Same-sex acceptance in Aberdeen/Hoquiam?? (Seattle, Tacoma: apartment, crime, hotels)

[ladyb001]

Com check out the area. Stay at the Guest House inn in Aberdeen and spend a weekend checking out the area. I think there is one truck with the confederate flag driving around ~ I have a brother in law from north carolina and they do say "the south will rise again" so I personally have seen the flags in my sis's home and that truck, but I live in Hoquiam and have all my life. We love good neighbors!! We have three empty houses on my block: elderly neighbors move on, foreclosures, rentals and yes we are a depressed area. BUT there are newer houses, older houses you name it. Check it out, ocean shores is an artsy community closeby. We are only an hour from olympia, 1 1/2 hours from tacoma and 2+ hours from seattle. If you like nitelife and shopping. Not to mention the Olympic Mountains and rainforest, Pacific ocean are half hour to an hour away!!

[Fat Freddy]

Originally Posted by ladyb001

...ocean shores is an artsy community closeby.

Ocean Shores is hardly an "artsy community".

It is a small town populated by retired people on fixed incomes, lower middle class families, hustlers of one sort of another grubbing for tourist dollars, and those who profit from the destruction and development of the environment.

It also has a inefficient (some would say corrupt) city government, overpaid city workers, high taxes, and smelly, bad tasting water.

Ocean Shores has good streets though as they just finished a multi-million dollar paving project.
Now the citizens have to pay for it.
It's expected to cost everyone about $3000 each.
They also replaced the four way stop with a Roundabout that cost millions more.
A traffic light would have cost a fraction of the cost, but then nobody would have been able to profit from the huge expense.

I'm not going to talk about the new Taj Mahal fire house.

The city is broke and is closing the public library and nature center due to lack of funds.
This is actually a punitive action by the city council against the citizens for rejecting a tax increase in the recent election.
They plan to raise taxes anyway, regardless of what the citizens think.

By the way, the salary of the Mayor of Ocean Shores is the highest in the nation, maybe in the world, for this sized town.

But to answer the original question, nobody cares what sex or race your domestic partner is.
That may not be true, because there a lot of Christian type churches here and they tend to have rather strong opinions on same sex unions, but I have never heard anyone say anything derogatory.

[BryanK]

Originally Posted by Fat Freddy

There is as much "culture" in Aberdeen as there is anywhere else.

If your definition of "culture" is "stuff made by weirdos and dead foreigners that is lumped under the general category of "The Arts" and appeals to pretentious yuppies", you are right; there is not too much of that here.

But, you can find plenty of it in Seattle.

You are FANTASTIC!



Believe me, there's plenty of "same-sex" going on in Aberdeen, and all over the place. I have not seen a confederate flag here, that I can ever remember. I have seen confederate flags in CALIFORNIA and ARIZONA. Does that make sense??

As for "bubbling paint" on houses....well there is NONE of that in MY neighborhood, and I definitely DO live in Aberdeen, and NOT on Bel Aire Drive either! These types of statements are ALWAYS made by people who either HAVE BUBBLED PAINT on THEIR houses, or people who have NEVER been off the 101 and into the neighborhoods.

Aberdeen is a very friendly smaller city, as cities go. If you are gay, I really don't think anyone will care either way.

The sign coming into town says, "COME AS YOU ARE".

If you want to live with SNOTS with 'TUDE then go to Seattle. THANKFULLY we don't have much of that here, just on Summer weekends. We have gorgeous older homes, views of the harbor and the rivers and the mountains, the OCEAN just MINUTES away, and SMILING FACES when you go to the stores, none of those LEMON SUCKING YUPPIE PUSSES like in more "cultured cities". THANKS, but I will take the danger of seeing an occasional house with "bubbled paint any day!

[fatherjohnson]

I'm afraid Aberdeen isn't as accepting of deviants / perverts as some of these posters would have you believe. I would recommend Seattle or any large urban area, as they're more used to seeing strange & freaky sites in general. Believe me, I lived in Seattle for a bit & saw many strange birds myself.

Good luck to you.

[BryanK]

Originally Posted by fatherjohnson

I'm afraid Aberdeen isn't as accepting of deviants / perverts as some of these posters would have you believe. I would recommend Seattle or any large urban area, as they're more used to seeing strange & freaky sites in general. Believe me, I lived in Seattle for a bit & saw many strange birds myself.

Good luck to you.

The original poster didn't ask if Grays Harbor was accepting of "deviants / perverts". The question was, is the area accepting of same-sex couples. Since the city of Aberdeen just extended benefits to same-sex couples, I would jump to say, yes, the area is accepting of same-sex couples. There may not be any officially gay bars or rainbow flags, but it's pretty much "come as you are".

Maybe not everyone, same-sex coupled or not, does not care to live in, or can afford to live in Seattle. Maybe the original poster has "been there, done that", just like other big city types who have recently been moving to the Grays Harbor / Aberdeen area.

P.S. "Strange Birds" are not news here, or anywhere else I've ever lived. We are all "Strange Birds" to somebody!

[taste_the_rainbow]

Umm...I was raised in Aberdeen for most of my life. I'm now in my early 40's...and couldn't be happier to have finally "escaped" from the "armpit of Western WA" otherwise known as Aberdeen. And no, no one could tell me different. There's a reason for why Kurt Cobain said he "hated Aberdeen", calling it a town of "rednecks, homophobics, etc, etc" and as much as the PR reps of Aberdeen would like to have us believe, they can not, nor can ever be, even minutely close to Seattle in terms of its ability to accept alternative lifestyles. Aberdeen is an insufferably repressed area with lots of old wood and backwards attitudes and hopelessly challenged in its ability to tolerate, accept or support diversity. And the area's technological sophistication is about on par with the same (no big surprise). Take it from a gay female who lived there too long.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by fatherjohnson

I'm afraid Aberdeen isn't as accepting of deviants / perverts as some of these posters would have you believe. I would recommend Seattle or any large urban area, as they're more used to seeing strange & freaky sites in general. Believe me, I lived in Seattle for a bit & saw many strange birds myself.

Good luck to you.

That was a contemptible post.

[Sobefobik]

Aberdeen is a dump. Why do you want to move there?

[BryanK]

Originally Posted by taste_the_rainbow

Umm...I was raised in Aberdeen for most of my life. I'm now in my early 40's...and couldn't be happier to have finally "escaped" from the "armpit of Western WA" otherwise known as Aberdeen. And no, no one could tell me different. There's a reason for why Kurt Cobain said he "hated Aberdeen", calling it a town of "rednecks, homophobics, etc, etc" and as much as the PR reps of Aberdeen would like to have us believe, they can not, nor can ever be, even minutely close to Seattle in terms of its ability to accept alternative lifestyles. Aberdeen is an insufferably repressed area with lots of old wood and backwards attitudes and hopelessly challenged in its ability to tolerate, accept or support diversity. And the area's technological sophistication is about on par with the same (no big surprise). Take it from a gay female who lived there too long.

"technological sophistication" ? You're right, we don't have the internet here. I am typing on a rock with a flint. I spent the whole day crying, because it's raining, and it's 49 degrees in January, and I am like, sooooo depressed. I've never seen a gay person here, never, not once, they all wear rainbow flags, so I've never seen one here.

I really wish I could move to Tacoma, or maybe Lakewood, but that is just a dream.

Excuse me while I stir my hubcap full of gruel over a garbage fire.

Please help me.

[riverstation]

BryanK - That was a great response.

My wife grew up in Aberdeen and moved away to Seattle almost 40 years ago. I met her around 1980 and a few times a year we visited her family in Aberdeen. We recently bought a house to retire to in the Aberdeen-Hoquiam area mainly because there are a lot of incredible old homes.

I haven't had any trouble meeting people especially since the Aberdeen revitalization group started in November 2009. Check out the Our Aberdeen group on Facebook. It has 118 members. There is also a Yahoo email group for Aberdeen revitalization with over 250 members. And a website on its way. About a week ago the revitalization group had its fourth general meeting in the Morck Hotel which developers want to renovate. Over 100 people showed up to listen to the vision of that developer and his architect and to learn more about Aberdeen revitalization and to sign up to work on one or more of the 20 committees. Search on Aberdeen Revitalization on YouTube.com if you want to see a video of the meeting.

Good things are happening in Aberdeen as well as Hoquiam and Montesano.