Is Wenatchee GAY FRIENDLY?? (Seattle, Spokane: fit in, real estate, utilities)

[powderbre]

Hello All!

My partner and I currently live in Spokane and are thinking about moving to Wenatchee. It seems to have nearly everything we are looking for but I cannot find any information on how gay friendly the city is.

For those of you who have lived there especially - what are your opinions?

It makes me think that because I couldn't find anything (except suggestions for therapy for gay people) that it is a pretty conservative city; but that doesn't mean it isn't at least gay friendly.

I would love any other suggestions you may have about cities to live in or just other info on Wenatchee as well.

[downnice]

Wenatchee is the agricultural hub in the state so it leans to the right and in elections they voted Republican.

[Brookdale46]

Nearly 43% of Chelan County (of which Wenatchee is the largest city) voted for I-74, same-sex marriage. So there is some support. Not exactly Bible-belt territory.

[PS90]

Originally Posted by downnice

Wenatchee is the agricultural hub in the state so it leans to the right and in elections they voted Republican.

1) Republican does NOT automatically = Homophobic

2) Although I can not specifically speak to the "gay-friendliness" of everyone in Wenatchee, I can attest that I can think of at least two specific couples that I had as clients, when I lived there, that I knew fairly well - who had never mentioned anything about anti-gay treatment from anyone in town.

At worst, like every other town in Eastern WA, Wenatchee has a "live and let live" attitude.

[pw72]

Tolerant, but not overly so. This is still a conservative area of Washington.

[ee77]

I think Wenatchee is gay friendly, I moved here from San Diego 3 years ago and never had a bad experience at work or anywhere in town. I have gay friends visiting all the time and we always have a good time when we go out for drinks, skiing or eating in a local restaurant.
There are few gay guys, but probably not enough to support a gay bar.

[Malessence]

Having been born in raised in Wenatchee, I find I surprise people when I say that it's more progressive than you would think. The constant influence from incoming Seattleites and Californians has knocked the more conservative edges off the town. That's not to say its perfection but I'm fairly sure that a gay couple could easily fit into town as long as they follow the rules that every other couple follows about PDAs, etc. I've never had any problem when I've gone back with a boyfriend and I've deliberately placed myself right in the middle of Apple Blossom as a test. The live and let live attitude mentioned above is the norm, not the exception so I wouldn't worry much. There's also the point to be made that Wenatchee had a pretty popular gay owned restaurant 30 years ago.

[flavioguy]

I'm not sure if this is a dead thread but.........

I've been researching places to live and discovered Wenatchee. I'm more interested if this city is a tolerant place more than specifically "gay" friendly.

Is there still anyone out there from Wenatchee who I can have a dialog about what it's like to live there....taxes, retirement, etc.?

[Jane917]

i moved from Wenatchee two years ago. My husband and I loved Wenatchee and the surrounding area. I can think of several times we did business with gay couples. There must have been many more where we were not aware of whether they were gay or not. Leavenworth also has some gay couples we know. At no time did any of them mention being uncomfortable in the area, but then again, it was never a topic of conversation.

As for living the retired life, utilities are some of the lowest in the country. Property taxes are lower than what we pay now in Clark County. Housing costs have raised rapidly since we moved. Medical care is good. We found it very easy to access everything we wanted to do.

We would have stayed in Wenatchee, but kids and grandkids were all in Portland.

[PS90]

As Jane mentioned, if you are considering Wenatchee for retirement, I would be much more worried about the ridiculously high real estate prices than I would any anti-gay sentiment.