Seattle area communities that are Rainbow Friendly (especially school districts) (Shoreline: day care, home)

[YoMaMJ]

Hello, my partner, two young children and I am seriously considering moving to the PNW. I most likely will be working from home (good job) and my partner would be looking to work in a small hospital. We have heard great things about WA in general about being liberal and accepting of LGBT people, but I thought I'd start a current thread about it.

Details:
We are a same sex couple with two young children. Our oldest is a couple years away from Kindergarten. We'd prefer a small to medium city near (within 45-60 mins) Seattle with great schools and lots of activities. We would like to find an in-home daycare for them close by, too. We would most likely rent. Yes, we realize how expensive the Seattle area is, but we would like some feedback on cute cities/towns that might be good for our rainbow family but still affordable. We would consider rural if the community was accepting.

Weather:
And lastly -- are the complaints about the rainy weather really THAT bad? We are casual, jeans & t-shirt kind of folks who can't stand hot humid weather.

[Adrian71]

The Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle is the hub of the city's gay community. You won't have any problem being accepted here. The suburbs can be a little more conservative, but not so much that you'd probably ever notice. I don't know much about day care (I'm a stay-at-home dad), so I'll have to leave that question to someone else.

As for the rain, it's mist or drizzle most of the time. Honestly, I don't even notice it most days. I think it's the nine months of cloud cover that gets to people more than the rain does. Summers here are warm and dry, but usually not hot -- high 70s to low 80s is the norm, with low humidity. I can't stand humid summers, either, and that's not something you have to worry about here.

[Inkpoe]

Originally Posted by YoMaMJ

Details:
We are a same sex couple with two young children. Our oldest is a couple years away from Kindergarten. We'd prefer a small to medium city near (within 45-60 mins) Seattle with great schools and lots of activities. We would like to find an in-home daycare for them close by, too. We would most likely rent. Yes, we realize how expensive the Seattle area is, but we would like some feedback on cute cities/towns that might be good for our rainbow family but still affordable. We would consider rural if the community was accepting.

Weather:
And lastly -- are the complaints about the rainy weather really THAT bad? We are casual, jeans & t-shirt kind of folks who can't stand hot humid weather.

Is that 45-60 mins including traffic? Cute cities/towns with great schools and affordable? What is "affordable" to you?

And lastly... The rainy weather is really THAT heavenly for some. It is also THAT hellish for others. Where would you fall in? That depends on you. However, I'm very casual, flip-flops, jeans & t-shirt kind person. Sweater weather for me is less than 40 degrees. Just remember an saying: there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.

[amaiunmei]

I don't know why there is no formatting on this article! It is, otherwise, an informative article:

Seattle News and Events | There Goes the Gayborhood

[xboxmas]

Olympia is about 60 miles from Seattle and I have read that it is very gay friendly. They have a festival called the Capital City Pride which is a LBGT festival. Its a very liberal city and also the state capital. Population just over 45,000. You might want to check it out.

[west seattle gal]

You would be comfortable and welcome anywhere in Seattle and surrounding cities and islands.

[YoMaMJ]

Originally Posted by Inkpoe

Is that 45-60 mins including traffic? Cute cities/towns with great schools and affordable? What is "affordable" to you?

Affordable to us would be $1300/month rent. Our salaries would provide more with WA's no state income tax.

[mkarch]

What part of Seattle do you want to get to in 45-60 minutes? It can take that long to get from one neighborhood within the city to another during high traffic times.

[Inkpoe]

Originally Posted by YoMaMJ

Affordable to us would be $1300/month rent.

Hmm... With the great schools requirement, that could prove a bit difficult. It certainly rules out the nicer parts of Seattle itself with the better schools. I'm assuming the 45-60 mins w/o traffic.

I would say at least check into Shoreline/Lake Forest Park (for the Shoreline SD), Bothell (Northshore SD), maybe Maple Valley (Tahoma SD), University Place, Olympia. UP and Olympia would offer more options than the others.

If you're not as strict on the quality of schools (average to very good range): Snohomish, Edmonds, Mukilteo, Mill Creek, Carnation/Duvall. All are smaller, cutesy towns with a nice DT core (except for Mill Creek which is just newer).

[tobester]

Originally Posted by YoMaMJ

Affordable to us would be $1300/month rent. Our salaries would provide more with WA's no state income tax.

The other taxes will catch you though ... don't count on a big bump in spendable income.