The city isn’t very outwardly hostile, and once you find a pocket of queer friends to start connecting you to others (one thing this guide will hopefully help you do!), we think the ‘Nati can be downright grand.

Positively Cleveland and the Gay Games invited Autostraddle to take a look at their facilities for the games and experience some of food and fun Cleveland has to offer the impending influx of queermos.

The South is notoriously friendly. It is also notoriously bigoted. In 2006, the year I moved to Nashville, an anti-marriage equality proposition passed. It felt like a slap in the face and a sign to leave. Six years later, I couldn’t be more happy that I stayed.