What are the best cities for gay folks in Delaware?

In this episode of Queer Money®, we’re headed to the First State and shining the spotlight on Wilmington, Delaware—the most affordable LGBTQ-friendly city in the state and the proud owner of an HRC Equality Score of 80 (not too shabby, Wilmington 👏).

We spill the tea on what makes Wilmington worth the move—like Crimson Moon, the video bar/dance club hybrid that keeps the local queer scene glowing well past bedtime. 🌙💃

But wait, there’s more! We also peek into other Delaware cities (hi, Dover 👋) that might be lower on the equality score but still give your budget room to breathe.

Oh, and did you know Delaware has one of the highest LGBTQ+ population percentages in the country at around 7.5%? Small state, big queer energy!

So, if you're dreaming of a move that lets you live your truth and afford the occasional drag brunch, this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen in and let’s keep building fabulous lives—on our financial terms.

Takeaways:

• 🏳️‍🌈 Wilmington Wins (Mostly) - Wilmington snatched the title of most LGBTQ-friendly city in Delaware with an HRC Equality Score of 80. Not bad, but we’re still side-eyeing that missing 20 points. Do better, Delaware.
• 📜 History, Heimlich & Homo-Economics - Delaware may be small, but it's got big history energy—first to sign the Constitution and home to Henry Heimlich (yes, that Heimlich). Now it's time to make history again with fierce financial empowerment for LGBTQ+ folks.
• 💸 Queer Money = Financial Power to the People - This episode is another installment in our mission to help the LGBTQ+ community slay their finances—even when the economy is giving “meh.” Because money is freedom, baby.
• 🏠 Wilmington: Budget-Friendly and Queer-Affirming - Turns out, Wilmington has the lowest home values in the state, which means you might actually afford a home and still brunch on weekends. A rare combo!
• 😤 Not-So-Perfect Equality Scores? We Noticed - Delaware cities, we see you—but we also see that none of you hit a perfect 100 on the HRC Equality Index. We expect more. Especially when queer lives and rights are on the line.
• 🏖️ Rehoboth Beach, We Need to Talk - You're the coastal queen of queer getaways… yet you scored only 61 on the HRC Index?! That’s giving us glitter on the outside, but not enough equity on the inside. Let’s fix that, shall we?

Topics Covered:

• 00:06 - The Tallest Lego Tower
• 01:41 - Exploring Delaware's LGBTQ Community
• 03:31 - Introduction to the Queer Cities Series
• 04:35 - Exploring Wilmington's Equality Score and Economy
• 06:31 - Exploring LGBTQ+ Communities in Delaware
• 07:41 - Upcoming Topics in LGBTQ+ Community Discussions

Mentioned in this episode:

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Foreign.

Once upon a time, it was the home of the tallest Lego tower in the world, standing at 113ft or 11 stories, with 500,000 Lego bricks.

It was the first state to sign the U.S.

constitution.

And one of its nicknames is Home of Tax Free Shopping.

Can we say hello?

Total Wine and Spirits.

It's where Henry Heimlich of the famous Heimlich maneuver was born, and when he was a plant worker at Chrysler.

It was once the home of Bob Marley.

And it was named after Thomas west, the third baron of D Law War, who was later known as Lord Delaware.

And if you haven't guessed, you're listening to Grim Money, episode number 469.

And today, we're sharing the most affordable LGBTQ friendly city in Delaware.

Now, on with the show.

The mission of Queer Money is to financially empower the LGBTQ + community.

So the reason I gave a special shout out to Total Wine and Spirits when we mentioned the tax free shopping in Delaware was that during the pandemic, we were stuck in Pennsylvania just a little bit, about half hour across the border from Delaware.

And so we would make maybe more than one trip, maybe two or three trips down to stock a SUV full of alcohol, which helped get us through the pandemic.

And we saved money doing it.

Exactly.

It was the way that we made it through the pandemic in the situation we were living in.

Let's talk about Delaware.

That's the whole reason why you clicked on this video, right?

Well, unfortunately, Delaware comes up a little short here because no city in Delaware got a 100 on HRC's Municipal Equality Index.

That's.

That's kind of sad.

And I was kind of like, phoning it in.

I thought this, the home state of the President of the United States would be a little bit more friendly to the gays.

I thought so too, but it sounds like there's plenty of us there.

Per the CDC and Williams Institute, 7 1/2% of adults identify as LGBTQ in the state of Delaware.

It's the fourth.

Fourth highest of any state in the country.

That's crazy to me by percentage, but that means There are roughly 50, 600 LGBTQ adults living in Delaware.

That is awesome.

Yeah, that's totally great.

So who is our runner up?

Our runner up is the state's capital, Dover.

Why it has an HRC MEI rating.

This is kind of hard to say.

Comes in third for the state at 64.

However, home values average $305,000 per property.

That's the second lowest for the state.

Rent comes in at $1,634 per month for a two bedroom two bathroom apartment.

That's the lowest for the state.

Cost of living is 99% which is the lowest for the state.

And that kind of gave us our the the second rate, the number two spot.

Average incomes though come in at $52,000 a year which is also the lowest for the state.

And then median income comes in at $44,000 a year which is also lowest for the state, which is really weird for a capital to have such low income for the relative to the rest.

So maybe the politicians need to start getting sales tax income and increasing their salaries.

It sounds like like Dover is going.

Low, low, low, low, low, low, low.

All right, so if you're new here, we are continuing our Queer Cities series.

If you've been watching or are watching on YouTube, you can click the link up here to catch that whole series.

If you're listening in your podcast link.

If you're listening, click that link in your podcast player.

Last week we visited the state of Georgia.

If you want to watch our analysis of Georgia, you can click the link up here.

If you're listening, click that link in your podcast player.

We have some more podcast love.

This one comes from Damon who said on YouTube about episode number 450 I sincerely appreciate how much time you spent with Lisa, going in depth in places while also letting the conversation flow in different directions.

I found the chakra component particularly eye opening, a rich and wonderful capital F U L L episode.

Many thanks.

Well, many thanks to you Damon and for all your ongoing support.

If you feel inclined, please give the crew Money podcast a rating and review on your favorite podcast player.

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Two thumbs up.

As many thumbs ups as you can.

All right, who's the winner?

David, you're right.

Who's our winner?

Our winner is no surprise, it's Wilmington.

Wilmington get did get the highest HRC municipal equality score at 80 out of 100.

Still getting that.

Be right.

This is we're grading on a curve here and 80 on out of 100 gets you an A here.

Home values come in at 296,000 which was the lowest in the state.

Rent $1,650 a month for a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom.

Second lowest in the state.

Cost of living is 104.1 which is right in the middle for the state.

Average income, median income both came in at middle for the state at 85,000 and 64,000 respectively.

So we do have an honorable mention this week.

Many of you are probably saying, well, me and my gag will go to Rehoboth beach every summer, and it is just the best time.

I don't know why.

I'm southern, I guess Delaware is below the Mason Dixon line, right?

No, no.

Geography by John.

So.

So we did want to do an analysis of Rehoboth.

It only got an HRC rating of 61, which was quite surprising because we do know a lot of LGBTQ plus people who go to Rehoboth beach every summer.

So there's something welcoming that keeps going.

I don't think people would dive into that abuse.

Um, home.

Home values are the second highest in the state, which is what pretty much kept it out of the one of the top two spots.

Rents were also in the middle.

The highest did have the highest median and average income, which was good.

But the HRC rating also helped keep it from the top or second position.

So, I mean, roboth, do some homework.

It should be an easy A.

Yeah, exactly.

Especially because there's.

There are so many LGBT people who live there and own shops there.

It's a very welcoming LGBTQ community there, but for whatever reason, they're keeping themselves out of the top spot in our analysis.

So let's go back to Wilmington.

What are some good things about Wilmington?

Well, the gay place to be in Wilmington is called the Crim, the Crimson Moon, which is a video bar and dance club.

Yep.

As part of its best cities series, movoto.com that's M O V O T O.com once listed Wilmington as one of the four best towns for LGBT folks in Delaware.

Our Night out is an LGBTQ+ Wilmington social group that meets mid June to celebrate pride, because Wilmington itself does not have a pride, but it looks like they meet regularly throughout the year.

So there is a.

A growing in a small social group there.

You can look them up.

I think they have a Facebook page.

Is that right?

Yeah, they have a Facebook page.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, so look them up.

But it looks like for Pride, people from Wilmington often go to either Dover or just up the road to Philadelphia, which is one of the biggest prides in the country.

I can understand why they would go there.

Exactly.

So congratulations, Dover and Wilmington, and maybe Rehoboth, you can make it on the spot next year if we do this next year.

Now stay tuned for your Criminity takeaway.

Make sure you come back next week on Thursday for Queer Money bonus episode.

We're covering the most affordable and most gay friendly city in the state of Connecticut.

Exactly.

If you'd like to see the results of all the cities in each state that we're analyzing, go to queermoneypodcast.com cities or click the link in your podcast player if you're listening.

Or click the link link right here if you're watching on YouTube.

Thank you and have an amazing weekend.