openly gay family moving to columbus (Athens, Oregon: for sale, school, university)

[OREGONRAIN]

thank you, asearchforareason

[lacma]

My partner and I are considering making the move to the Columbus area as well. We have heard wonderful things about German Village, but we are moving from the West Coast and would like a little more space and access to excellent schools. Could anyone comment on the tolerance level in New Albany? Thanks in advance.

[streetcreed]

Um, well I do know some gay friends of mine in New Albany. I would say that some developments in New Albany will give you just as much space as some developments in suburbs which are not quite as far away from the central city. New Albany is a newer suburb in Columbus.

If your going to look at a suburb then I seem to know more gay couples that live in Upper Arlington, Dublin, Hillard, Worthington, Pickerington (or the city of Columbus areas around these areas with suburban style neighborhood i.e. larger yards etc.)

The NW area of Columbus seems to be a gay friendly nice suburban area. It is the neighborhood between Upper Arlington and and Dublin. Some of the area has some nice decent size homes that go to either some of the better schools in the Columbus District or to Dublin City schools.

Also, Clintonville/Beechwold has some very nice homes and is a nice neighbood just north of the Ohio State University. The neighborhood is more family oriented than German Village, and has many gay couples that are raising children and using the Columbus Schools in the neighborhood or private schools. I would atleast look into this area as it is known for being famly friendly, larger yards, and very open to gay couples.

Also an east side neighborhood with larger homes and yards called Berwick has become very open to gay couples.

Really Columbus' gay community is spread out across the whole metro, but you will not find a large grouping of gay people in one area of a suburb, like you do in Columbus neighborhoods. They will be spread out across apartments, condos, and neighborhoods. The Grandview Heights suburb has many gay people living in it or around it. This is one of the closest suburbs to downtown. And the yards are not usually that large.

Maybe someone on here is gay and living in New Albany and we can get a better perspective. I know my gay friends that are there do not have kids, so I do not know their experience on how the school district is at dealing with gay parents. However, I have been over at his condo many times and his neighbors seem to know and are fine with it.

[lacma]

thanks so much

[Donna7]

Hi there, Brikag, welcome to Ohio (if you and your partner should decide to move here)! I wish you and your family the best.

[OhioNerd]

Originally Posted by OREGONRAIN

I was just wondering why the gay poplulation is so high in columbus versus many other large cities.

I don't think it is.

I have heard that gay people make up roughly 10% of the population, with their residence biased toward larger urban areas.

I'm willing to believe that is true until better information comes along.

I would strongly suspect that the percentage of gay people in Columbus is roughly on a par with every other mid-to-large urban area in the country.

I think the PERCEPTION that Columbus has a higher percentage of gay people is based on them having a high percentage of OPENLY gay people.

The fact that Columbus is a University town probably has a large influence on social attitudes; which in turn leads to an increased willingness on the part of gay people to be comfortable enough with their surroundings to simply... be themselves.


I offer no hard statistics for any of this of course...
It's just my personal observations.

Now if I could just figure out why Columbusians are such lousy drivers...

[GriffOH]

I moved to Cowtown from Washington, DC--specifically Dupont Circle, "the gayborhood" And have found Columbus surprisingly cosmopolitan and accepting. There is a large GLBT population, roughly 1 in every 4 men in Columbus is gay. If you're looking to raise a family, I first recommend you consult a lawyer to get things in order by Ohio standards (though Columbus may be accepting, the state as a whole is quite the other way around.)

As for schools: Grandview, Worthington, and Upper Arlington are all excellent and accepting. Depending on finances, you may want to consider a private school if you choose to live in Columbus City limits. The schools are okay, but I'm unsure about their reception to diversity issues. A great resource would be Columbus' PFLAG chapter

[brikag]

Hey GriffOH,
Thanks for the words of wisdom. That is very interesting about the Columbus community. We're getting sick of the LA attitude. We also miss the change of seasons. My partner lived an hour east of Columbus years and years ago, but he realizes it has changed since he left the state 20 years ago. But not that much....WOW


Thanks

[yspring]

Originally Posted by lacma

My partner and I are considering making the move to the Columbus area as well. We have heard wonderful things about German Village, but we are moving from the West Coast and would like a little more space and access to excellent schools. Could anyone comment on the tolerance level in New Albany? Thanks in advance.

If you're looking to move to New Albany, you're looking at $300,000 plus homes. If this is your price range, then great. I'm not familiar with New Albany, but am familiar with other areas, such as Clintonville, which is very gay friendly. Suburban sized lots (twice the size of German Village), but the schools are Columbus City Schools. I would not call them "an excellent" school district. Worthington, Dublin, Upper Arlington schools are all excellent schools (I went to Worthington). Worthington has the Linworth Alternative School, which is very diversity friendly.

You might contact Stonewall Columbus (http://www.stonewallcolumbus.org/) for more information. BRAVO also could give you some crime stats information related to GLBT crime (http://www.bravo-ohio.org/) (broken link).

[the_pines]

You want out of LA not realizing LA is LA because people dont care about anything. Every alternative view there is embraced. That's what has made it LA. You want to make Columbus Ohio the same thing. You only see the image. Its just on a much smaller scale and more affordable. The only reason for leaving LA is crowded streets and overblown prices. I hope all of it backfires and Columbus goes down the drain. Its the worst big city in Ohio anyway. Im accepting and tolerant of people until they push it on others and tie their hands behind their backs. Its only a short matter of time before the Columbus gay scene wants homosexual inuendo being taught to fourth graders as instanced in very liberal and idealogical areas like San Fran. Something that you would have to line me up at a firing squad and kill me before I would support it. I would personally fly back to shoot down a proposal for any such measures to be added into any grade of school. Im glad it makes all of you happy though while it makes most people miserable in this country. People cant even say anything about it without it being deleted censored as you can cleary see here. Hypocrisy at its finest. That is what I call delusion. Just because the rest of the country is being peer pressured into conforming doesnt mean Ohio will. The northeast eats it up. You will notice they also have a gang mentality and a lot of arrogance. Not all people that obtain knowledge are cut out for it you know. Do you think the majority of Ohioans want it or agree with it? Im sure they dont. Of course people wont respect that or their views as instanced here on this forum. This is more of Imperial philosohpy than anything. Its not surprising where this adminstration stands right now for this to creep into Columbus. Its backed by money and power and pushed on people as acceptance. Its more people trying to fit in than anything. Its not about whats right. That to me is a symptom of delusion.

Yea Bravo. Move from LA to create a smaller LA. Kinda redundant isnt it? Dont even think of putting anything agenda driven into Ohio schools. What you do is your personal business, but when you put it in front of my kids you make it my personal business. That's where I draw the absolute line. People feel like they cant fight anymore because their hands are tied from every direction. That's hardly a fair fight. Its underhanded and dirty. That's what has made standing up for what you think is right somehow wrong in America today. And dont lump these liberal idealogies together with one another. That's a lack of disnction more than anything. Slavery was ended because it was wrong. It isnt the same thing and for a just cause the "red" Ohio sent their men in large numbers. Liberals did not free slaves, good people did. Just like good people are tolerant of todays views, just dont take advantage of that good will as many do. Im sure this post will be censored also because it isnt conforming even though I have not once personally attacked anyone or violated any rules.