It can be nerve wrecking to think about the difficulties of moving to a new city. Packing up all your things and making way to a brand new place can be tedious and emotional. Being an LGBT family has its own factors that have to be taken into consideration when choosing where to move. There are questions to ask questions like: How accepting is this place of LGBT lifestyle? Are there other LGBT families? Are there safe places to go?
What is an LGBT family?
There are criteria that make the moving transition easier. Although the makeup is different, an LGBT family is a true family. Whether there are two dads or two moms, a family is made up of parents and children, biological or not, a family loves each other unconditionally and supports one another.
The American family is often assumed to only be made up of heterosexual couples raising their biological children, when in fact, a large portion of the American children are being raised by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents. Unfortunately, public policy is not keeping up with today’s changes when it comes to defining what a family is.
LGBT families are in fact different when it comes to other aspects, though, and have to think about their safety the most when choosing a place to move. LGBT communities have received backlash in the past years and a number of non-LGBT Americans do not feel comfortable with their LGBT neighbors nor are they as accepting as before. More and more people are feeling comfortable about being honest about their feelings about LGBT people in their community. This makes it difficult for certain families to find a home in a city where they feel accepted and understood.
Many LGBT families result to fertility and surrogacy to make their families happen. Some discredit this method, yet it is greatly beneficial for creating a family whether you are a lesbian couple, a gay one, or even a straight one. The other way to make a family possible is adoption. Having all these define your family, but will still come with difficulties raising children.
Discrimination and homophobia
One thing that takes a toll on a person of the LGBT community when considering a move is discrimination and homophobia. Discrimination starts with people and are implemented by laws, while homophobia is solely dependant on people. How people treat one another and how they see others treat people of LGBT community determine how the larger population treat the community. Raising a family in a city or state that is biased is hard on the parents and also the children.
It’s important for anti-discrimination laws to be in place and enforced. This community is a vulnerable one and requires hate crime laws to be implemented. There are countless places where sexual discrimination is prominent and should be avoided. Laws regarding LGBT varies from state to state. One that stands out is that when having a child it is important to gain adoption rights over that child –whether you adopted, or used a surrogate, or insemination– to become parents in the eyes of the law.
Safe places
Finding safe places to live and go to is especially important for a family. A safe place is somewhere that has an understanding of what the community entails and shows their support. Somewhere that many LGBT people feel comfortable being themselves and showing who they are with their family along.
More and more cities have become more accepting of the LGBT community and some of those places have dedicated a large portion of their city to the LGBT community to show support. Find an open minded place where the people found make an accepting environment.
Best states to move to start an LGBT family:
- California
- Illinois
- Hawaii
- Connecticut
- Maryland
- Nevada