I live in an officially gay-friendly county (Montgomery) bordering on Northwest DC in the state of Maryland. All of my local county officials are either gay-friendly or gay themselves.
There largely a reasonably good standard of living in my county and other than a gang-related problem in need of swift and multi-pronged correction, I do not fear for my safety so long as (as an only member of my household) I am not walking the streets of the downtown area of my town or of DC in the wee-hours of the morning.

I live in fairly OK part of my state, lots of things to do and see here and good gay male friends who are also enjoying a nice life here in our county.

I know that there are areas of our country that are not as safe or as nice.

But I have no intention of living in say Canada that has its own collection of not gay-friendly areas. There are in the UK people who absolutely hate gays and look to bash them, just as there are in the USA. Even in gay-friendly countries, there are gay bashers look to bash, rob and injure gay people. I have no guarantee that life would be better or safer in another country. Editor Cris Crain of our local Washington Blade gay paper was attacked and bashed in Netherlands while walking hand in hand with his boyfriend some years ago.

And just be aware that once you leave where you live, you are under the rules,laws and regulations of another country and there isn’t much your home country can do to help you if you fall afoul of another countries laws and customs. Best read about the country, its laws and degree of safety there you visiting or wanting to reside in very thoroughly before you go.

It is worthy to note that invited guest Robert Mugabe, who will be chauffeured in one of the new limos, thinks lesbians and gay men should be put to death (literally).

I guess our problems in the US fall into perspective when thinking about the plight of the average people in Swaziland.