LGBT/vegetarian-friendly areas/neighborhoods in Winston-Salem?

[atlantafemme]

Hi all,

My partner and I may be moving to Winston-Salem. We're a same-sex couple, vegetarian, moderately tattooed, with one son and another due any minute. We'd be coming from Atlanta, which is fairly liberal and veg-friendly. We have family in the Raleigh-Durham area and have spent a lot of time in Asheville but we know nothing about W-S.

Can anyone comment on how how LGBT-friendly the area is? We plan to rent, at least initially. Are there any neighborhoods that are more crunchy/liberal? Any neighborhoods we should really steer clear of? What about schools? Which area has the best public and/or charter options? 

Thanks!

[atlantafemme]

So should I take the silence to mean that the area is not LGBT-friendly? We're not looking for a bar scene or even other LGBT parents. We're just hoping to find a community of open-minded people. I know the south isn't much known for that sort of thing but college towns tend to have pockets of progressive/liberal types. I figured with so many colleges around, W-S couldn't be so bad. But now I'm nervous!

[Zoeanne]

May be that there just aren't that many folks on here who live in the area? I'm in the triangle, but my husband's cousin and family live in Greensboro (near WS), and they are open-minded people...members of the Quaker faith.  I imagine the other areas you mentioned (triangle and Asheville) may have a larger community to welcome you, but WS surely has some people too!

[atlantafemme]

Thanks, Zoe. I appreciate the response. I'm keeping an open mind of course as it's always hard to tell anything about a place from the internet. But I wish we could move to the triangle or Asheville. I've loved my time in both areas. Alas, the job prospect dictates where we end up.  

[atlyogamomma]

We lived in W-S (pre-baby) while my DH attended Divinity School at Wake Forest in the early 2000s and found it to be a welcoming town (I think a lot of that has to do with it being a college town and home of the NC School of the Arts). There's not a huge LGBT community, but there is one and it's active. There are a number of yoga studios, a Whole Foods, lots of local farmers, a strong "open and affirming" Christian community (Wake Forest Baptist Church has a lesbian senior pastor). If we were to move back to W-S, we'd want to be in the West End. As it was, we lived in a condo off of Robinhood Rd. It was in a nice subdivision, but we're not really subdivision folks; however, the price was right and it was an easy commute to both campus and my job. We had several friends who lived in the West End...it's a wonderfully diverse and historic community. Hope this gives you a place to start looking!