or a job here, or some other valid reason to be here. Perhaps I’m just a bitter lesbian, albeit an astereotypical-looking and acting bitter lesbian, but a bitter lesbian nonetheless. Maybe it’s just that lesbians always assume that in L.A. all lesbians look like they do in the L-Word. Nope, they do not. They look, for the most part, just like the lesbians in your hometown. And they act the same, or maybe worse. There is something, a kernel of truth within the stereotype–and there always is a kernel of truth to a stereotype, to our rep of being a bunch of vacuous idiots. Glad you didn’t include L.A. in your top 5 places for lesbians, Sasha.
Lindsy

30. Jun, 2009

I really need to move to one of these places. I feel like I’m the ONLY lesbian in my little country town. It’s so depressing.
Tara

30. Jun, 2009

I live in Long Beach and it rocks for lesbians. But if you EVER have to drive outside of LB like say into Los Angeles or even worse the west side, you’re looking at 2 hours of your life you’ll never get back, wasted on the 405 fwy.
Joe

30. Jun, 2009

I live in Palm Springs and there is a huge gay population down here. I love it. I think we should have made the list Sasha.
Judith

30. Jun, 2009

Well I don’t know about Northhampton, but I disagree with Atlanta. I would also add two lesser-known options: Iowa City has a huuuuge lesbian population, especially college-aged and the 35+ family-type crowd, and Carborro, NC is also super lesbian-friendly.
sheila

30. Jun, 2009

I like *parts* of SF and the east bay, but move too far away from the water and it basically turns into Kentucky. Last fall I was at a friend’s house in Alameda and saw so many Yes on Prop 8 signs en route I wanted to turn the car around.

And like Los Angeles, SF is expensive. Really expensive. The strolls in Golden Gate Park are great but I can’t afford to live anywhere near there, and unless Lisa and I win the sfraffle.com “dream home” next to GGP we never will, I’m guessing (though I do hold out the hope that I’m lucky, tho the day to day does not bear it out). Berkeley is a nice town though with somewhat better prices and excellent food; I recommend it to anyone, gay or not.
Deb

30. Jun, 2009

@Judith – you “disagree with Atlanta”????? Huh? We’re the third gayest city in America:

http://federationofideas.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/gayest-us-cities/
Buffy

02. Jul, 2009

If you can stand the cold and snow I’d recommend somewhere in MA (Northamptom or Provincetown perhaps). You’ll have better rights and protections than anywhere else in the nation–even here in CA barring the overturn of Prop 8. My wife and I will be heading there as soon as we can if they don’t permanently ditch that hateful nonsense. I left some years ago and swore I’d never return but I’ll gladly face the New England winters to have my rights.
Joker

03. Jul, 2009

Where are you from? Is it a secret?
Have a nice day
Joker
Sasha

03. Jul, 2009

I don’t seem to have any secrets … anymore. I live near Long Beach.
H

05. Jul, 2009

You should check out Louisville, KY. Not so small but it is very liberal and gay friendly community. I would be there in a second if I wasn’t stuck in the small town country place with a bad housing market.
Meghan

20. Oct, 2009

Asheville is awesome, no joke. It’s a small city with tons going on at all times. The houses are old and adorable, though some can be expensive, the cost doesn’t have anything comparable to CA costs. I’m a college student, experiencing Asheville at this very moment. I’ve lived all over the country (including CA), and this is my favorite place. Though I’m not a lesbian, I have noticed the awesome amount of love and tolerance here. Asheville is the place to be.

On a side note, the coffee is fantastic here too.
Hel

15. Feb, 2010

We moved to Northampton a few years ago to get away from homophobic N.E Pennsylvania. We’re now married and can be out at work without fear of losing our jobs. Pluses – Arts, Culture, beautiful natural areas, welcoming religious institutions, strong support for whole living,.

We had checked out Asheville (pretty but living is mostly rural), Ptown is too pricey, NYC (grew up there…too frenetic and expensive). The Minuses – long winters, low wages/higher cost of living.

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