Transgender friendliness in the suburbs

[pdxlibrarian]

I would avoid Gladstone and Oregon City. I graduated from Gladstone High in 1998 and my experience was that two girls holding hands were a big deal (read: problem) for the parents and administrators. It's a much more conservative area than farther in towards Portland.

[soren1989]

Thanks for the more responses. Another thing I noticed when I look at house listings is that many of them are very close to churches, like right next door, right across the street, or in the same block. I've found houses close to churches in the suburbs and in the city of Portland, including areas like Hawthorne. Is it likely that I would encounter more people that have a problem with transgender or gay people if I lived very close to a church, than if I lived in a different part of the same neighborhood?

I completely trust you about staying west of I-205, crime looks very high in far east Portland. I have read in different places to avoid east Portland, however the suggested boundary has ranged from 50th to 82nd street. When I look at crime statistics, it looks like 50th would be a good boundary in southern SE, to avoid Brentwood-Darlington, but it looks like Mt. Tabor and Montavilla have similar crime rates as western SE, so I can probably go closer to I-205 in northern SE. One place I notice in western SE with a high murder rate is Creston-Kenilworth.

[pdxlibrarian]

I'm actually not sure why you are seeing so many churches. I recently moved to the East Coast and am experiencing a moderate church overload. Many of the church buildings within the city limits of Portland are either liberal, closed, or small and struggling to survive. There also isn't a high correlation between the people who live on a street and the church on the street. For instance, I lived in the Sellwood neighborhood and we had some kind of kooky church of light and sound down the street one way and another Christian Scientist church the other. I never met any of the parishioners of either church -- they drove in from far away. And they never bothered me (read: proselytized) at all. I've only been in my house here in New York for about 6 months now and I'm shocked that we've already been visited by three different religious groups trolling for our souls.

[soren1989]

Actually, my recent searches don't show as many houses next to churches as my searches from a few months ago. I'd estimate a few months ago, 50% of house listings I found were next to (or across from) churches, but recently it has only been around 20%. It might just be a coincedence that a larger number houses very close to churches ended up in my search results a few months ago. Since I usually restrict listings to being below a price range, I could end up with more houses near churches if houses near churches have lower land value (someone told me that churches can be noisy, and that this might decrease land value of neighboring houses). I was unaware that many church buildings in Portland are abandoned.

I realize that there is probably no correlation between people who live on a block and those who attend a church in that block, but the people who attend the church would still be around whenever they attend. I know that some churches in Portland are categorized as being gay friendly, but I am not sure if that means most of those who attend the church are gay friendly, or if it is only a reference to the ministers or clergy of the church being gay friendly. I realize that although attitudes towards gay and transgender people are often similar, gay friendly doesn't necessarily imply transgender friendly, but information about gay friendliness could be a start.

Here are a few of the churches that were next to or across from houses listed for sale that I found (I am listing this only to provide an idea of what parts of the city I found them and how many I found, though I don't there might have been a couple more):

* Portland Foursquare Church: SE 14th Ave and Ankeny St (Buckman neighborhood; it appears to take up two blocks)
* Portland Mennonite Church: SE 35th Ave and Main St (Hawthorne area)
* First Covenant Church: NE 45th Ave and Burnside St (Laurelhurst neighborhood)
* Tabor Heights Methodist Church: SE 62nd Ave and and Stark St (Mt. Tabor area)
* Portland First Church of the Nazarene: SW Raab Rd and Scholls Ferry Blvd (Southwest Sylvan Highlands area; however, this might be outside the city limits)
Then there were three on SW 45th Ave, west of Gabriel Park: St. Luke Lutheran Church, St. John Fisher Parish, and Multnomah Presbyterian Church.
I could not find any of these names on this list of gay friendly churches: http://www.gaychurch.org/Find_a_Church/united_states/us_oregon.htm (broken link)

[Leisesturm]

Just because a church isn't "Gay Friendly" doesn't mean their parishioners will harrass or otherwise distress a member of an Alternative Lifestyle community. A single transgendered individual living in close proximity to a church is probably safe. A group home for transgender runaway teens might ellicit some reaction. I am sure, however, with just a little additional effort, houses could be located for sale or for rent that were completely out of sight of anything considered a house of worship.

H

[2bpurrfect]

Originally Posted by soren1989

In general, how transgender friendly are the suburbs of Portland? What are the popular attitudes that people have towards transgender people? Are there parts of the suburbs that are more or less transgender friendly than others? I want to know most about Beaverton and Milwaukie, but information about Hillsboro, Aloha, Gladstone, and Oregon City would also be helpful. Information about how gay friendly the area is would be helpful too.

in the specific areas you mention, having lived in some, i would say that you would be treated politely and treated well as a human, but not that the people would largely believe in your same belief system about sexuality. also they might not even be familiar with the subject of transgender or other sexual diversity. you might need to de- emphasize that aspect of your lifestyle, or "blend in" to a degree in public, if you don't want to shock people etc. As far as churches, SOME christians are going to be the ones that are kindest, from a standpoint of compassion and withholding judgement. but yes i agree, teachers of children ( not college) are the ones least acceptable with any sort of noticeable or known sexual differentness, in the burbs in general. SW burbs may be easier on you; Oregon City and Gladstone, i would say that they are NOT the most accepting; you may well encounter some radical rednecks from the farms further out, imo.

[jjbon75]

portland is very diverse, Embers, Hambuger Mary's, & many other clubs are available for hang outs... James