Where is it LGBT friendly and liberal in Pike County, PA (Pittsburgh: transplants, real estate)

[Ematarese]

We originally thought we would move to the Catskills until I was sexually assaulted, there are so many Hasidim communities, they have public census which profiles listing "Likely Homosexuals.! So we are completely turned off by Sullivan and Delaware Counties.
But what about Pike County? Where is it safe besides Milford?
Were are the hot spots where racists, bigots and rednecks which we should stay way from? What about Greentown?

[Wells5]

Are you wanting to move on a permanent basis or are you looking for a weekend/summer retreat? What is the maximum distance from NYC that you will consider?

The only truly LGBT friendly small town in eastern PA that I am aware of is New Hope in Bucks County, which is easily accessible to NYC but very expensive.

If you want to move away from the city on a permanent basis, I would suggest looking into western MA or Vermont especially Brattleboro.

[Ematarese]

Thank you Senior Member;
We have to stay near NYC because of our coop. But we have 7 dogs and 3 cats we rescued or were abandoned because town people knew we would take the animals in. So it would be semi-permanent.
My partner works in Nanuet.
Delaware County and Sullivan County we liked but after renting we realized this is just too homophic for our tastes. Not that we are flaming queens but we just want to be left alone.
Oh God we have to move all the way to Bucks County $$$$ or Western Mass or VT!
We were thinking about a 100 mile radius but now we think we need to be closer because driving back and forth to Manhattan -even once a week to do errands- well I'm pooped. 80 miles or less.
Such a disappointment. What about Sussex County, NJ? Is it bad too?
Thanks for your help because if we go to a real estate broker they will try and make the area sound something like Fire Island, The Castro or Christopher Street there is so much pent up inventory and foreclosures.

[jtab4994]

Not sure how convenient it is to Nanuet, but you could try Shawnee in Monroe County. It's convenient to Manhattan, pretty liberal and even the conservatives are LGBTQQ tolerant (well, speaking for myself). The area even boasts a local gay resort, Rainbow Mountain, that's been here for several decades.

[sues1]

Not sure about Sussex County in Jersey, but i come from Jersey and it's not as backwards and homophobic as PA is.

[jtab4994]

Originally Posted by sues1

Not sure about Sussex County in Jersey, but i come from Jersey and it's not as backwards and homophobic as PA is.

That's a pretty broad statement, but it's true that in NEPA there aren't as many wealthy towns and sophisticated non-ghetto urban areas as in NJ. As a result you're not as insulated from "the masses" in NEPA as you might be in Northeastern NJ for example.

[Abundantly_Above]

Monroe and the southern parts of Pike counties are filled with transplants from NJ and NYC. The communities tend to be very diverse and tolerant. I can't speak specifically to the LBGT issue, but my husband and I are an interracial couple and we chose to live here in large part because we have felt welcomed everywhere we go. We have not encountered any of the type of rednecks you are concerned about. The people are the second best part of the Poconos, nature being tops, of course.

[Trucker7]

Why do you want to move to such a conservative area such as NEPA? There are plenty of LGBT friendly communities in NJ to choose from.

Originally Posted by Ematarese

Were are the hot spots where racists, bigots and rednecks which we should stay way from?

[SteelCityRising]

As a gay male I can assure you that you can live happily as an LGBT couple in NEPA. Would I recommend it? It depends. If you're moving here for a great career opportunity? Yes. If you're moving to NEPA simply because it's close to NYC, and you want to spend less cash? No. Not at all. My first ex-boyfriend just got engaged to his current partner today. They live in Monroe County. That seems like a relatively tolerant area (or at least it was when I lived in NEPA as recently as 2009).

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre? Not so much. I faced overt discrimination and homophobia seldomly in the early-2000s (although it DID happen). Subtle discrimination, gossiping, etc. was much more commonplace, sadly. I was the only openly-gay male in my high school. After graduation? You wouldn't believe how many "Interested In" profile sections on classmates' Facebook profiles switched from the opposite gender to the same gender as soon as they moved away. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is a more insular area where a lot of people have "stayed in place" for generations. Many don't travel much (no, Atlantic City, NJ or Ocean City, MD don't count as "traveling" to me). Many don't have a formal education beyond high school and never left the region to get that "college experience", opting instead to stay in the valley to join the workforce or to attend college locally. Many are deeply devout Roman Catholics. The area has had the state's highest unemployment rate for four years, and you'll meet more people who are pessimists than optimists in the immediate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. While most of the country is enjoying a huge resurgence in urban living, the city propers of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre continue to empty out while urban sprawl continues to noticeably worsen each time I visit, leading to more traffic congestion on I-81 and more urban decay in the once-stately Downtowns.

Overall I wouldn't highly recommend NEPA for openly-gay families. Even if you don't face harassment to your face don't be surprised if many neighbors don't send you invitations to social functions or if you are the butt of cruel and insensitive jokes and remarks behind your backs. I personally don't blame my family, for example, for still not accepting me for being gay a decade after finding out. I blame the area's insular nature---an insularity which has all but doomed it economically to the point where desperate people lined up by the hundreds for $8/hr. jobs at a retail clothing store in Wilkes-Barre.

For what it's worth I see both opposite-sex AND same-sex couples being affectionate in public here in Pittsburgh. Nobody cares. I wouldn't have dared be caught holding hands with my male partner in "the valley" back in the early-2000s. Things may have changed a lot since then, but if they have, then it's too late, sadly, for many of my LGBT friends who have left to start lives elsewhere.

[Gettingouttahere]

Yes, SteelCity, I imagine the valley area remains very much more conservative than the eastern counties, but the OP probably doesn't realize the geographical distinction.

OP, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is outside of your chosen radius, so don't worry about the (likely true) observations about that area.

Pike and Monroe counties are on the border with Jersey and have lots of transplants, as has been said. In elections, Monroe votes reliably Democratic, if that's any indication. There are plenty of natives with a good and tolerant heart, too, but you will find also what I call ridge runners ... you'll see a Confederate flag, or some graffiti (for example, "keep white" was spray-painted on a "keep right" sign on the winding road in my development) , and pickup trucks with gun racks are quite common. Not that there's anything wrong with pickup trucks with gun racks! I'm stereotyping! LOL.

Main Street in Stroudsburg is a nice place for a stroll; there are some cafes with outside seating and some cute shops, plus Starbucks, always a good sign of gentrification

Milford in Pike County and the borough of Delaware Water Gap in Monroe County (Shawnee is within two miles of there) are your best bets. DWG is artsy, liberal, and has great jazz & some small antique/boutique-type shops. DWG is on the Appalachian Trail and home to the Celebration of the Arts jazz festival the weekend after Labor Day. I would heartily recommend attending that festival to get a sense of the flavor of the community: *everyone* in town seems to go there. You can also find nice old houses in the borough to renovate (if that's your thing).

I'm not familiar with day-to-day living in Milford, but I get the sense it's got a similar feel. The makeup of the borough is quite similar to what I described above, sans jazz fest.

Rainbow Mountain Resort, on Mount Nebo Road off Route 209 near Marshalls Creek, is a gay resort of long standing here. Worth using as your base if you give the area a visit. (It's about 10 minutes from DWG)
They can give you much more insight from the LGBT perspective than I can.

Good luck!