I am considering moving with my partner to Spain in one year from now, to give myself time to gather everything together. I just graduated from college, and I need to work at my job for a while to save money first. I do have a couple of questions though:

1. I do know that Spain allows for gay marriages, but are gay people well-accepted? And are adoptions by gay people treated the same as heterosexual people? I would like to make a family, so this is important. I live in Texas USA now, and adopting children will be difficult.

2. Malaga or Valencia? I hope the rents are cheaper than Bacelonia & Madrid, but how do the attitudes differ? I am planning to save 20,000 USD, is that a good amount to last about 10 - 12 months?

3. I am an engineer. My degree is in chemical engineering, but I work now in civil engineering. Does anyone know what the job prospects are like for engineers? I can do computer programming easily, but it’s impossible to get an IT job in the US without a computer science degree. I mention that because I am very flexible on what area of engineering I work in. I’m sure this will be dependent on my Spanish language skills. Admittedly, I am not so good with Spanish now… but I plan on having a tutor to teach me before I move. I won’t move if I don’t know Spanish well enough.

So what do you think? 😊

hi there 1, marriages are legal in europe in fact your status is protected by european law on point 3 a good engineer will find work anywhere in the world as for rents if you can live a few miles in land rents are not to bad.
dave

I’m not an expert on the law and I’m not gay, but the impression I have from prolonged experience in Spain is that gay culture is very well established, tolerated and even celebrated - certainly more than in most other catholic countries.  Almodovar is a national treasure, after all.  However, different cities have different vibes.  Madrid, Malaga and Barcelona are very gay friendly as far as I can tell, Granada, Seville and traditional cities like Burgos and Zaragoza less so - sorry I don’t know Valencia.  The countryside is just as homophobic as elsewhere, I’m afraid.

Thank you both! I’m glad to hear of Spain’s tolerance. My high school Spanish teacher was from Granada, and he said the Spanish were a very happy people… it seems this is being proven here!

My main concern is getting a job (of course). Oh, and hopefully the border won’t be closed before I can arrive!

One thing to keep in mind is that in Valencia they speak Valenciano…... which is a lot different from Castellano spanish.  This is the main language up there, although castellano is secondary and most people do speak it, but its quite hard to pick up.