From all my travels and places I’ve lived while working, Lancaster Pennsylvania fits your criteria and is not exorbitantly expensive as are the major metropolitan areas.

Pro-LGBT, college town with a historic black college, major art college, the city has a high left leaning population, strong PSL branch, highly diverse with a healthy mix of various Black, Asian, Hispanic, and “ethnic” white populations. Fairly decent communal transport, good community support networks.

The Pennsylvanian valley area also has virtually no natural disasters. Maybe a tiny heavily weakened hurricane from down south will come through as a strong thunderstorm once every few years, but that’s all.

All around decent city. Reminded me a little of the smaller cities in Belarus.

In general, Pennsylvania is a commonly overlooked and very good choice, though some research is required as some areas are basically the Deep South, but those are easy to avoid.

Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and California have good pro-trans laws. Oregon and Washington are very rainy though, and Southern California is very hot. EDIT: So I looked it up and apparently SoCal is cooler than Denver in the summer :O.

Minneapolis, MN. There is a reason the federal govt continues to attack MN. We have free health care for poor, free school lunches for kids, safest US city for LGBTQ+, low rate of housing cost increase, etc. And we have a surplus every year. The electoral college has not gone to a republican in decades. It's not even close to socialism but people here do want some kind of functional sensible leaders, not weird demagogues whining about trans. Voting rate is highest in the country (not that I am a big electorialist or anything, but it's a sign of a somewhat engaged public). Basically by US capitalist standards it's one of the better places you could end up. Hit me up if you want more info. I live in a commune with 5 others right outside the city.

There are a lot of cities that fit that description, but being the US, you're not going to find a lot of good options that have a decent overall quality of life, and aren't incredibly expensive.

The best metrics to look for IMO are:

• Bikability
• Usable public transportation (< 10 US cities have this)
• Good infrastructure / livability
• Green spaces / parks

That leaves only a few options, all of which are expensive, but still far better than any other alternative:

My top picks are:

• San Francisco / bay area
• Washington DC area
• Boston area
• Seattle area

I've lived in many of these places and can vouch for them.

I personally hate these below, because they're grimy / filthy, have a ton of cops, and are filled with podcasters, but they do have good public transportation and a few other redeemable things.

• NYC area
• Chicago area
• Philadelphia area

Not considering future water wars, the southern border so you can go into Mexico for Healthcare more easily.

new york

Oregon and Washington.

well, as someone who doesn't live in america, the less damaging places are new york, minneapolis, houston and minnesota (because it seems that those are the most active places against AI data centers ICE and stuff

if you’re looking for queer community, I don’t think there’s a larger one than NYC. and personally the only place I would want to live in the U.S. is NYC, since most urban areas are just as expensive without good public transit.