Is the West Coast overrated for LGBT people?

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I've been wanting to talk about this for a very long time, like around 20 years or so. In fact, I wrote an essay offline about it but it's too long winded so I'll try to write a shorter version of what I wrote originally. To be honest it doesn't seem like the West Coast or the western USA is really that good for LGBT people, or at least what I have experienced. Here's some observations I have made:

It seems like there are many laws in the western states that aren't LGBT friendly, like that Proposition 8 which was passed by a big margin not too long ago as an example. I'm aware that California, Oregon, and Washington have anti-discrimination laws for LGBT people but those laws don't seem to be enforced very well. In fact, these states seem to not enforce laws very well as a whole and the whole West seems corrupt, to be honest. I won't even go into the crime and the crazy law enforcement out here.

Economically, much of the West Coast seems more focused on real estate and the industries that serve it. The 'tech' industry and entertainment industries only make up a relatively small percentage of California's GSP and both are fairly high turnover and seem to be past their prime. As for the other states, well, if you like farming then they're OK. Jobwise it's very difficult to get anything decent for a job out here at least from what I've seen and experienced.

As for the people, that's a whole entire forum itself. I'll be as nice as I can here but I have to be honest, westerners come across as very dysfunctional. It seems like a majority of them have everything from mental issues, drug problems, sloppy work ethics, telling sob stories and tall tales, cluelessness and the list goes on and on. I'm not bashing anyone here on WP about this but I've seen too much of this in the real world and a lot of people and groups out here don't act very friendly towards LGBT people from what I've seen. There are quite a few shady and fly-by-night businesses and institutions out here, not to mention the cults and weird religions.

I know it's not something people want to talk about but to me the problems with this half of the USA are too obvious. Again, I'm not complaining about anyone here but wanted to know what the experiences of the LGBT people here on WP are. Your thoughts?

Well first off, I am a lesbian and dislike being lumped in with gay men, bisexuals, and trans people. We have different issues, and important differences can get overlooked if you lump us all together.

I have lived in California for almost all of my life, so I have no real basis for comparison. While I would feel relatively safe as a lesbian nearly anywhere in California, I fear I'd feel safe only in metropolitan areas of the South and Midwest. I am also not white-privileged or gender-conforming, and I can't really separate those from being a lesbian; they also strongly affect where I feel safe, so I'd definitely prefer Cali to anywhere in the South or Midwest as well as the really white Eastern states.

I don't go out a lot, so I can't say how realistic this is, but I would be concerned about places in metro Cali being "too liberal" in the sense of trying to include everyone in generic "LGBTQIA" stuff to the point of overlooking groups' individual needs (like inviting straight-privileged bisexuals and male trans people into lesbian spaces aka ignoring the need for individual lesbian and female space, or co-opting the experiences of intersexed people).

The crime here isn't really related to LGBT. I'd expect more LGBT-related crime in the South/Midwest. Social dysfunction, economy, etc. also aren't really related.

Meh... I don't think it's any better than say some of the northeast, but I would say both of them are definitely better than the south and midwest.

I think the southwest (NV,AZ,CO,NM,UT, not necessarily texas which is confusing unto itself) is perhaps somewhere in between the west coast and midwest in it's acceptance of LGBT+ folx. There is a strong sexually-conservative side in those areas but they also have to put up with a larger population of out people than say the mid-west would. So since they have to see them and work with them and be family memebrs with them they're more likely to realize we're all human in the end.

Whereas in the midwest and south as mentioned above... it's just plain scary to be out... even in the suburbs of a major metro area safety can get a little sketchy in the south.

This thread is confusing the s**t out of me xD I'm not American and have only been there once (in NYC) so I don't have first hand experience there, but I thought the Midwest was pretty liberal? I mean, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin have been pretty democratic for a long time. I thought they were far more proggresive than Utah is lol isn't Utah the Mormon state? And isn't New England and the Mid-Atlantic as proggresive as the West Coast?

This is very true, especially the observation about real estate. I've lived in Seattle all my life and I've seen the ways that the population boom brought on by real estate and tech companies has drained away the vibrant queer counterculture that once made the city feel so welcoming and alive. The queer, often neurodivergent homeless youth who I once made fast friends among (tho I'm not homeless myself) are being swept away (literally swept away!) to make room for more tacky condos and overpriced restaurants that don't give a s**t about people's dietary restrictions. It's hard to even walk thru Capitol Hill (once the queer neighborhood) anymore; all the nonprofit social centers are vanishing alongside the DIY art galleries and immigrant-owned family restaurants that I used to frequent.