Ain't No Time to Hate: Safe Spaces for Freaks

Last night's Dead show (wild second set -- Space->Dark Star->King Solomon's Marbles->Drums->Come Together->Dark Star) reminded me of what got me there in the first place. I got on the bus in the Reagan 80s, a sensitive kid who felty that there had to be a more kind and thoughtful way of being together in the world. At my first shows, I saw not only a carnival, but a living social laboratory running thousands of simultaneous experiiments in alternative living. It was the first time, I did not feel like a freak, completely out of place. I think academia is another safe space for eccentrics, although that may be less and less true.

The question is where else do those safe spaces for people out of step with the mainstream exist?