We’d love to believe the United States is the great American melting pot, where everyone shares common core values and sets aside cultural and religious traditions when it comes to dealing with their fellow citizens.
We’d love to believe that—but since we’re not high on airplane glue, we know it’s not true.
So where can LGBT people and their allies live where they know their opinions on marriage equality, adoption, sodomy laws, workplace discrimination and other key issues are shared by a majority of the populace—or at least by the law?
In the run-up to next week’s big SCOTUS cases, CNN Digital has created an LGBT rights calculator that will tell you which of the 50 states (plus Washington, DC) you’d feel most at home in. Users respond to 10 questions on a variety of subjects and indicate how important the issue is on a slider that goes from “not important” all the way up to “very important.” (Of course, haters can also find which regions have the most repressive laws.)
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Is such a calculator a good idea, or does it encourage people to avoid being pioneers in uncharted territory?
Share your piece in the comments section below!
hyhybt
I’m getting a blank page at that link except for the red banner across the top… but the idea is only sound so long as the issues they include are your only considerations. Differences in costs of living and job availability, distance from family and friends, climate, and any number of other things matter too, moreso of course for some people than others.
Sumidagawa
I am not a US citizen. Where in the US can I live with my American husband? Oh, right–nowhere. In fact, the State Department even issues official guidance on how we could move to a different country. Not so rainbow-colored here anymore when the government is showing gays the exit.
Jim Hlavac
CNN still has Tony Perkins and Maggie Gallagher on on a regular basis — what values does CNN have? Now they’ll help me find entire “state’s values” — really?
Meanwhile, there are gay people in every state — and states don’t have values — people do — and every single state has pro-gay and anti-gay people.
This idea that all the gays should move now to some state where gay marriage is recognized rather than stay were they are for whatever reason — and leave the rest of the nation as some sort of refugees from where we live now is absurd.
Gay folks need 320,000,000 Americans to not give a damn about our marriage or existence — not some stupid partisan left right divide or geographical split.
And too I note — even if every gay adult left a state — there would still be gay teens, gay kids, gay babies, gay fetuses not born yet — we’re born gay — remove us from a locale, and we show up again.
This CNN thing is lunacy, egad.
MuscleModelBlog.com
This is an interesting project. Even though breaking it down on a state-by-state level would give people a better idea of regional openness, attitudes can vary within a state quite a bit as well (ie: Austin versus the rest of Texas). The USA is very complicated…
John Doe
Washington State and Washington DC tie for the # 1 spot using their scale (if you max out every category as important).
Brown Gay Al
Arkansas came at 1 followed by 4 states in the North East. WTF.
viveutvivas
@Sumidagawa, well said. I have been in your shoes.
Actually I think many gay people don’t give a damn about gay marriage, not as the bourgeois institution that it is, and especially not the local level stuff mentioned here. What we really want is to be able to designate partners for federal benefits such as the immigration you mention, as well as tax and inheritance benefits currently unavailable to us.