The Most LGBTQ-Friendly City in Every Red State in America

[Celerity]

https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/most-gay-friendly-city-in-every-red-state-in-america



The Queer Eye guys came, they saw, they tszuj’d. After blowing through rural Georgia and suburban Kansas City in the three, tear-filled seasons of their Netflix hit, the Fab Five finally achieved what countless community and activist groups couldn’t before: Full-blown equality and acceptance of “the gays.”

We’re done now, right?

Ah, wishful thinking is such a privilege. Even in the year of our lord, 2019, the US is still a sea of red (trigger warning: the 2016 presidential electoral map is bleak). But don’t be discouraged: The arc of American history is long, and it's rainbow-colored.

Back in those naive, hopeful days of 2016, the Republican candidate for president won 30 states, making them, for the next four years, "red states." Thirty is a lot of states, all with varying levels of protections for their LGBTQIA+ citizens, but we can safely generalize on this: As a group, these states are lagging. Nationwide, the Human Rights Campaign counts 31 states that don't have comprehensive laws to protect LGBTQIA+ people from discrimination in housing, in employment, and in receiving services. Of those 31 states, Trump won 29.

That's the discouraging news, if you're living in any of those states, or if you care about equal rights. The better news is, states are hardly monoliths. In every one, cities are ahead of the curve in making life more welcoming -- and more safe -- for diverse peoples. "Cities are the most immediate iteration of democracy that we have," says Xavier Persad, legislative counsel for the HRC in Washington, DC.

City councils are simply faster and more nimble than state legislatures. They've got to be. Cities in the likes of Wyoming and Kentucky and Arkansas are the best chance for leading their deep-red states toward overdue changes. It's easy to sniff at the slow progress in Mississippi -- but who in America is fighting the good fight like Jesse Pandolfo, who runs the gay bar in Jackson? Likewise you might fault Iowa for flipping back to red in 2016 -- but almost no one is pushing harder for broad civil equality than the people of Iowa City.

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[SWBTATTReg]

1. STLMO is very gay friendly too. Not just KCMO...

[lambchopp59]

2. Thank you for sharing this

There really are miracles happening that are answers to prayers. Prayers between myself and whatever deity would listen when I ran away from (if you'll forgive this) "flyover country" in 1976. I struggle with PTSD nightmares from a couple years of torment and life threatening realities after being "outed" in a small midwestern redneck town, I finally had to flee for my life.
And all at the behest of relatives of Fred Phelps and the hateful Westboro Baptist Cult.
I've never returned to the scene of the crimes, for fear the angry idiots are likely agitated Trumpers now.
It's long past time the country woke up to reality, put away their childish bigotry even if some old beloved gram-pa's taught them to hate.
It's getting about time the likes of Westboro Baptist and ilk got taken to court in class action lawsuit for inflicting mass pain and suffering on thousands, rendering youths homeless, dividing families.
They have the blood of innocents on their hands.