New gay bar baton rouge

Our blog post for Pride Month features a a piece by Forum member Chris Fiore recounting his experience moving to Baton Rouge as a gay young professional. I was working in Gay at the time, running communications for the City of South Lake Tahoe, but the new job would elevate me to running a department of my own for a state agency.

The problem? The job was in Louisiana. For almost baton years, my husband and I had lived in northeast Louisiana. It seemed so at odds because as a young professional in television, those same people welcomed me into their living rooms night after night. When the opportunity came to leave, it was an easy choice to move to California.

Not just for the work, but also for the comfort that came with knowing we could be out, proud, and in public. After the call about a job in Baton Rouge came, my husband and I had a long talk about the offer and the opportunities and challenges it presented. We talked with friends who lived in Baton Rouge, and they assured us it was different here, and thankfully, it turned out they were right.

Baton Rouge is a relatively progressive city in that it is full of youth and vigor, pride, and promise, and the culture here is abundant. For all of its tradition though, I have to say the Capital City has made me feel not just welcome as a gay man but also respected as a gay professional working here. Splash gives you the big city, LGBTQ club vibes, and a quick google search provides you with a wealth of restaurants and shops that are gay-owned or gay-affirming.

Baton Rouge feels like a welcoming place new everyone, and I think that has bar lot to do with the city being a melting pot of sorts. People from all over the state, and country, land here, and rouge lives. This is certainly not a city without its challenges, though. The city needs to look at its non-discrimination policies for the LGBTQ community as it relates to housing, public accommodations, and employment.

Where the party is at

It also needs to extend its outreach to both the trans community and the older LGBTQ residents that call this place home. That effort for change made the choice to move to Baton Rouge an easy one. The future is bright here, as long as we keep putting that effort in to make it a little better one day at a time.

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