San Diego Gay Friendly? (San Francisco, Mission Hills: transplants, insurance, homes)

[geeknpink]

My partner and I are thinking of moving to San Diego from LA. We've visited a few times and love it. We are tired of the smog, traffic and celebrities (and followers) that abound in LA. Of course, we know LA is very accepting of the GLBT community, and San Diego is known to be more conservative. I guess my question is, how gay friendly is San Diego?

[GoPadres]

Too bad you didn't make it to SAN yesterday for the LGBT Pride Festival yesterday! I would like to think that SAN is accepting, but it may be that I choose to surround myself with people who aren't judgemental. If this helps, I have a lot of friends from different socioeconomic groups, parents, singles, diverse heritage, transplants from other countries and states, friends who love to party, and many who are more laidback- and every one of them has an open mind to the LGBT community.
You will still have to deal with traffic, but I don't think that it is bad as LA. I am quite biased, however.
http://sandiegopride.org/

[Patrisha Badyal]

Around areas like Mission Hills, HillCrest, North Park you will LOVE it!

We have been here for 2 years now. Started out in La Jolla which was kinda wierd. People seem to be either really young (students) or really old (retired)

Mission Hills is so much nicer.

San Diego has proven to be a bit more conservative than I would have expected for a big city but its like anywhere, it takes awhile to form a friend group.

[AFTERSHOCK]

I agree with Patrishsa, if you are in those areas, you will have the run of the city!
San Diego gay friendly? Well...sort of. Maybe gay tolerant is a better way to put it. There was a horrible violent incident at the gay pride festival prior to the recent festival.

[jksouthbay88]

I would say yes.The only time is when there's Pride.Lot's of bad stuff happens then but other than that I guess it's ok.

[deportallofthem]

San Diego is a large place. I'm sure that you can find people that will accept you somewhere closer to Downtown. The further away-the more families, single family homes, and probably a bit less comfortable for gay men.

[slackerboys]

As a gay man that has lived in Switzerland, San Francisco, Hawaii, and Portland Oregon...San Diego would rank on the bottom of gay friendly. The newspapers don't take personal ads for people looking for relationships with the same sex. The local "alternative" paper, The Reader, is really anti-gay and is owned by a right wing zealot that won't even provide medical insurance with birth control to it's employees. I am a native and left right after graduating from college, it has improved with the influx of biotech and other industries, but it is still the most right wing city I know of in the country. As for traffic I find it worse in San Diego because they don't have a lot of carpool lanes, where in LA they do. The transit system is impossible. This city has alway been way behind in terms of planning for the future. They still dump raw sewage in the ocean (they do remove the "solids") and instead of putting in a state of the art system they just increased the length of the pipe out in the ocean. I don't see the point in moving to San Diego from LA, I think LA has a lot more to do and the people are at least living in this century. After the big fire that destroyed so much a few years ago they voted down increasing funding and improving the fire department. So the future doesn't look very promising for such a backwards city...try the bay area or Porltand, you will find people much more accepting and you can leave your car in the garage and interact with the locals on a modern, fast transit system, instead of spending your time in gridlock. When I visit family there I am shocked by the amount of trash, and for a tourist city!