I was raised 30 miles southwest of Austin in a rather conservative small town. I have family, friends, and experience in Houston, Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio, Lubbock, Amarillo, etc. Most of the major cities that aren't in the border region.

There are homophobic troglodytes everywhere. However, it is verboten to be openly rude about that sort of thing in all but the most repressive and tiny communities. Those are the ones that creep out straight white males like myself, let alone minorities of any kind, so barring a flat tire I don't think you'll end up there by choice anyway. Actually, being atheist is something I tend to keep to myself, too.

And actually, a lot of rural areas (which is, geographically, most of the state) have hippies in disguise all over the place. The small town of Kerrville is home to a huge hippie music festival every year; Fredericksburg is near the infamous Luckenbach, where Willie Nelson still shows up occasionally; and places like Wimberley are hidden in the sticks but have wiccans and sell quasi-spiritual swag and incense in the local shops.

Houston has an openly lesbian mayor. Even Republicans here are making fun of Rick Perry's recent campaign ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAJNntoRgA). Urban areas in Texas are far from the stereotypes you've heard of. Come visit.

I moved to Austin from SF and was told by a friend prior to moving that "Austin is California surrounded by Alabama."

You can definitely sense a cultural contrast outside of Austin.

The entire urban core of Austin, Round Rock and Cedar Park are tolerant and generally cosmopolitan, save for the East Side (east of I-35), which has a larger Hispanic demographic and tends toward religiosity and traditional social roles. West of Austin for 20-30 miles, though, are wealthy (and mostly liberal) suburbs that aren't going to give any trouble.

That's a long way of saying that, based on my second-hand experience, gay men don't run into trouble in and around Austin or its immediate suburbs.

In general, you can find more opened minded folks in the urban areas of Texas. You start to see more of the crazies as you go farther into the suburbs.

I've had many gay coworkers and they usually stayed close to the city (I live in the DFW area).

You could ask the same question about SF. Northern California isn't the bastion of hippies and free love that most people make it out to be.