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I know the bigger cities and University towns may be more open-minded, however we want to raise our kids in the country. We are looking for a farm somewhere near Louisville, Lexington, Fort Knox that has the small town feel with the modern openness of a more contemporary city. We are a lesbian couple with 5 school age kids and want a safe atmosphere for our kids to flourish.
Without directing any moral judgements and hate toward me can anyone let me know what areas would fit what I am looking for? I am looking towards the Washington county area just by looking online but that doesn't look very integrated and I want a more diverse culture for my kids.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for the help. We will be up there looking next month and want some guidance on which areas to go to so we don't waste a lot of time on any bigotted areas.
I know the bigger cities and University towns may be more open-minded, however we want to raise our kids in the country. We are looking for a farm somewhere near Louisville, Lexington, Fort Knox that has the small town feel with the modern openness of a more contemporary city. We are a lesbian couple with 5 school age kids and want a safe atmosphere for our kids to flourish.
Without directing any moral judgements and hate toward me can anyone let me know what areas would fit what I am looking for? I am looking towards the Washington county area just by looking online but that doesn't look very integrated and I want a more diverse culture for my kids.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for the help. We will be up there looking next month and want some guidance on which areas to go to so we don't waste a lot of time on any bigotted areas.
I would stay away from rural KY, and I would focus my search almost exclusively on the Oldham Co area. There are lots of transplants there, and the area is very affluent and well educated. It also has arguably the top rated school system in the state. It is not overly suburbanized or commerical. There is plenty of open land and also some nice towns, and you are only 30 minutes from downtown Louisville. The most accepting place in Ky for lesbians with kids would have to be the urban neighborhoods of Louisville--notably the Highlands and Old Louisville. That said, I think most people in Oldham Co will probably be pretty accepting, although there is a conservative Christian underbelly who is downright bigoted when it comes to your situation. This is only a few people, though, and most Christians and people in the metro area in general are accepting of all people. I would doubt you would have many problems in Jefferson or Oldham Counties, but that cannot be said for the rest of the state. Lexington is fine near the UK campus, but anywhere outside of there can be rough with your lifestyle. The only other options would be Boone and Campell counties, which are part of metro Cincinnati, but IMO those counties have become a sprawl nightmare.
I know the bigger cities and University towns may be more open-minded, however we want to raise our kids in the country. We are looking for a farm somewhere near Louisville, Lexington, Fort Knox that has the small town feel with the modern openness of a more contemporary city. We are a lesbian couple with 5 school age kids and want a safe atmosphere for our kids to flourish.
Without directing any moral judgements and hate toward me can anyone let me know what areas would fit what I am looking for? I am looking towards the Washington county area just by looking online but that doesn't look very integrated and I want a more diverse culture for my kids.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for the help. We will be up there looking next month and want some guidance on which areas to go to so we don't waste a lot of time on any bigotted areas.
Hi, I am not living in KY yet but will be moving to Lexington in July (from Iowa). Where I'm from I can't imagine anyone giving you any problems about your lifestyle, but I guess this is a reality. But even in KY which is largely "conservative" you can find your place. I would think Lexington would be a great choice for you. We live now in Iowa City (Iowa is known as 'conservative' also, although Iowa City isn't, and this town is very gay friendly... my daughter's best friend's parents are a lesbian couple, and my closest friend here has been married for almost ten years to her lesbian partner).
Wow, five school aged kids, you guys are busy! We can barely manage three.
Hope your family finds a great place in KY! I certainly hope that Lexington would be welcoming of you.
You might want to check out some of the acreages in Woodford county (Versailles). Good schools, still close enough to Lexington that it should be less conservative, but you can find some nice acreages for less money than a 'nice' house within Lexington.
I lived in Kentucky for a few months (military training), and I also frequently visit friends in San Francisco. With that being said, I don't think anywhere in Kentucky comes close to a "civilized acceptance" of homosexuality.
In Kentucky, the vast majority of people are decient, but I did encounter more open, blatant racism in the 3 months I spent in Kentucky than I did in the rest of my life combined (frequent use of the "N" word in hate). I think the possibility of harassment exists in Kentucky unless you try to keep your life secret (and there is no reason why you should have to do that).
If I were you I would visit the areas you are interested in living in and talk to a few people to get a feel for where they stand. I really hope I am wrong on this one.
I lived in Kentucky for a few months (military training), and I also frequently visit friends in San Francisco. With that being said, I don't think anywhere in Kentucky comes close to a "civilized acceptance" of homosexuality.
In Kentucky, the vast majority of people are decient, but I did encounter more open, blatant racism in the 3 months I spent in Kentucky than I did in the rest of my life combined (frequent use of the "N" word in hate). I think the possibility of harassment exists in Kentucky unless you try to keep your life secret (and there is no reason why you should have to do that).
If I were you I would visit the areas you are interested in living in and talk to a few people to get a feel for where they stand. I really hope I am wrong on this one.
I think KY's major urban areas are mostly accepting, if not only because there is a fairly large population. Louisville has a solid 10 gay nightclubs, many gay owned business, a pride parade, a weekly gay magazine, and more.
I think rural KY is a big difference, and I think unfortunately conservative religion often teaches hate towards homosexuals, so that is often the problem in the more traditional rural areas. Still, even in most rural towns I cannot imagine anyone getting hate messages or anything like that. People may just look at you funny, as my lesbian friend who lives outside Lexington (in Georgetown) tells me.
Let's be honest here. If you go in to the rural area of Kentucky, there will be more people who do not accept you than who do accept you. I think that is probably true of most states. With the possible exception of Oldham County, you are going to have acceptance problems in rural Kentucky.
Now, I don't mean out-and-out hostility or discrimination, although you may get some of that as well. But Kentucky is a blue state; conservative with lots of old time religion. A good example is how the legislature is trying to force the University of Louisville to give up it's domestic partner insurance, even though it's not funded by tax dollars, in most part. And some of the rhetoric from the rural legislators has been pretty mean.
I agree with the other comments that acceptance is pretty high in urban Louisville and Lexington.
I lived in Kentucky for a few months (military training), and I also frequently visit friends in San Francisco. With that being said, I don't think anywhere in Kentucky comes close to a "civilized acceptance" of homosexuality.
In Kentucky, the vast majority of people are decient, but I did encounter more open, blatant racism in the 3 months I spent in Kentucky than I did in the rest of my life combined (frequent use of the "N" word in hate). I think the possibility of harassment exists in Kentucky unless you try to keep your life secret (and there is no reason why you should have to do that).
If I were you I would visit the areas you are interested in living in and talk to a few people to get a feel for where they stand. I really hope I am wrong on this one.
I cannot speak for all of Ky., but in my area, we have several homosexual doctors. Most of us don't care what their sexual preference is. No matter where you choose to live in these U.S . you will find some narrow minded people . I wish you all the luck
I cannot imagine anyone getting hate messages or anything like that. People may just look at you funny, as my lesbian friend who lives outside Lexington (in Georgetown) tells me.
I really don't think that many people who discriminate will ever be open and confront someone about it, either with words, hate-mail, or violence. Most of the racism I saw in Kentucky was behind their back, and since I'm white the assumed (wrongly) that I was "one of them". I do think that the odd looks, talking behind your back, and a bit of "no, my child cannot go over and play with your child" will be encountered, but that probably will happen in varying degrees almost anywhere.
I think the smaller the town, the more likely you are to encounter small-mindedness, with conservative religious "family-values" being a big culprit. Some of the towns will have a large minority (possibly even a majority) of people who do not belive in evolution, let alone "live and let live". Of course, with a small community (or a small neighborhood of a bigger city), you will have a better chance to actually get through to some of the "boarderline" people and show them that you can be gay and a decient person, and you are really just interested in living a happy life and not out to "indoctrinate" their children in the "homosexual agenda". That will not, of course be an easy thing to do with some folks, but if you do manage to do it, you will have vastly improved the world.
As a test for you though, I would suggest that you set a goal for yourself of listening to at least a 1/2 an hour a day for at least 3-4 days each of the following AM radio programs... Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage. Ask yourself if you could handle living next door to someone who held (and voiced) similar opinions, which is a possibility ([I think most people will just ignore such a blowhard, though). Further ask yourself how you would like living in an area were more than half the people would listen to those shows and fall somewhere between "amen, brother" and "no objections".
Good luck to you, and if you ever move to the Seattle area, I would be proud to have you as neighbors!
Too bad that you were only in Ky for a few months for military training. I think you may feel a little different if you had spent a couple Years. At least that would have given you the time to visit all parts of the state, and gotten to really know us. We , as a majority would probably invite you in for a meal and made you feel at home. As for Tv programs go, I don't know anyone who takes those hosts serious if we watch them at all. If you ever need a home, we'd take ya in
Last edited by Miss Blue; 05-14-2007 at 11:27 AM..
Reason: content
Wow, thank you all so much for the info. We plan to be up that way this summer and check things out. I had kind of thought that Lexington would be more open since it is a University town. I had read in a couple places that Louisville was pretty gay friendly. We are not gay activists. We just are who we are and generally have not had problems where ever we have lived. Most people we have encountered would say they don't believe same sex marriage shuld be legalized but then turn around and treat us as a "married couple" and refer to us as each others wives. I say that to point out that we don't really draw attention to ourselves as a GAY couple but we are not in the closet and present ourselves as a family to everyone. I would like my children to get the best education we can give them without them having to endure extra hardship and discrimination just because they have two moms. We currently live in Texas and most of our neighbors have never met (that they know of) any gay people but have been VERY open to us and would trust us with their children, homes and animals more than some of their own family members. So I was kind of hoping for at least that same kind of reaction from our new neighbors in KY. I got mixed opinions from different posts but I kind of had assumed that Lexington and Louisville would be more accepting.
It's a little scary though because we have horses and need to have acreage which means RURAL KY. We want to be close to Fort Knox because we are retired military. Yep, there are gays in the military. LOL Oldham county is kind of the opposite direction for us. Do any of you know what Bullitt and Nelson counties are like? They are pretty close to both Louisville and Fort Knox. We need to be somewhat close to Louisville because the VA Medical Center in in northern Louisville.
And I had not even considered the "N" word. We don't use it and live in a military town that is very integrated. We are white but have friends that are black, hispanic and mixed couples. Are these areas racially diverse? I thought anything around Fort Knox and E-town would be pretty racially diverse. Was I wrong?
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We can barely manage three.
Are you sure about Kentucky?
That is what I meant
