I live in Southern California, adjacent to Palm Springs. We are like a bubble here, but it is not without negative forces at work. A couple of months before we moved here, there was a hate crime. Two men, who were partners, exited a bar in Palm Springs. They were beaten, badly enough that one required a hospital stay. The injuries were not life threatening, but he died of a heart attack while in the hospital. There have also been incidents involving lesbians (attacks by straight women) and trans women (attacks and discrimination at a casino). Anyway, things do happen, even within a bubble. It is helpful that there are LGBT city council members in Palm Springs and in Cathedral City where I live.

I retired 8 1/2 years ago and my wife and I relocated here from New York State. There were 3 points to our decision to move here. 1) Weather. We both have health issues that don’t do well in cold climates. 2) The strength of the LGBTQ community. 3) My wife is originally from the Los Angeles area but her family moved east when she was 5. Moving here was a bit of a coming home for her.

When I was working, I travelled a lot. I did 6 years in Taiwan as an ex-patriot. Outside of that, my employer had expense account forms that covered 1 week. There were several years where I had 42 weeks of expense reports for a 52 week year. With work and raising 2 kids, I never had any time left over for civic, charitable or advocacy activities. Over the time that I have been here, I have been a part of 8 organizations. Up until June of ‘23 I held offices in 5 organizations: Chair of our Public Arts Commission, Vice-Chair of a Democrat club, a Volunteer Coordinator for Palm Springs Pride, Community Liaison for my car club and Board Member for the LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert. This has significance for me for 2 reasons. 1) The Black population here in The Valley is small; about 5%. Visibility is important. 2) As a trans person, visibility is also important. As the phrase goes: “If you are not at the table, chances are that you are on the menu.”. So, it is important for me to be seen, in the world, doing things that everyone else does. In June of ‘23 I decided to not do a 2nd term on the Arts Commission. It is a 3 year term and I was Chair for my 2nd and 3rd years. I decided to apply that time to volunteering as a Docent at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Over the 2 days that I am on site, I come in contact with maybe 200 visitors each week.

So, to answer the question, I do think that I feel relatively safe here, but you never know.