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Portland is the obvious choice but it's getting more and more expensive to live there every year, so that "lower than average cost of living" parts will quickly become a problem. Seattle is very pricey, as is SF. Albuquerque isn't really "weird", but I feel like it can be in the future, and is much more reasonable expense-wise.
Many of these posts are ignoring the cost of living requirement. With this in mind, Louisville has been getting some attention recently as a place that embraces a "weird" label, and is an affordable midsized metro area with a diverse economy. The city itself is very much at odds with the conservative dominant culture of most of Kentucky.
Austin TX might be a good option. Much more affordable than the PNW, of course. And you need to be okay with heat, humidity, and lottsa traffic compressed into one interstate through town and a few toll roads.
The question is interesting, but way too subjective to really be accurate. Many people in America today consider anyone not like them or think like them as "weird" and would rather have a stake thrust through their heart than "openly accept" or live near them. C-D is a prime example, lol. If you insert any non-violent group (gay, jewish, christian, conservative, liberal, techie, bookworm, old, young, etc.) into nearly any city in the U.S. with over 200k people, if their not jerks or morons (this is key), they will be able to find their place and do just fine. Trust me. I've traveled, researched enough studying metros since 1985 to know this is true. But too many personal, untrue stereotypes exist for most any list of cities on here to be anything near accurate. So listing our favorite cities/areas will not objectively give a correct picture.
Not below average CoL, but MSP would be high on my list.
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