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I am thinking of relocating to New Jersey. Does anyone know of any gay friendly towns in the state? Any word on whether Maplewood and South Orange are still good places for gays a lesbians?
Cape May. The ex-governor (and now Oprah's new pal) used to hang out there while he was the governor. (Many of us knew what his wife later claimed not to.) Very tolerant atmosphere - live and let live. Pretty town too.
Someone I know just moved to Plainfield (in Middlesex Co) and he said he and his wife were the "only heterosexual couple on the block"! And I hear that Montclair (in Essex Co) is a pretty liberal and gay-friendly town.
If NJ is anything like PA (and from what I'm told we're the "Morlocks" and Garden Staters are the "Eloi" LOL!), then by all means avoid moving to a housing development! I don't know why, but suburban subdivisions (the non-descript ones with the vinyl-siding, two-car garages, and neutral decor) tend to breed the "anti-EVERYTHINGS" in droves! Here in Scranton's 'burbs, "NIMBY" people are a dime a dozen; Only getting to actually socialize with each other when they're banding together to try to drive out some sort of "undesirable change." In my own housing development, there was an uproar when a lesbian couple from Philadelphia wanted to purchase a home in the neighborhood---I was ashamed to see such childish behavior coming from people who are supposed to be "college-educated professionals!" People seem to be afraid of the unknown---Keep that in mind if you plan to move to a community with a very "closeted" gay population (a.k.a. SCRANTON! Sniffle, sniffle!)
New Jersey is probably one of the most gay-friendly states in the nation. That's not to say that there's areas where you won't get stares or remarks and hassled and such as there are some of that everywhere, even in parts of San Francisco, but just that as a whole, it seems to be not much of an issue in most of New Jersey. It seems like most people in New Jersey have at least one gay friend, neighbor, co-worker or relative so it's not so foreign and frightening a concept to them as it is in other parts of the country. Of course there's a correlation between acceptance of gays and an area's income level, education level (smarter people are more accepting; and this goes hand in hand with income level as generally the more educated, the wealthier a person/area is) and location (more urban, more accepting), which is something that holds true across the nation.
Maplewood is very gay friendly and is especially accomodating to families with children. The new town administrator is gay & lives in town. Check out the chat board at www.maplewoodonline.com.
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Plainfield & Montclair
