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My partner may be taking a job in West Chester and we know little about the area other than it looks beautiful. We are going to be starting a family soon and a safe, accepting community is very important to us. Does anyone know if West Chester is a gay-friendly community? Thank you!
J
wtf is gay-friendly? you can find people that are against gay views or pro gay views anywhere. just about any sizable city has a gay bar in town... look at the upper populated cities, they are more tolerant to diversity... not just gays...
I was hanging around with openly Gay people in the 80's in
West Chester. It was no big deal back then.
But what another poster said, West Goshen and a few other
places out seide of WC are old established suburban mindset
neighborhoods. I dont know of any problems there, but I do
know the mindset of the people who live there and a police
dept straight out of Selma Alabama, 1962 might give credit
to that previous post. My neighbor in Downingtown was openly
Gay and took a lot of abuse from the nieghbors. But, that was
my first house in a real bad, redneck part of D-Town. We had
the For Sale sign back up in a whopping 8 months. Not a pleasant
experience. But, I digress....I think WC would be a great place for
a Gay couple to put some roots down.
Good luck on whatever you decide !
I always hoped we would get some gay neighbors. Our little development was needing some diversity badly. Although we had a lesbian couple, last winter they broke up after many decades of being together. Now we are getting single people buying big homes. I miss having a nice palette of people around.
having a gay couple as neighbours I must admit would be interesting for me,
could not relate to them much though...
Why would you find it so hard to relate to a gay person? Speaking for myself and my partner...we're just like straight people. We get up and go to work Mon - Fri, come home have dinner, sit out on our deck, walk in the park (or around the neighborhood), say hi to our very nice neighbors, cut our grass, water the lawn, play with our dogs and watch TV...see just like you and your family! Oh, and sometimes we even go to church!!!!
We don't all have wild sex parties every night like most of America thinks that all gay folks do. Hope this helps to ease your concerns about relating to us weirdo gay people
Why would you find it so hard to relate to a gay person? Speaking for myself and my partner...we're just like straight people. We get up and go to work Mon - Fri, come home have dinner, sit out on our deck, walk in the park (or around the neighborhood), say hi to our very nice neighbors, cut our grass, water the lawn, play with our dogs and watch TV...see just like you and your family! Oh, and sometimes we even go to church!!!!
We don't all have wild sex parties every night like most of America thinks that all gay folks do. Hope this helps to ease your concerns about relating to us weirdo gay people
I'm sure I said hi to a stranger on the street and he/she was gay, I know they can do the same "normal" things as straight people do of any color, religion, sex etc... but there are social boundaries and beliefs that are not easily crossed between gay and straight people. I respect gay people but do not interact much with them nor I am willing too... I'm sure at work I have to and usually I don't care, I go there to work... but in my social life I feel I have more in common with other social classes like immigrants, blacks and other minorities but not much with gay people. I am friendly with anybody regardless of their beliefs as long as they are decent citizens, but I am not friends with everybody. but I do respect and let be other people that don't share my values... good luck!
Tuesday, June 17 is West Chester GayNiteOUT at Iron Hill Brewery
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, 30 W. Gay St., Corner Gay & High Sts., West Chester, PA 610-738-9600
Come join us for a monthly GLBT open-door mingle (over three years running now !) Men and women of all ages welcome. We meet in the front bar facing Gay St.
Experience small town charm & architectural grandeur, where the restaurants take over the street Paris-style, & Gay Street is hopping! Enjoy the view of the historic streetscape from the front bar or sidewalk. Make dinner reservations early as the West Chester Iron Hill can be busy even on weeknights. Come and see how amazing it feels to be out & welcomed in our suburban community, as it should be! West Chester welcomes thee!
Last month they were shooting a winter scene complete with artificial snow, large camera crane, and lighting trucks from Hollywood on West Gay Street for the movie Marley & Me, with Jennifer Aniston & Owen Wilson on hand. So the Iron Hill end of the street was a viewing area. Made for a very interesting evening!
Parking: Street-level free municipal lot on Church & Chestnut one block north, & ½ block west of Iron Hill, plus 75 free spaces at the Justice Center on W. Market St., & free on-street downtown meter parking after 5pm. To get on the Yahoo email reminder list for the Iron Hill events go to the GNO Yahoo page and click the JOIN button: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Gay-Nite-OUT
Or send your name and and a brief note (to let real people in and keep the SPAM out) to: west_chester_gno@yahoo.com
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IF IT*S TUESDAY, THINK IRON HILL
3rd Tuesday of each month - West Chester Iron Hill - 7:30 PM
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, 3 West Gay St. 19380
610-738-9600
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West Chester is home to the busiest & the first Iron Hill Brewery location in PA. The renovation includes original tin ceiling tiles from the building’s earlier days as a Woolworth five & dime. It’s contemporary, rich wood interiors and furnishings, high ceilings, & a sophisticated but warm inviting feel are the perfect setting for sampling your choice of five house beers, plus seasonals, & cuisine ranging from ethnic to hearty comfort foods, including soups, salads, sandwiches, wood-oven pizzas, & entrees.
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Chester County Brunch
CCBB is a 200 member covered dish club for GLTB folks who like to both socialize and eat. We meet in member homes in the 5 counties and DE. Membership is $10 per year single, and $15 per year couples, which includes a quarterly newsletter announcing the details of each event. Dinner parties are often themed, and include an annual anniversary party, next year will be our 20th, at a large art gallery with a DJ, drawing over 150. [/font]
For info on Chester County Brunch Bunch email Pete at PGM1217@aol.com
West Chester was recently named number one of America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, as well as one of the top 100 communities in the U.S. in Frommer’s new book Best Places to Raise Your Family. Money Magazine also ranked West Goshen as twelfth in it's annua ratingof the Best Places to Live in the U.S.
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Other - West Chester
West Chester Borough Council passed an Anti-discrimination Ordinance on Sept. 20, 2006. The outcome was a unanimous vote in favor of the ordinance, which provides protection for Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Transgender residents of the Borough against discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation.
West Chester has a PFLAG Chapter at the Unitarian Fellowship on south High St., that has been around for at least six years, and meets the first Tuesday of each month. They helped to organize the first two Chester County Pride Day events at Bayard Rustin Park near the University in 2003 & 2004. The next two years it moved to Phoenixville, and has been suspended since. We hope to one day revive the event maybe here again in West Chester.
Also a gay West Chester youth group just began this year (Chester Co. Brunch raised several hundred dollars for them at our anniversary soire in Jan. They also meet at the Unitarian Fellowship, which proudly and displays a rainbow sticker. So do some of the businesses in town, as we have made an effort to encourage them to do so.
A one hour documentary on Bayard Rustin, the gay Quaker pacifist and civil rights activist & W.C. native, who inspired Martin Luther King's campaign of peaceful resistence, premiered at The Chester County Historical Society a few years ago, including a visit from his partner, who is still living in NYC. The Historical Society is also the site of an West Chester International Short Film Festival, which is in it's fourth year, and awarded the People's Choice award to a film last year that was up for an Oscar. It often includes a number of gay subject films as well.
Harry Dunn, also a gay man and West Chester native, designed the orginial NBC peacock logo, is well known for his Mr. Magoo animations, and a large body of work, that is delightfully playful and eccentric, and highly collectible. Sunset Jewelers in West Chester sells, collects, and displays his work on the upper floor, including an ongoing display of his work area as it would have appeard in his studio.
There are a lot more incidental gay connections here in West Chester, so it would be nice to eventually have a website devoted to it, such that we can continue to broaden accessibility to the GLTB folks living and working in the area, and those considering moving here.
I could include more here, but I'm working from my laptop, don't have access to my usual database, and am getting ready to call it a night ..not that there's nothing to do here, but you do have to make an effort. I missed my gay dinner club party tonight in favor of car shopping.
Hope that this helps, although coming from a biased perspective! I was born in the midwest & grew up on the West coast and in Texas, but I have come to love this little town over several decades.
Tom
Last edited by burntorange; 06-15-2008 at 12:06 AM..
When I lived in West Chester in the 60's and 70's it was a hot bed of gay activity. My partner and I had at least 100 gay and lesbian friends and we had wonderful times together. I would doubt that much has changed since then. Our friends had jobs all over town in almost every type of place. We loved the community. I was shocked when we moved to the Pacific Nortwest where it is full of narrow minded, bible thumping, ignorant people. That was over 30 years ago and I still haven't gotten over it. (NOT Seattle). Good luck on your move.
wtf is gay-friendly? you can find people that are against gay views or pro gay views anywhere. just about any sizable city has a gay bar in town... look at the upper populated cities, they are more tolerant to diversity... not just gays...
Wow - I realize I am years-old in replying to this post, but I was scrolling around and just saw it. What an incredibly rude and ignorant response to a reasonable, important question. Totally pisses me off. Having lived in many different places all over the country (and the world), I know for sure that there are VERY big differences in gay-friendliness, depending upon where you live. And if you are raising a child with your partner (and therefore 100% out, active in the community, breaking some taboos, etc), the differences are even greater. I would NOT call West Chester gay-friendly. I'm not saying that it is gay-intolerant, or some redneck town where you are likely to get lynched or harassed, but it is fairly conservative. It is the county seat for Chester County, which is a fairly affluent, conservative county. For example, and of note relative to the guy's comment above, West Chester does NOT have a gay bar (in fact, there in only one in all of Chester County - about 1/2 hour away in Phoenixville). Yes, it is very pretty, but if I was part of a gay couple raising a kid, I would do some serious thinking before choosing West Chester. I am not saying that I think it would be impossible, or possibly dangerous, or even horribly difficult, but I would think it might possibly be a lot harder and more isolating than, say, the Bay Area or Portland. Yes, Chester County is quite beautiful (horse country), and there are a fair amount of well-off, intelligent, thoughtful people, and it is a safe, stable, affluent place to live -- but the overall tone of the place leans right, conservative and traditional. But, that is just my opinion -- I could be wrong - or others might disagree or know more than I do.
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Relate to Gay People
