Southern WV gay-friendly neighborhoods (Charleston, Huntington: 2009, rent, theater)

[drsnjkb]

Hi everyone. We are wishing the relocate to the Huntington/Charleston/Beckley area next summer (2009). We've done a lot a research in this area & are excited about our move but now we've like to ask one: is there any gay friendly neighborhoods?

[Hinton Bound]

I think GHO might better answer this, BUT...

I live (part time) in Hinton, just east of Beckley. MSU has a pretty big theater department, and I see quite a few gay's at the Starbucks in Beckley.

As for gay friendly areas, I'm willing to bet that as long as you're a productive, responsible citizen, nobody is going to give you grief. If you want to live in the "holler", and act like you live in the Castro district of San Fran, or P-town out in Cape Cod... then you might not get along so well! I would have to say the bigger the city (ie. Charleston), the better the chances you won't be so isolated.

~Mark

[drsnjkb]

Thanks Mark; well, we are just very simple folk not into "partying" or "living it up" just wanting a quite place surrounded by beautiful country with our own piece of land to escape to after work. Thanks for the advice. drsnjkb

[BJC]

I was in S'ville last week and had a conversation with 2 women who are lesbians, one of them had just returned from San Francisco for work and while there was able to attend a gay parade, she was so funny about the experience. What she said to me was “I get the whole gay thing, I really do, what I do not get is the “freak” part of it. So my comments to you echo those of HintonBound. Best Whishes to you as you settle on a place to live in WV.

[Hinton Bound]

Originally Posted by drsnjkb

Thanks Mark; well, we are just very simple folk not into "partying" or "living it up" just wanting a quite place surrounded by beautiful country with our own piece of land to escape to after work. Thanks for the advice. drsnjkb

You'd be welcome on our mountain. Check out landandfarm.com There are some great places in Summers County. As everyone here will say, you can't really go wrong in WV if you're looking for a quiet, beautiful place to live in peace.

~Mark

[amerideaf]

Rent a DVD titled "My Fellow Americans" 1996 (starring Jack Lemmon and James Garner) and watch a Gay Pride parade in WV

[GottaHerdOn]

Hey, I am probably the expert on this forum with gay issues.. ha ha I'm gay, and I live in Huntington with my boy friend of two years. We are both seniors at Marshall University and I can tell you Huntington is a very "progressive" city. I feel comfortable walking down the streets here holding my boy friends hand. Given we are both very opinionated people and would not deal well with any form of HATE, we have luckily never had that problem here.

If you're religious there is an openly gay accepting church here, not sure what the name of it is, but I could get that for you if you would be interested. We had the pastor or preacher or whatever speak at one of our Lambda Society Pride events a few years back on being gay and religion.

I think you would be very happy here...

Where are you moving from? If you have anymore questions just let me know

[BigJohnClark]

As a resident in the Charleston/Beckley area, I can say there are some bad apples around, but that's common everywhere.

I think if you're a good person, honest, and hardworking etc.... people won't give a **** what you are.

For instance, a few months ago I was at the grocery store. Saw an indian family. (sorry, I do not know if they were from Pakistan, India wherever, but that region), and they were native to there. I kind of followed them around being a little sneaky just seeing if any of the rednecks around here gave them any trouble or seemed to not care for them. Nope, they treated them just like anyone else, were nice, helped them find something they couldn't find.

Sure, there are some that don't like people being gay, but they tolerate it. I can't speak personally, as I'm straight but I truly feel that as long as you're a good person, you won't have much problem.

[vec101]

Have heard there are a couple gay bars in Charleston and a gay friendly church http://stjohnswv.org/pages/saga.html .

[David Kennedy]

I will second the notion of BigJohnClark....If you are honest, friendly and hard working, you will be a neighbor..private lives are that...private.

The hate that exists in the hearts of people is not discriminatory...it begins with them hating themselves and goes outward...it exists with the blacks, the reds and the purples..all groups contain extremists...they hate everyone...been that way since we were monkeys swinging in the trees...I blame in on a chimpanzee gene that comes to the surface once in a whole...it is animal behaviour and certainly not human...those kind of people are a lot like chimps...think about it.