Looking at Kentucky (Lexington, Louisville, Bardstown: best city, home, theater)

[jesse61]

First of all your state is beautiful. What can you tell me about the people around the Lake Cumberland area. My partner of seven years and I are looking at Kentucky. We are not obnoxious, or flamers. Just two guys who want to live and let live. We hike, fish, hunt, garden, enjoy the arts, theater, etc....We are nice people and are looking for nice people.

[Off Topic]

We had a similar thread on this subject recently and I have to say to my regret that rural Kentucky is not gay friendly. You may not see any discrimination, but it will not be a comfortable fit, imo.

You may want to read this thread:
https://www.city-data.com/forum/kentu...ms-school.html

It's a beautiful area, however.

[Off Topic]

Also, the arts and theatre in that area are limited, to say the least. It is a great place to hike, fish, etc.

[jesse61]

Thanks for you honesty. We appreciate that. How's Louisville?

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by jesse61

Thanks for you honesty. We appreciate that. How's Louisville?

Louisville is very gay friendly, especially in the urban areas. In fact, this weekend is Pride weekend, with a huge parade and whatnot:

Kentuckiana Pride Festival

Louisville has several anti discrimination ordinances, and there are many gay couples living together all over, with very high concentrations in the urban areas of downtown, Old Louisville, parts of the Highlands, and lower Clifton/Crescent Hill. In many of these areas like Clifton and Butchertown, it was actually usually the gays of upper and middle incomes who helped gentrify those areas.

It is not rare to see same sex couples on Bardstown Road holding hands. There are several gay nightclubs, with most of them being downtown and in Old Louisville. I am straight, but I am aware of several gay nightclubs like Fuzion and Starbase Q, and one mega gay nightclub, Connection, is well known around the region. I am sure someone in the local gay community can help you more with gay friendly realtors, etc. Last I saw, I was eating at a local cafe and saw an ad for a new local gay Yellow Pages, so you may want to look into that. The ad was at Karma Cafe on Bardstown Road as you walk in.

At the same time, even though it is a fairly large city, it is still middle America. Depending on where or who you work with you may want to be careful what you discuss, because for every liberal person in Louisville there is definitely a religious underbelly which can be quite judgemental. Overall, Louisville has many liberal, gay fiendly urban areas, and conservative suburbs, although the suburbs are not as conservative as some other southern and midwest towns I have seen: Cincinnati or Memphis come to mind.

In fact, "Louisville is one of only 12 cities in the country that boasts all five major types of professional arts organizations - a ballet, orchestra, opera, theater and children's theater."

Arts & Cultural Attractions Council - Members


Whether or not that is true, the city is outstanding in the performing arts, and it is one of the things that surprises outsiders the most, especially those with the preconceived notion of "backwards KY."

For visual art, the Speed Museum is nice but pathetically small for a city our size. It is only large enough to display around 15% of its collection at once. Neighboring cities like Indianapolis have much larger art museums. That said, Louisville will soon get one of the coolest new art museums in the country, which will be one of the only ones dedicated entirely to art by living artists of the 21st century, and it will have a rotating gallery in on the 22nd floor skyplaza of a new, 62 story multi-purpose skyscraper downtown:

Museum Plaza - Creating A Place In Louisville's Architectural Character.

Now, it is still KY, and you can be downtown one minute and at a lake or fishing spot 30-40 minutes later. Taylorsville Lake and Patoka Lake are great, and I am sure there are tons of hunting options, but I will have to defer to more of an outdoorsman for that.

I usually do not advise against other parts of the state, but Louisville and Lexington should be your main two options as a gay couple.

[Off Topic]

And for the uninitiated, "Kentuckiana" is what we call our area! It's a combination for "Kentucky" and "Indiana", meaning southern Indiana.

[lexingtongal]

Lexington picked as one of top 10 cities for gays, lesbians
Lexington Herald-Leader, March, 2007 by Andy Mead
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At various times, Lexington has been ranked the 13th best city for women ( Ladies' Home Journal ) and the 9th best for business ( Forbes' ).

Now, our fair city is among The Advocate magazine's first "Top 10 Best Places For Gays and Lesbians to Live."

The March 27 issue of the magazine lists Lexington along with Dallas, Tucson, Ariz., and Ferndale, Mich., as places that are part of a "new American landscape" that goes beyond urban gay ghettos.

For Lexington, the magazine cites gay public officials (Vice Mayor Jim Gray and state Sen. Ernesto Scorsone), the Bar, which it describes as "an enormous gay nightclub... which has offered drag shows and disco for decades" and the city's 1999 ordinance that protects gays and lesbians from job and housing discrimination.

[Off Topic]

Originally Posted by lexingtongal

Now, our fair city is among The Advocate magazine's first "Top 10 Best Places For Gays and Lesbians to Live."

I'm not a big fan of Stan Lee, one of your Representatives from Lexington, so it's good news to see that the rest of Lexington is so progressive. Seriously, how does that guy get re-elected?

[lexingtongal]

I'm not a big fan of his either but I guess it really does show what a diverse group of people our city has

[Off Topic]

Originally Posted by lexingtongal

I'm not a big fan of his either but I guess it really does show what a diverse group of people our city has

One of the great things about this forum is that it forces me to re-think my opinions about different areas of Kentucky. You are a good ambassador for your city and it's difficult for me to dislike Lexington when I read your posts!