Portland is awesome, I moved here from the midwest too and and was also considering NYC but the cost was just too high. Hope you’re participating in pedalpalooza!

Moved here this year after too many years of feeling unsafe being openly gay in public living in the midwest. I was even in a medium sized city but there are just too many small minded backwards people there, my partner and I didn’t even feel safe holding hands in public. Now we’re in the PNW and feel like we can just be normal without constantly worrying that someone will see us “looking gay in public” and react with hostility.