Gay in Hawaii (Honolulu, Pahoa: apartments, employment, income)

[rileyolson1996]

Hi! So me and my fiance are a young gay couple (18) looking to move to Hawaii from Seattle in the next 6 months or so! I wanted to start looking for our best fitted location, and figured I would check on here first! We're looking for a place in Hawaii that is cool with the fact that we're both dudes (and that we're interracial. He's Hispanic, I'm white). Also a place that isn't too expensive that isn't too expensive would be nice too, since we're both pretty young. I checked online at a couple places, and I saw that there are plenty of apartments in Honolulu within our budget ($850 - $1,100) but what's the area like there? I'm a tattoo artist, so I figured living a metropolitan city would be better for work.

Any suggestions for islands or cities that we should check out? I hear Kauai is really nice, but I'm not sure if my job or my partner would be too widely accepted there. I've never been to Hawaii, so any advice you could grant me would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks and happy holidays!

-Riley

[hotzcatz]

Finding employment will probably be more of a problem than finding social acceptance. Fortunately, there's two of you to split the rent, although that also means another job will have to be located.

Honolulu is a very urban place, very dense and not as good as Seattle when it comes to urban transport. Will you be setting up your own tattoo studio or working in one that is already there? If you're planning on working in an established place, then finding employment will pretty much determine your housing area.

Would you be able to take a vacation to Hawaii and see where possible employment locations would be? Perhaps visit several of the islands? If you were able to find employment on any of the islands other than Oahu, your living expenses would be less. I don't know if the Pahoa area of the Big Island needs a tattoo artist or not, but they are very gay friendly over in that area.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by rileyolson1996

Hi! So me and my fiance are a young gay couple (18) looking to move to Hawaii from Seattle in the next 6 months or so!

Aloha, and welcome, but...

Why?

If you've never even been to Hawai'i, why do you think you want to live here? It's a serious question, because without grounded experience you're pretty much just dealing with a fantasy.

Please take some time to read through the archives here, and use the Search function to zero in on areas of particular personal interest. In general you'll find the cost of living much higher in Hawai'i, but the income opportunities much reduced. Then there are all the cultural differences, many of which catch people by surprise. Just being 2,500 miles away from the mainland drives some people nuts. It's all been discussed many times before.

I agree with Hotzcatz that your biggest challenge will be finding a way to make a living here, and that nobody much cares about your race or sexual orientation. The fact that you will be a malahini, a newcomer, will likely be a bigger issue for you to grapple with.

Good luck!