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We are a Gay Couple in our 30's seeking relocation advice. We are relocating from Miami to either Atlanta, Dallas, or Houston. Our main requirements are a decent gay community, low-commute time, outdoor recreation, and low crime. If anyone can offer insight, it would be greatly appreciated.
Your criteria are pretty general, but I voted for Dallas since it has a pretty thriving gay community right now, and it seems to only be increasing. It is also pretty affordable and I believe has a better public transportation system than the other two cities, which may help with commuting.
I was going to say much the same as the pp. Dallas has a large gay community in the Oak Lawn area and that's pretty close to the expanded Dallas Light Rail. Plenty to do, nightlife, theater, music, museums, umpteen restaurants, lakes and parks, etc.
Location: The land of sugar... previously Houston and Austin
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None of those cities have "low" crime. But I believe in the last stats I saw, Atlanta had the highest crime of the three and Houston the lowest.
If you enjoy the beach/water scene at all, the closest you'll get to that is Houston. The other two places are obviously land-locked. There's certainly nothing remotely close to Miami's South Beach, but at least you'll have nearby beach access and water recreation if you go with Houston.
Also Houston has a very large and well-established gay population in its Montrose area, which is also close to downtown and most places of interest.
So... I'd go with Houston first, and probably Atlanta last.
Dallas has large gay populations in Oak Lawn but also in North Oak Cliff, Uptown, East Dallas and Lakewood. Anywhere in Central Dallas you will see gay people in restaurants, community activities, stores, etc. In fact gays are often featured in the society columns and upscale publications.
I'd welcome you to Saint Louis. If you moved to the Central West End, you could walk to boutiques, cafes, movies, galleries and Forest Park. Though it's a little more expensive. If you moved to the southwest part of the city, you could have a 1700+ sq. ft. house plus basement with a nice yard and garage for about $175,000. Commutes to activities could be within 15 minutes. Work place commute, who knows. Plenty of gays bars, if you're into that. No fear of gay bashing and I wouldn't worry about crime.
As a fellow gay person, I can tell you that you're setting yourselves up for a mistake by using a "thriving LGBT community" as one of your main criteria. I've decided to raise my family here in my vanilla hometown of Scranton, PA, which is one of the least diverse metros in the entire nation. Why? There are more important things to me than gay pride festivals, gay bars, anti-Republican rallies, etc.
I'm not trying to discourage you from choosing amongst the three cities you selected, but I'm tiring of everyone looking for a "gay-friendly" area in the U.S. You're not going to find one---there are even homophobes in the Bay Area and in Manhattan (they're just kept quiet for fear of retaliation by the liberal majority in both of those areas). I've only been the victim of hate or prejudice several times here in PA, even though we apparently have a reputation for being a "redneck" state. As such, you and your partner should search anywhere for a city that you personally feel "at home" in, not just because the residents are more "progressive" or are well-educated enough to support gay rights. There are even thriving LGBT communities in places you wouldn't even think of, such as Albany, NY, Columbus, OH, and Harrisburg, PA. I'm a firm believer that someone of minority status shouldn't feel "forced" to move to one place or another just in order to feel accepted; if someone in your new city has a problem with you, just hold your head up high to realize that you have more class than they do by not stooping down to their level of uneducated pettiness.
Do I wish my native Scranton, PA was home to a thriving progressive liberal, well-educated population instead of its socially-conservative blue-collar roots? You betcha! Is that a deterrent for me? Nope. I just want to make sure you and your partner have chosen these three cities for the right reasons, not just because they're some sorts of gay meccas. Good luck!
As such, you and your partner should search anywhere for a city that you personally feel "at home" in, not just because the residents are more "progressive" or are well-educated enough to support gay rights. There are even thriving LGBT communities in places you wouldn't even think of, such as Albany, NY, Columbus, OH, and Harrisburg, PA.
On that note, I would count Fort Worth as one of those communities. It's half the size of Dallas and gets overshadowed by its glitzyness but there is also a thriving LGBT community there, although on a smaller scale than Dallas. Don't be put off (if you are) by Fort Worth's "western" image. It plays it up so as not to be overlooked by all the attention that Dallas gets, its neighbor about a half hour to the east. There is even a Texas Gay Rodeo Association chapter in Fort Worth as well as other Texas cities.
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