Worcester-gay family friendly ? (Boston, Northampton, Holden: 2015, crime, neighborhoods)

[GCL1979]

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question.

My partner and I have two adopted daughters (ages 6 & 7) from Rhode Island. We are looking at jobs in Worcester and wondering what the school and community environment will be like for our family, specifically our two daughters.

Are there other two-dad or two-mom families living in Worcester?

What area of town would you recommend living in?

Thanks!

[bler144]

For Worcester to be "gay family friendly" would require some assumption that it's friendly at all, no? "Friendly" isn't usually the first adjective that springs to mind when talking about Worcester.

I kid a bit. But seriously, I wouldn't expect to see any pattern of outward discrimination, but I do think the answer partly depends on what friendly means to you. I know some very friendly people who live in Worcester, but no joke, they're mostly midwesterners who moved there as adults. On the whole Worcester is somewhere between a college town and an outlying suburb (since some people do commute into the city from there), with some pockets of poverty and crime to avoid. But I think if your job prospects are good there's enough there to make it worth exploring deeper.

Now, that said, I'm talking about Worcester itself- I suspect it more likely you end up settling on one of Worcester's own smaller suburbs - Holden maybe, and your experience in those towns will be more like what you'd find in moderate suburbs just about anywhere in the northeast.

[DawnMTL]

I used to (2011 to 2013) live in Worcester -- on the west side -- off of Salisbury. If you'd moved onto my street, I would have latched onto you in an instant -- I have a good friend in CT who has two adopted kids from Vietnam, and they were a two-mom family.

I can't speak for anyone else on that street, nor can I speak for the rest of Worcester, but I wouldn't think it would faze anyone. It's 2015.

But... I've heard that the schools in Worcester are less than great. My then-husband and I didn't have kids when we lived in Worcester, so I'm only saying what I heard; I don't know first-hand.

[snatale1]

Most neighborhoods away from downtown are fine. Not sure about the schools though.

[scoobydew]

There are many criteria in making a determination of what is "gay friendly" or gay family friendly. That said, Worcester is a traditional working-class former industrial Massachusetts city. Most working class Massachusetts cities have included MANY gays and lesbians over the years and most people from these cities have known or known gay people at some point. As I said in another post, we pretty much mind our own business here in urban Northeast when compared to much of the more rural America. It's unlikely anybody will care about your personal business. The presence of gay people in Mass is not unusual, at all. Prejudice is everywhere, and including people from which you would least expect to find it, but I don't think homophobic hostility is something you'll encounter in your day to day life in Mass. This becomes even more likely if you are a similarly "live and let live" individual who minds your own personal business.

If it's any interest to you, Worcester gets high marks for its policy positions on issues affecting gays:

The Most Gay-Friendly Towns in Massachusetts Could Do Better - Health - Boston.com

[GCL1979]

Thank you all for your thoughts and feedback.

[alyssa1689]

I can't say anything about Worcester, but I live near Northampton in western Ma and the gay community there is thriving! The school system there is pretty good, and almost everyone is friendly! Something to look into if you haven't yet.