And lastly, just in case you were worried about your rights, Massachusetts was the first state to pass marriage equality, and there’s also a bunch of gender expression and identity laws - Northampton and Amherst even have nondiscrimination statutes that cover public accommodations. There’s lots of apartments with good access to Main Street AND there’s a bike trail that goes just about everywhere. One- or two-bedroom ones are kind of expensive because the landlords want to over-charge Smith students. It’s way cheaper to live here than in bigger cities, and it’s cheaper to go for a bigger house/apartment. Cohabitation is happy and peaceful! Even the non-queer people (which must be like 40% of the population) have shared interests in things like veganism and organic things and local and feminism. There’s no tension or exclusion among the G, L, B, and T communities. There’s an extremely large trans community, both trans men AND women. Even though it’s the lesbian capital, there’s still a ton of gay boys, and they have their own event/info site too…no, not grindr. It’s very economically diverse, but not so much racially. There’s a lot of gay families, and people of all ages. They are probably very smart and they probably listen to NPR (station 88.5). A lot of people you will meet in Noho are in undergraduate or graduate school. If you like butches with babies, or gay dads with four kids, or quirky people of every kind, you will like Northampton, aka Noho. Actually, we always do a double-take when we see straight couples holding hands because there’s that many queers. In all seriousness, though, the city is extremely queer-friendly. Northampton is known as the lesbian capital of the world (we have no reference for this) because it is basically a lesbian commune on a larger scale (this may or may not be true). We really like Northampton and you should too. Enunciate it and I will shove a sharp object into your eye. I’ll be sad when I have to leave for grad school. Having lived in the liberal bubble of Massachusetts my whole life, I’ve found Amherst even more queer-friendly than other parts of the state (except Northampton and Provincetown). Now, I really love this tiny little town. I wasn’t out to anyone (even myself), and even though my dad’s side of the family all went to school here I somehow had no clue about Amherst’s hippie-liberal vibe. I was somehow under the impression that the town was literally in the middle of nowhere with absolutely nothing to do and that I’d be bored all the time. I nervously moved to the sleepy town of Amherst*, Massachusetts almost six semesters ago, not sure what to expect. Some sections are divided into Amherst and NoHo, and some are applicable to both.) Amherst note: Originally two city guides, these were combined because Amherst and Northampton are so close in geographical location and in spirit. The 200 Best Lesbian, Bisexual & Queer Movies Of All Time.LGBTQ Television Guide: What To Watch Now.