Hi Guys,

I hope I'm posting in the right area.

I was hoping to gain some info on how it has been for gay couples moving over to Canada, I know the differences are probably very little. But you have info on the best area's to live I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Hi, we have a few friends who are gay couples and they are happy. One thing I have noticed thats different and this could be an all round culture thing is that my gay friends in the South of England were really in my face for want of a better phrase with their sex life and all that. Here, its not really discussed. The Canadians seem to keep that element of their lives more private.

They are respected for their choices as they respect mine.

I no longer hear all the ins and outs of everything...

puns intended?

We are good friends with married gay couple. One of them is a supply teacher and at work he is careful about being openly gay. We live in the oountryside and people are pretty accepting, you still won't see much hand holding or many public kising, By that I mean kisses of the 'bye dear, I'm of to work' type.

My old house mate was gay. She came from the North of the Province which is mostly rural and catholic. According to her there was no real gay community as such and not a lot of understanding by some of her 'friends' and family. That changed when she moved to Moncton. There is a gay comunity here and a gay bar/club downtown.

I have heard a few make anti gay comments but no more or less than in the UK. I think that for the most part Canadians are very laid back about it and if I were in your shoes I would have no concerns unless you wanted to move somewhere very rural and isolated.

Oh and sorry could not help the cliche but... - Move on over - Canadians would benefit from some fashion advice!!!

Canada is famous for being one of the most gay-friendly countries in the world. In fact, no big surprise, but it was the first country in all the Americas to legalise same-sex marriage. Living in Montreal, which is well known for its large gay community, I have noticed that gay people are for more "at ease" here than in the UK for example. There is no significant differentiation, but rather people just live their lives the way they want to. They don't appear to need to shout out about gay rights and discrimination, because, certainly here in Montreal, there are little to no problems with equal rights and respect. As Howefamily says, people seem to be quite private here about their personal relationships, regardless of their sexual orientation. Although I would imagine it depends where you live in Canada, but I believe this is the general way...

Exceptions might be the Halloween parties at Rainbow Ridge (a gay trailer park near here) and any event at The Barn or The Stables (two bars in one building in Boystown). There is no shortage of flaming outage in Ontario though more so in the summer when the ugly tranny wears no coat.

That said, I know a m/m married couple and a f/f married couple who are gay without being ostentatiously so. Visitors from the midwest sometimes remark that it's odd to see couples holding hands on the street but that's the degree of interest sparked.

So, if you want a village with rainbow flags and annual floats of naked people, you'll need to move a specific location, the gay part of whichever town. If you want to live quietly and not be defined by being gay, you can go most anywhere except areas with a heavy Islamic population (Brampton, say).

The last law firm I worked for had a, relatively, large number of gay lawyers and support staff. All of the partners of the staff attended most functions as did the children of those that had children. Everyone accepted everyone else and, as far as I am aware, no issues ever came about.

This is Canada. The gay homeowners will come out and give you hot chocolate while you're digging the hole on their lawn for the burning cross.

Pretty much my experience too. No one would bat an eyelid at a gay couple in Toronto.

the f/f couples i know here feel comfortable enough to bring their respective spouses to our works xmas party and this is a fairly conservative traditional workplace

Petty much the same in Vancouver. There is a gay village downtown if you want to be ostentatiously gay, and I have seen a couple of stores on Commercial Drive that seem to cater for women's interests.

Otherwise, people tend to treat you as they find you rather than for who you sleep with.

Rural BC is very religious and very conservative. I don't know any gay people who live in the sticks, though I have met quite a few who have come from there.

Pure genius. Both of us (me and my heterosexual partner) are rolling with laughter on the parquet.

I've never heard anyone in Kamloops or anywhere else in Canada talk in a derogatory way about gay people. I believe that on the whole, Canadians go out of their way to be as accepting as they can to everyone.

Our good friends in the UK (our gaybours) had asked this same sort of question for when they visit and I am firmly under the impression they have nothing to be concerned about!

Your post however, did make me think of the RCMP video that I watched the other week, "It Gets Better"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJDvetmwaKg

Heres a 15 page discussion of the topic as it relates to Calgary (on another forum). There's a lot of crap in there of course but if you can filter through it, theres some good insight too. I can't really speak from personal experience but I know some of these guys and they probably have a fair perspective.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=203413

I'll give my experience of rural Alberta. It might differ from others but it's very much like the deep south of America.

Religious to a tee and i tried to have a conversation with my fil about people being who they are and was shot down with the "it's just not normal".

Whilst not wanting to stir the pot with the family the conversation was dropped with the "we'll agree to disagree" comment.

All that said I haven't seen anyone be out and out nasty to a gay person / couple, but certainly in these parts it would be frowned upon with snide comments in the background.

Novo is quite right....bloody brilliant!

My husband's daughter lives in a gay enclave in central Toronto, and says it's a blast. I can't help but think that in some other areas things might be considerably more conservative as Mandy says though. I find Canadians in rural areas can be very starchy and conservative at times, but surely that's the same anywhere isn't it?