Any thoughts on North Carolina?
The four of us did a quiz on "findyourspot.com" and came up with the same places in North Carolina (Raleigh, Ashville, Hickory, Charlotte).....
Did some research, the area is nice, weather suits our purposes, the homeschool laws are reasonable.... can't find much regarding the open-mindness of the area, whether being Poly might cause signficant issues or no...
Well, I guess places that are usually gay-friendly tend to also be as close to poly-friendly as you can get, so I'd definitely stick to the major cities. Raleigh, Durham, Asheville, Chapel Hill and Carrboro are the top of "progressive" or "open-minded" areas. I think in a previous post, you mentioned one in your family isn't big on cities so maybe Carrboro (or nearby Hillsborough) would be the best of those.
I don't know why you mentioned Hickory, that's bible-thumper heaven there! I drive through very fast and don't stop! LOL
Charlotte is ok but probably way too big for you...it's a traffic nightmare for starters, and not as open-minded as you'd think for a city that size.
You might like Asheville, since you're from Alaska, but be careful...the city itself is friendly but once you step outside the city limits, you're quickly in "Deliverance Country" if you know what I mean!
Big downside is economic....jobs are not plentiful there and the ones they do have tend to be tourism-based (hotels, restaurants, etc).
At least with the Chapel Hill/Carrboro/Hillsborough/Durham region, you can be sorta on the outskirts of the cities and still not be in bigot territory, necessarily. (Though exceptions happen of course.) One downside though is those areas can be pricey...cheap homes are something you kinda hafta hunt down.
There is a statewide poly email list (See
www.ncpoly.org), which is an umbrella for some local groups including Triangle Polyamory Network which meets regularly in Durham (includes Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Carrboro folks). Also there's a group in Asheville called "WNC Poly", if you decide the mountains is more for you.
As far as laws and policies go, well, it's a southern state so you can figure the rest out. But there are a lot of good lawyers in the Raleigh/Durham area who specialize in LGBT family law that can write a very good will to make sure varous partners can circumnavigate custody laws and such....I'm sure they can work with you on poly issues similarly.