Gay friendly Pittsburgh or Raleigh/Durham?

[Yac]

I'd like to remind everyone this is a Pittsburgh specific forum. To discuss gay marriage in general, please go to the politics and other controversies forum.
Yac.

[thomascwaters]

Originally Posted by JoshM25

I'm going to go against my better judgment and chime in here. I'm neither uneducated, insecure or ignorant, but I happen to hold the viewpoint that your personal sexual habits have nothing to do with how one experiences this fine city. Segregating yourself is just going to lead to folks thinking differently by default. My religion, politics and such will invariably lead to dissent when I purposefully separate them as a unique distinction of who I am. I just live my life like the rest of the people around here. The minute you try to make yourself known as "different", that's when you run into trouble.

Gay, straight or whatever, why does this have to be a qualifier of what kind of city this is? The OP wants to know if Pittsburgh is gay-friendly. How about is it people friendly? Or even a step further -- is it fat-friendly? Is it bald-friendly? With the diverse population around here, it doesn't matter who you are anymore. Pittsburghers are friendly and welcoming for the most part.

I don't care what people do in their own homes and bedrooms. But why does it have to affect what kind of city this is? It seems to me like someone is almost grasping to see who's going to hate on them.

Bring on the flaming, I know.

No flaming from me Josh (there is a gay pun in there however, LOL) but I guess the point I want to make is that the issue isn't about "making yourself known as different." But rather, in my experience, in Pittsburgh, generally speaking, differences/ diversity is accepted as a good thing and that makes Pittsburgh fairly gay-friendly. It isn't, in my opinion, a city you have to hide in at all. For example, my partner and I frequently hold hands as we are walking the dog in our neighborhood. This isn't to make ourselves look different, but rather to be ourselves, and be like everyone else. All of our neighbors know that we are gay, and partners. It just isn't a big deal.

I understand your question- why you don't understand the question- is Pittsburgh Gay-friendly. I'm guessing you are not a part of a minority and haven't experienced being in a place that was concretely unfriendly to you. I don't hold that against you. But being gay or recognizing the city as gay-friendly really isn't about a person's sexual habits, unless for you, holding hands in public is a sexual habit- or kissing each other upon meeting or departing in a public area- or referring to each other as partner in public- or.... the list could go on.

I want to return to the list of "justifications as to the unfriendliness of Pittsburgh, with a comment on some of the items listed:
Drag Queen jumped in Bloomfield- this is really a misrepresentation, and there is a blog entry on my blog which describes exactly what happened as portrayed by the drag queen. In a nutshell, she was called a ****** while getting out of her car by very drunk straight guys. She chose to confront them about it, and a fist fight ensued where we believe the drag threw the first punch. After the fight was broken up, and she began to walk down the street the straight guys resumed the fight, and beat up the drag. This could have happened anywhere in any city.

Highland Park man jumped: (BTW, this was 3 blocks from my home, and I've done a lot of work on this one.) While the victim has been taunted by name calling in the past, it was not clear that he was attacked specifically because he was gay. There have been a string of attacks by a gang of youths this summer, and this in some aspects fits their MO. It may or may not have been gay related.

Homophobic Donut Shop- to me this one is the most blown out of proportion. It is true that a business owner holds strong religious and conservative views, and has personally blogged about his personal opinions. It is also the that the donut shop has a peace and love theme. The issue comes in if a person is qualified to judge these two things (a personal perspective and a business theme) as incongruous. Personally I think as a person he can be as conservative as he wants. The truth also is that the shop itself has been very welcoming to gays. I can go in there with my partner, and be treated wonderfully and warmly.

People who hold conservative ideas are everywhere, and all of us daily use businesses- some openly conservative, others less so openly (how about Target?), but this too, is something that could happen in any city.

[Blackbeauty212]

Very well said Thomas - There are A**holes in every city, even the most so-called "Gay-Friendly" of Places like SF NYC Florida....

[Renaldo5000]

I met that donut shop guy! We were in Roland's and happened to be sitting next to each other. We started talking politics and such and it was obvious that he had a somewhat religious bent. Then I happened to mention I was interviewing at a gay bar. He didn't seem too fazed though. Seemed like a smart guy. He did complain about his taxes though, haha.

Damn...Pittsburgh is such a small city.

[jay5835]

Where is the Homophobic Donut Shop?

[Renaldo5000]

Originally Posted by jay5835

Where is the Homophobic Donut Shop?

It's in the Strip somewhere.

[greg42]

Smallman between 20th and 21st.