Is San Diego a gay-friendly city? (El Cajon, Encinitas: best neighborhood, credit, neighborhood)

[destroycreate]

Just curious as to what you all think...do you think San Diego is a good city for gay people or do you think there's a lot of homophobia here?

I tend to think it's not very gay friendly unless you're living in the more urban parts of the city (North Park, Hillcrest, OB, ect.). I shutter when I venture up to Poway because homophobia there is rife from what I've seen. There's a vibe here that feels extremely different from SF and LA in terms of being tolerant of alternative "lifestyles".

What do you think?

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

I think it's more gay-friendly (or at least tolerant) than many people give it credit for. Prop. 8 passed in San Diego County 54-46, which would indicate just slightly less gay-friendliness than the state as a whole.

The information on this page breaks down the Prop. 8 vote by city and neighborhood:

San Diego County Proposition 8 Results by Community « Jim 2.0’s Blog

[DubHaze]

I Think it is extremely gay friendly. I live in North Park/Hillcrest area, and I think in many ways this area is more friendly than San Fran all together. Plus Hillcrest was voted like the #4 best neighborhood in the country. Pretty cool.


P.S....Poway is pretty distant from SD I think, and anywhere in suburbia I think there are many more conservative people with discriminatory views. Urban area's attract more same sex couples because many are artsy and creative and enjoy being close with their communities. (By the way, I am a straight married female... I just think everyone has a right to there own life choices and those choices should not matter to anyone else.)

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Originally Posted by DubHaze

P.S....Poway is pretty distant from SD I think, and anywhere in suburbia I think there are many more conservative people with discriminatory views. Urban area's attract more same sex couples because many are artsy and creative and enjoy being close with their communities.

For the most part, that's true, but we shouldn't forget about the cool people in places like Encinitas, Del Mar, Del Mar Heights, and La Jolla who voted strongly in favor of keeping same-sex marriage legal.

[ranzchic]

Yes, the city is extremely gay friendly. Those other parts you mentioned are not part of the city at all, but the county, of which San Diego, the City is part of.

Saying Poway is in the city is like saying upstate NY is part of NYC

[sdlife619]

Yes it is.


Some parts in East County like El Cajon/Santee (not San Diego), you might get some strange looks if a gay couple is holding hands or something since people in EC tend to be conservative, but people out here wont blast out racial or discriminatory remarks to someone though.

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by AnUnidentifiedMale

The information on this page breaks down the Prop. 8 vote by city and neighborhood:

San Diego County Proposition 8 Results by Community « Jim 2.0’s Blog

Great link above, thanks for sharing.

I think SD does pretty well in the gay-friendliness department, but of course, it depends on what part of the county you live in.

We currently have 2 openly gays members on the city council, the Fire Chief is a lesbian, and at one-time, we had a gay mayor. Remember the Dick Murphy debacle and interim mayor Toni Atkins?

How about the 25,000 people who showed up for the No on Prop 8 rally, which might have been the largest in the nation.

Not bad for a supposedly conservative place.