For some ex-Texans, Seattle has become a haven. Victoria Scott, a trans woman and freelance writer, lived in Houston working as a programmer at NASA after college in 2018. After coming out as transgender, she said that she found both Houston and Texas hostile. Scott moved around and lived briefly in Reno, Nevada, before settling in Seattle with her wife at the end of 2023. In Seattle, Scott found the foundation she had long needed.

“It’s done more for my day-to-day lived experience and mental health as a trans woman than basically any other thing I’ve ever done,” Scott told Chron.

  • Malyca@lemmy.zip
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    4 hours ago

    We need to move as many people as we can over here and fast. Not just Seattle, the entire West Coast should be a haven. Oregon is. I’d skip Northern California to Central Oregon though. Also anything east of the Cascades is bat shit right wing.

  • hactar42@lemmy.ml
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    5 hours ago

    I’m a middle class white cis male and I fleed Texas last year. I can’t imagine what it must be like for LGBTQ people there.

  • bpinyon@lemmy.zip
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    6 hours ago

    I have to take issue with the title. Lesbians are not trans, gay men are not trans. Isn’t it time to stop the Alphabet Soup that is LGBTQ?

  • TheGoldenV@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Seattle is good. Tacoma is cheaper and also good. Probably not cheaper than Texas, but everyone is welcome.

    Been seeing more trans people in my travels, but idk if that’s due to influx or people just feeling more comfortable.

    • FirstCircle@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      I somethings fantasize about moving back to the Puget Sound area. I wouldn’t want to pay Seattle prices so would probably be looking at the South Sound. I lived in Tumwater for a year and it was bland but Olympia is liberal and a bit weird so that’s probably where I’d be looking. Bonus for the still-employed: state jobs, bonus for me: already got a paid-up membership to the food co-op there.

        • FirstCircle@lemmy.ml
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          19 hours ago

          Excellent suggestion. Used to love driving/riding that way and stopping in Poulsbo at the Poulsbohemian coffee shop … which seems to be closed now! WTF! :-( I remember liking Poulsbo’s small-town hippie vibe and it’s about the same size as the small hippie town I grew up in in Vermont. Bremerton was not cool at all (military vibe) but maybe it’s changed. I used to imagine the Peninsula to be the home of rednecks and wealthy retirees but I’ll have to check out the R.E. scene this weekend on Zillow. Tnx.

          • GirthBrooksPLO@lemmy.world
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            17 hours ago

            Bremerton has started to revitalize the downtown, pedestrianising streets and such. Its better than it used to be. I’ve been wanting a lightrail to replace the 303 running down east bremerton over the warren ave bridge to improve the traffic situation with the shipyard.

      • Soggy@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        There’s a decent spot in Lake Forest Park but we could certainly use an influx.

  • SuiXi3D@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    Austin is definitively less weird than it used to be, and it makes me sad. People are people, dammit!

    • scytale@piefed.zip
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      2 days ago

      In your opinion, is there an area in Seattle that is close to Austin in vibes? Like a combination of a tech scene, with music and art, and still a sprinkle of weirdness.

      • Flames5123@sh.itjust.works
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        5 hours ago

        I haven’t spent time in Austin, but Fremont’s motto is “keep Fremont weird”. The whole city is a tech scene, so you’ll always find nerds anywhere you go. Each little neighborhood has its own different vibe.

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        1 day ago

        Your best bets for music and art are probably still Capitol Hill, Fremont, and Ballard. When tech came into Seattle, it ended up pushing a lot of the artists out. Seattles not very weird anymore. Honestly, Portland is probably more in line with the Austin vibe than anywhere in Seattle.

      • CombatWombat@feddit.online
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        2 days ago

        Austin is much less dense and the public transit is much worse, so I didn’t get to see much when I was there. Mostly it seems like decent music venues and a reasonable bar scene? I like Seattle better than everything I saw of Austin except the Mexican food.

  • John Doe@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I saw the writing on the wall seventeen years ago and at 40 moved with my husband (we’re a gay couple) and our then 5 yr old daughter to Northampton, Massachusetts. We had lived in Texas our entire lives (I’m from Ft Worth, he’s from Abilene), so we were no strangers to racism. But the racism that came out during Obama’s first presidential run told me it was time to flee. Texas was certainly no place we wanted to raise our daughter. We wound up moving to Vermont a couple of years later. And eventually we settled in upstate NY in 2016. We prefer the more liberal New England states but cannot afford them. Upstate NY gives us a reasonable cost of living, along with all the lgbtq state protections that put our minds at rest. Well, as ‘at rest’ as one can be with Cankles McTaco Tits in the Oval Office right now.

  • AeronMelon@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Most people find Houston, Texas to be hostile.

    Just driving on Westheimer is enough to make rational people leave.

    Here’s hoping all the talent like Victoria abandons Texas and makes the Zodiac State insolvent.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 days ago

      Most people find Houston, Texas to be hostile.

      The Montrose area of Houston used to be one of the safest and liveliest Out LGBTQ communities in the country. It still has a large gay population, but the inflated real estate prices and over-development has driven lots of low income people elsewhere.

      Just driving on Westheimer is enough to make rational people leave.

      The traffic certainly sucks. But idk what you mean beyond that. Westheimer has a ton of cheap apartment housing and a huge multi-ethnic community of young professionals

      It’s a great place to live when you’re straight out of college

    • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Honestly Texas is probably effectively insolvent long term regardless, short of a massive shift in economic organization that entire state will start looking like an even shittier version of those random half abandoned towns in Idaho.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        I remember a decade ago when our population (trans people in the US) was compared the number of people who live in Boston as a way to express how many of us there were to people who hadn’t really noticed us around (it was a different time lol)

  • TipRing@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Houston has so much going for it what with all the petrochemical factories providing spicy air for you and all the crime, heat and flooding adding adventure to your day.

  • SparroHawc@piefed.world
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    2 days ago

    Yeppppp. I personally know three people who moved out of Texas specifically to get away from their abhorrent legislation.