TG question from a straight guy

It's interesting to observe how gays have gradually been more accepted as the years have gone by, especially lately. The popularity of Ellen DeGeneres and the gay characters on Modern Family, Will & Grace, and so on have demonstrated that.

On the other hand, the whole Bruce Jenner thing has shown that the concept of TG makes a lot of people uncomfortable if not outright hostile.

There are certain cities I perceive as places where being openly tg is accepted - LA, NY, and San Francisco come to mind.

In what other geographic areas would this be the case? Maybe Miami? I'm from Chicago (many years ago) and from growing up in the region I'm thinking the uber-macho Midwest is not such an open-minded place.

Answer from a straight TG
It depends what aspect of life you refer to: legal status ( whether surgery is demanded before legal papers can be chaged ), access to medical care, housing, job security, education or simply the risk of being beaten up or killed for being transgender.
Here's a couple of links
Trans Law Center
State by state map

Generally, big cities are better and, from my observations, traditionally republican states are to be avoided...

Thanks, I was being too general

stickygirl said:

Answer from a straight TG
It depends what aspect of life you refer to: legal status ( whether surgery is demanded before legal papers can be chaged ), access to medical care, housing, job security, education or simply the risk of being beaten up or killed for being transgender.
Here's a couple of links
Trans Law Center
State by state map

Generally, big cities are better and, from my observations, traditionally republican states are to be avoided...

Click to expand...

You're right, I should have been more specific. I was asking not from a legal sense, but more along the lines of laissez faire, where you can walk down the street without the risk of being beaten up or killed for being transgender. In Illinois, I was once accused of being a a "fag" and nearly beaten up (fortunately the drunken asshole's friends stopped him) because I was carrying a puppet in an elevator. (I was a special ed teacher, and the puppet was one of my teaching tools.) I didn't grab the guy's crotch, I was just standing there with my puppet.

I've read about special summer camps for transgendered kids, but they don't publicize it due to the fear of threats. Maybe I'm just too damn old, but that shit is ridiculous, fueled by self-proclaimed religious zealots who say they speak for God. I can't tolerate religious idiots, and there's more of them every day.

My philosophy is to let people be who they are and leave them the fuck alone if they're not hurting anyone. And better yet, be nice to them!

Even big cities that have large LGBTQ populations still have big populations of homophobic, transphobic, sexist, racist and/or generally bigoted assholes. Even in the 'gay village' areas of such cities it's still possible to get bashed for not being (or even appearing, as your story of the puppet shows) cisgender and/or heterosexual. Some people just can't deal with the fact that the world has shades of grey - or that they themselves might have shades of grey...