Iowa...Trans friendly?

[Crypt77]

So being a city kid all of my life, I have decided I would move out to Iowa to complete my college education (Which will probably be exciting at first but I'd probably get bored). However I was trying to do research to see if Iowa is transsexual friendly at all.

Because they have legalized homosexual marriage out there I would assume that the state is open minded enough to accept transexuals as well, but you never know.

So does anyone have any info if Iowa is transfriendly? Especially in Fairfield, Iowa?

[tekla]

People in Iowa might not like you, but they will be too polite to tell you that.

And Fairfield will not bore you after a while, it's going to bore you before you even get there.

Are you going to Maharishi U?

[Crypt77]

Yeah I plan on going to Maharishi Uni. Are you from Iowa Tekla?

[tekla]

I was off and on, went to Drake in Des Moines (ba) and ISU in Ames (ma+phd).  My aunt lived in Fairfield and my grandmother worked at Parsons, back when it was Parsons.  So I know the town pretty well.

[Crypt77]

Ah I see! That's cool. Thanks for the info though haha. Really appreciate it.

And yeah I'm sure I'll get bored but MUM is a school I want to go to pretty badly. I haven't felt this good about a school in a long while.

So thank you. 

[wakeup]

i went to school in iowa city for college, just moved away 2 weeks ago, been there since 2003. knew several transfolk there (really randomly too, through my D&D group). i have never lived in a more accepting place, i'll be honest with you. we had some protesters and come by when gay marriage passed. this guy in a suit stood on the pentacrest (main campus green) and started preaching the usual hate. you know what happened? random students surrounded him and listened to him, argued with him, and then several went up and hugged him until pretty much the whole crowd did. just random students! it was pretty amazing, considering he didn't deserve it after saying the things he did. he was shocked too, i think. he didn't say a word, but he packed up and went home and i never saw him again. before that, he was out there every wednesday afternoon for months. not saying a hug changed him, who knows, but it was an amazing thing to see.

anyway, the western half of the state is pretty "conservative" in terms of LGBT rights, and the eastern half is quite "liberal" to use the political terms (though i don't wanna get into politics). the midsection is des moines. fairfield, well i have never been there. it's a little south of iowa city, and so it's close to missouri... hard to say. it looks far away from any big town so it's probably going to be excruciatingly boring there, if nothing else.

yes, it's not all sugar and honey, there are always fools everywhere, but overall iowans are pretty practical, in general. they mind their own business, or at least that was always my experience. it's not as religious as the bible belt (where i am from originally), and it has done a lot in the state for civil rights (racial, gender and glbt over the years).

sorry to gush on iowa, but your question pulled me out of lurking. i consider myself iowan even though i only lived there about 1/2 of my life (briefly as a kid in Ames + college in Iowa City). but compared to the Florida/Georgia border where i lived for the other half of my life, heh, yeah... Iowa City was amazingly accepting.

good luck. i hope you like corn and snow, since those are the two seasons. =)

[ClaudiaJ]

I used to live in Keokuk as a kid. I go back every now and again because my dad is from there (don't mention the Hardman's if you ever find yourself arrested there). Far too many meth-head teenagers looking for trouble. I don't have any experience outside of Keokuk though. Get outed to the police there though and everyone will know. Gossip spreads through the police scanners that everyone seems to have.

[tekla]

Iowa City - home of the University of Iowa, the Law School, and the Med school (and the Writer's Workshop, the major claim to fame) would rate in the 90s% in terms of being liberal.  The rest of the state, is a toss up.  Pretty much, the more north (to Minnesota) you get, slightly more liberal, to the south, (Missouri) more conservative.  Same with East to West.  East is the river, and port towns - any and all port towns - are pretty open, to the West, Kansas and Nebraska, more conservative.

[Crypt77]

Thanks for all of the replies guys! I appreciate it. I look forward to visiting Iowa soon.

And lol to the corn & winter.

It snows right? (not to sound ignorant, but in Southern California, I have never seen snow fall)

[Kadel]

I find Iowa pretty open, although I'm one state over though, both IL and IA are quite alike.

And there can be quite the amount of snow, and corn fields, a TON of them.

But I hope  the midwest works out for you, and I'd suggest you stay in the city, since once you're out of it, living wise, it kind of feels like you're cut out of everything, that's just my personal opinion though.

[tekla]

Snow, it snows a lot.  Not as bad south of I-80 as north, but you can expect to have some days were the temp gets down into sub-zero range, and that +10 degrees with the Artic Clipper blowing like hell  (the wind comming down the plains straight from Alaska with nothing to stop it) feels a lot colder.

I couldn't find the averages by month for Fairfield, but its only going to be a few degrees up from Des Moines.  Remember, those are averages.

Month   Low   High
Jan   11.7°F   29.1°F
Feb   17.8°F   35.4°F
Mar   28.7°F   48.2°F
Apr   39.9°F   61.3°F
May   51.4°F   72.3°F
Jun   61.0°F   81.8°F
Jul   66.1°F   86.0°F
Aug   63.9°F   83.9°F
Sept   54.3°F   75.9°F
Oct   42.2°F   63.5°F
Nov   29.0°F   46.7°F
Dec   16.7°F   33.1°F
Des Moines's coldest month is January when the average temperature overnight is 11.7°F. In July, the warmest month, the average day time temperature rises to 86.0°F.