Gay Married Couple Looking to Relocate to Spain

I currently live in Alicante and yes, it is a good place to live. However, if you are interested in opening a business or finding a job, chose to relocate to the north of Spain. Surprisingly, here in Alicante there is an exclusive Gay sauna and also, other places where you can hangout where people will not stare if you and your partner will express your feelings in public. With regards of English, well I am in the same situation (I don't speak Spanish) and within the last eight months spent here, I managed to find people speaking (poor) English. You should be ok here. I am a foreigner without any interest to promote the area, but since there is a decent cost of living, quite safe place and good weather, I've had choose to live here for a while (even that, nowhere is perfect). Good luck with your decision 

I don't think that being gay enters much into the equation. Without knowing I would suspect there is more of a gay scene in Madrid and Barcelona than there is in Logroño but I live in a village of 8,000 people where the town mayor is gay, the bloke who heads up the local fiesta committee is gay and where being gay is no more remarkable than having a bad haircut.

There are English speaking people everywhere - absolutely everywhere but, if you end up in Valladolid or Caceres or Ciudad Real not speaking Spanish would be frustrating and limiting. The majority of Britons tend to live in Malaga and Alicante provinces or on the two groups of islands - in those places thousands of people seem to get by with limited and poor Spanish. There are much lower, but still significant, populations along all the coasts and Murcia has been attracting lots in the last few years. Madrid and Barcelona have a good number of English speakers too but they tend to be professionals rather than retirees or young families looking for the sun. 

You mentioned Torremolinos and Malaga in one breath. They represent, in one way, one of the major decisions you have to make. Malaga, like Valencia or Murcia or Bilbao or Barcelona or Zaragoza is a city with all that implies and Torremolinos is a place where tourism is ultra important. Torremolinos, like Magaluf or Benidorm is the sort of town that we old Brits might describe as cheap and cheerful or as kiss me quick hats.

Providing you're rich enough to afford it, and sort of reading between the lines in your original post, I think you'd probably like one of the bigger cities on the coast. Oh, and don't presume that Spain is some backward rural idyll. I haven't seen a donkey cart for years and in all but the most rural of locations the stuff that comes out of the tap/faucet comes via a water treatment plant.

Best of luck

Alicante and in particular Benidorm has a gay kinda scene, but it is tourist centric, a bit old school drag shows, but with a mixed crowd but geared more towards tourists.  Malaga I don't  know but suspect Torremolinos is similar to that Benidorm vibe.  Sure will be friendly enough but not particularly Spanish or international, the Brits dominate more.  

May be worth starting your journey travelling the coastline for a while.  There some good YouTube vlogs of people doing that.  A friends parents did it in an RV but as already living in another EU country they just go for six months every year, now but they settle in Nerja every winter. After exploring they liked it there most, but they rent as long term for six months a year, they found was a good deal for them.  

@markegoldstein

I have been to many places in Spain as I was looking for a place to live as a single gay man turning 65 in July. Today I got notice that my Visa application has been approved and I have an appointment on Monday to get the visa put into my passport.

My choice of where to live was made after many checklist and visits. I decided on outside of Santander for several reasons. But they are my reasons and may not fit for you. I don't go to gay bars and am an introvert who doesn't need a lot of social life. Two or three good friends that I see periodically are enough for me. I don't mind going to a concert, museum, restaurant, or bike-ride/hike on my own. I love travel and have good travel mates.

I like smaller towns but enjoy being close to a small city or large town. Walking to the store or out to eat and not driving for weeks at a time is my preference. I also need decent access to an train station to get me to France, Denmark, Portugal... and an airport to get me to Norway, Italy, Greece....

I am entry level in my Spanish but am putting forth the effort to learn it. I am attending a month long intensive class at the International University in Santander in August to boost my learning curve. At this moment, I have gotten very good at pronunciation and often use Google Translate to know what to ask for if I encounter a non-English speaker. I've been able to get everything done I've needed including a computer repair. Two factors come into language: the smaller the town and how touristy it is. Small villages on the coast will have English speakers at restaurants and hotels and maybe even gas stations, grocery stores, and barbers. In Santander (a decent sized town) it seems less than half the folks at the grocery store will speak English.

The other main reason for me to choose Santander is the temperature in the summer and fall. The older I get, the less I can take the humidity and heat. I was in Valencia last October and was miserable. I love the city but hated it at that time of year.

Regarding attitudes toward being gay, as others have said, it is so much a non-issue. This still seems surprising to me as I grew up in Alabama and have spent a lot of time in Florida. I can't imagine you'd be the victim of bias in business dealings because you're gay. I wish all people in the US could let go of the sexual shame and repression that is so much a part of the US culture. The world would be a better place and the US would be a much happier and enjoyable place.

All this is to say that you need to decide the place and area that meets your desires that are so far beyond your sexual identity unless you feel a need to have a substantial gay community nearby. But as others have said, it is so easy to get around the country and relatively inexpensive to stay for weeks or longer to enjoy that too.

The above links are for the ANNUAL REVIEW OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANS, AND INTERSEX PEOPLE IN SPAIN for 2021