People in Calgary and Edmonton are friendly and Calgary is often cited as the friendliest city in Canada. People are very rah rah oil, but most of the hardcore conservatives are rural.

Alberta is Canada’s Texas, both in terms of economy (oil and cattle) as well as culture. You might find Edmonton welcoming, but anywhere outside of that you will find that it’s avery conservative province.

Big college community like Calgary is going to be mostly okay but the culture in Alberta and especially its corpo culture is very hostile to minority rights.

I visit Calgary from time to time (I live in BC) and the vibes aren’t as nice as home, but nobody has been super rude or anything to my face. I only go there for shopping though, I’ve never been to any bars or clubs in Alberta.

Outside of Calgary stopping for gas or food there’s almost always someone staring with a bad look on their face, so I’d definitely feel less comfortable in those small town areas if I was traveling alone, but I’ve never feared for my safety.

I was recently in Calgary and know ppl that live there. I would like to stress it is absolutely a conservative town but it’s not without a large queer community and out and about queer folks having a good time.

The voting record is as Canada’s conservative heartland but it has long history of radically progressive and humanist ideas as a bulwark to the business and theologically motivated conservative base.

The food scene is really good too.

I don’t know much about Edmonton other than Calgarians think they’re better and there’s a mall in Edmonton.

But ya know, it’s a clown show like anywhere else. The provincial government is actively attacking queer awareness/visibility/speech with book banning measures that the Unionized librarians and plenty of other Albertans are fighting back against hard.

It’s still quite a small pair of prairie towns and are the biggest towns for a very long distance from anything as close to as big as them. As a result some fresh produce can be hard to find because there is not much grown locally.

Would be remiss to not mention nature. It’s got some of the biggest parks of any city I’ve ever been too and you can see those damn pretty mountains and go to them if you own/rent the basically required car.

TLDR

I kinda liked it 🤷

A trans woman sold me a car tire once outside Calgary and seemed to be having a just fine day working at the tire shop with her co-workers

I live in Edmonton and love the city. However, I am also a white cis male and have the easiest time navigating a sometimes awkward culture. Edmonton tends to be very liberal, especially as compared to rural Alberta. We have a strong arts culture and parts of the city are very welcoming to people of all walks. If you choose Edmonton, I highly recommend the Whyte Ave area. This is where the largest population of people who are queer live. You will find support for transitioning on a social basis in this area. My wife’s best friend is gay and lives in Calgary; he feels supported thereas well. Whatever you choose, I wish you the best of luck.

Alberta is still Canada, populated by Canadians despite what separatists would like you to to believe. And Canadians do not express their feelings towards you as readily as in US, for example. What that means is that you may get some looks in odd places but typically low on offence and violence. I am not aware of any business declining service to " non-compliant folk".

Having said that there ARE idiots in AB as anywhere else that may yell from passing vehicle etc. Metropolitan areas less so than remote areas. Some communities are known to be more redneck then others, so they do dislike folk who stand out from the crowd in any shape or form but again, not to the point of violence or abuse, to my knowledge.

Government does dog-whistle trans-, and homophobic messaging to the masses so things may change.