Allentown is fine for LGBT+, but you'll probably like her sister city Bethlehem better. Definitely has a more artsy/creative crowd and vibe

Bethlehem might be better.

If not just do your part in making it lgbt friendly by bringing in the gay

On the west end, yes. That’s where my husband and I live, and we have quite a few LGBTQ neighbors. But like the others commented, Bethlehem might be a tad bit better.

It’s probably got the most visibly active LGBTQ community in SEPA outside of Philly.

Bradbury-Sullivan Center is a very active LGBTQ community center.

Stonewall Lehigh Valley is one of the few gay bars in the region.

There’s a pride festival every August, I believe.

You’ll see pride flags hanging here and there.

Its PA…

Yes, Allentown, PA

And? There's a big difference between Queen Village and Fulton County.

Bethlehem is 100% better

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The entire region is pretty LGBTQ+ friendly. Allentown has the Bradbury Sullivan LGBTQ Community Center, which has a lot of events, support groups, programs, meetups, etc. Bethlehem has the more artsy and foody scene, which is nice (it's a great restaurant town), and there's a lot of colleges in the area, which also makes it more LGBTQ+ friendly. There's also Lehigh Valley Pride every year, and the pro sports teams have an LGBTQ+ night as well. I live in Bethlehem, which I like better than Allentown (but there are nice things in Allentown too!). Obviously, it's hard to escape homophobia no matter where you go in the world, but as an out genderqueer person, I feel safe and welcomed here.

Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton are all safe bets.

The spaces in between are suspect at best.

Is the implication that LGBT communities are more artsy/creative?

I think the implication is that creative and artsy people are a more accepting crowd

No, the implication is that LGBT communities push up the property values. /s

Yea

Why would you think an entire town could be a monolith for a singular experience? Even the small rural conservative town I live in has a business with a pride flag in the window.... There's good and bad everywhere. Typically places with higher population have more diversity. More diversity leads to acceptance of ideas. It checks out that there's gonna be more acceptance for LGBT+ folks there compared to other places but maybe less than other places.

This is a bit of an odd question to me.

Fuck em'. Go wherever in PA, you'll find your place. We aren't all assholes

If your question is to me, it is because I am part of the LGBT Community as well as if I can say, “Is Allentown Indian (from India) and British Friendly?”

Thank you!

Lancaster's really good for it too, to my surprise

How can enough people in a town share the same idea enough to be able to answer that question? Like, what ratio of LGBT allies to homophobes are you looking for?

Yeah it is. But as a Lehigh Valley native and someone who goes to college in Bethlehem... I agree with the comments. Bethlehem is def LGBT friendly.

because shit like sundown towns still exist here in 2022. It's not unreasonable to ask if you're going to be safe and welcome in a specific place. Or whether or not you'll be able to find your community in your town

You are joking right? 1. I am not asking the entire town because not everyone in the tow is on Reddit. 2. I am only asking those that are either LGBT friendly themselves, part of the LGBT themselves or ally’s.

It’s 2022—EVERYWHERE IS LGBT FRIENDLY

Living about 25 minutes North from Pittsburgh isn't bad. Neighbors aren't too nosey or anything. Wouldn't matter anyway, no one cares that much. If you're looking for a friend, I'd be there. I know of ignorant people, but no one around here would harass you. Only behind your back, if that makes you feel better.

I was born in Bethlehem and been out of PA for 25 years. This warms my heart to hear.

It’s 2022—EVERYWHERE IS LGBT FRIENDLY

The latest data is from 2020 where there was a grand total of 5 “hate crimes” due to sexual orientation in the entire state.

To be clear, the term hate crime can mean anything from an insult to an attack.

Yes, Lancaster has a fairly visible community but the gay bar didn’t survive the pandemic, and The Loop which will house some LGBTQ community resources is just getting off the ground. Reading has a surprising number of resources and events as well.

my hometown in Texas ain't

Cool.

But my lived experiences are that places outside of the three major cities are questionable at best. I don’t need to be injuried to know I’m unwelcome.

That’s subjective.

Yeah, and as someone who's non binary I'm asking how do you quantify that?

Define your requirements that need met in order to call a town LGBT friendly. You act like it's black and white, like every experience is the same. What's the criteria to define if a town is LGBT friendly or not?

It's really a simple question.

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There is a lot of room between "friendly" and "hate crime"

I find that incredibly hard to believe. Did you get chased outta town by a pitch fork wielding mob or did you get a few comments and/or stares?

Your prejudice against millions of people you’ve never met who live in these towns you’re vilifying all across PA is very ironic.

Everyone's experience is different, how can you say what someone's experience will likely be? This isn't black and white.

I find you incredibly annoying but here we are 🤷🏻‍♀️

What does OP even mean by friendly? There isn’t a single law on the books in PA targeting them in a detrimental way. Conversely, there’s plenty of laws protecting their rights as Americans. There’s no movements or rallies against them and crime stats prove they’re not being harmed.

The only places that wouldn’t be friendly to the members of the LGBTQ community are the hoods in Philly, Pittsburgh, Allentown & Reading and that’s because they’re not friendly for anyone.

Hey, I’m not the one passing judgment on millions of people…that’s your thing

you're being intentionally disingenuous

but that would defeat your point wouldn't it, that EVERYWHERE isn't actually gay friendly

my partner will not be thrilled to hear that

Please explain to me how an entire town, city, or county isn’t LGBTQ friendly.

Can’t wait to hear your justification for stereotyping people you’ve never met.

Isn’t that what the LGBTQ community has worked so hard to put an end to…stereotyping?

have you been to small rural towns in the US?

Jesus???

Sorry w Christmas right around the way I had to. I’m sure you (and everyone else born there) has heard this

Idk their original intent bc the comment is deleted.

It is a complicated question, but regional stats won't show up if you're looking at it at the level of PA laws. Also, like I mentioned, there's a lot of possible hostility before a hate crime. I've lived in a few towns in PA and they each have their own vibes and ways of accepting (and judging).

My PA hometown is currently institutionalizing homophobia and grappling with open antisemitism, at the same time that there's a vibrant queer community and a strong historical Jewish community. We don't have hate crimes, but there is a tension. The queer kids in my community are hurting, and being vocal about it. The synagogues have guards and threat assessments and drills for attackers. There are so many accepting people in that community, but there's still vocal hatred and signs of hate displayed clearly. And you'd probably be surprised where this town is located.

Some towns are really active in cultivating a welcoming and egalitarian environment. There are some towns with a greater density of pride flags and "everyone is welcome" signs. Those are obviously friendlier on the surface, but the specific culture can vary in how accepting they are. Some are really genuine, really walking the walk. Some people still deal with a lot of passive aggression from other business oweners for displaying queer flags. I've had convos with a few people who are defiant, but don't feel accepted by neighbors.

There are other towns who are accepting or who have a surprisingly robust queer community, but in that chill way where it's just not an issue but they don't bother to signal it. Tbh those communities exist in all population densities.

There is a sense of peace to living around people who are open about accepting you and denying hatred. I don't think it's measured well in hate crime stats.

I live in Allentown. The correct answer is YES.

No, I'm not. What agenda would I be pushing to do that? My experience in a town isn't going to be same as anyone else's. I simply asked what the criteria is to qualify a town as LGBT friendly. It's really not hard. At the end of the day it's a generalization. How many shitty people do you have to meet opposite of a community of LGBT support groups before you can call the whole town anti LGBT?

Many of them. There’s weirdos everywhere you go but there’s also decent, kind, accepting people.

What if the question was presented this way:

Is Philadelphia accepting of white people?

Would you say no?

Have you ever been to Nicetown, Hunting Park, Strawberry Mansion, Fairhill, Alleghany West, Frankfort, or North Central Philly? Be a white person and walk through those hoods. Let’s just say you wouldn’t get the warmest of welcomes. Still, you wouldn’t say Philadelphia isn’t accepting towards white people. You see what I’m saying?

I'm actually in strawberry mansion all the time, never had an issue. So, no I wouldn't say Philadelphia is unaccepting of white people, also these aren't exactly the same thing, because white people as a demographic aren't marginalized

I think we can agree at the very least it’s a OP posted a loaded question deserved of a nuanced answer. . . which you did a tremendous job providing.

I don’t believe there’s any town or city or county in PA anyone can legitimately label “non-accepting” towards the LGBTQ community.

I don’t think there’s many or but closer to any towns tight-knit enough left that you’d be able to place a blanket statement like that over in today’s world — People just don’t know their neighbors like they used to.

I was annoyed by how many comments echoed basically the same sentiment:

Philly, Allentown & Pittsburgh are the only places LGBTQ individuals will be accepted — They should avoid the other 9.5 million people in the state.

A completely bullshit take, obviously.

I feel like the gay community sometimes has trouble accepting the fact that the straight community doesn’t find them special. I live in South East PA and here, they’re treated the same as straight people, meaning nobody really gives two f’s about them. A member of the LGBTQ community in the 80s would kill to be treated the way members of the community are today.

Since I’m 43, I lived through the times when gay bashing was much more very violent then today so from my standpoint as a straighty, today’s problem are minute compared to what they once were.

I can get down with everything you wrote and I agree with almost all of it. What I’m struggling with is the idea that your “hometown is institutionalizing homophobia.”

What do u mean by that?

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Hate crimes do not include “insults”. In order for something to be considered a hate crime in the US it first has to be a crime. In the US if the incident is solely verbal then that would mean either an accompanying threat of violence or if we want to define “verbal” broadly then something like vandalism.

Also, in the US hate crime reporting relies on both the victim reporting to the police (and a lot goes unreported due to distrust of the police) as well as the policing agency reporting to the federal agency. Unless it rises to the level of a federal crime, in PA most agencies would probably not report an incident as a hate crime, since PA does not currently have a hate crime law covering sexual orientation. That’s not to say you’re not correct that things are much better than, say, the 80s, and that it’s probably generally “safe” to live in most parts of the state - even if you don’t feel particularly welcome.

I want to say more about my own experience living in small-town PA for 10+ years but I don’t have time at this very moment.

I’m not the person you were responding to but if I had to guess it would be something to do with school policies: attempts to ban discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms, and/or attempts to ban books with queer content from libraries and/or curricula are seeing an uptick currently.

Personally I lived 10+ years in a small town in a more rural part of the state. Our immediate neighbors were always friendly, though all were clearly not accepting, and we found specific social circles that were accepting. It’s also notable over our years there certainly the community as a whole became more visibly welcoming. When we moved there we were cautious about hanging a rainbow flag in front of our house but did do it - it was the only one in town at least that I saw. By the time we moved away last year there were a few Pride flags to be seen in the neighborhoods (some from allies), including at least 2 just in our neighborhood, and after a long process one of the local churches had declared itself open and affirming.

At the same time, by the time we moved the area was also was more visibly hateful-to-hostile - more Confederate flags and the like. Hostile symbolism representing social views that are not typically pro-LGBTQ easily outnumbered accepting by at least 2:1 by my reckoning, and you would sometimes catch even more glimpses of more private displays behind an open garage door or through a window hanging on a wall.

Arguably my worst personal experience while living there was walking in our neighborhood one evening with my husband and hearing a preteen girl who was playing in the street with her friends call us faggots. Yes, it was just an “insult” - I wasn’t afraid of her and in fact I read her the riot act about basic respect. But the bigger issue is: she didn’t just come up with it herself. The way she said it it was clearly normalized for her in her home and/or in school via peers (which still points to how children in the community are being socialized at home). Based on reports we heard about the state of LGBTQ issues in local schools, that was pretty certainly a factor.

We had a housemate for our last few years there who would sit on the front porch a lot, and regularly reported that people would shout something about faggots while driving by (because of the aforementioned rainbow flag). Being vigilant about our surroundings whenever we were walking around town was a necessity, especially at night.

So would I describe that town as LGBT “friendly” to someone who asked? No. Would I tell them there are friendly people and groups in the town? Absolutely. But it’s a situation where I could never in good conscience recommend an LGBTQ person live there, even if I would be happy to help them have the best experience living there if they had to or chose to.