Having grown up gay in Dallas, I didn't exactly have a great experience. While I'm sure Tyler is worse, even Dallas is not so accepting (unless you're planning to move to Oak Lawn and never leave your neighborhood).

Rural California has plenty of interesting views. State of Jefferson, etc.

Your onto something, and I think another crucial detail is that the small, southern town I grew up in is more tolerant of gay folks now than the vast majority of big cities were 20 years ago. There's been such a massive shift in tolerance towards gay humans across the entire culture that comparing any place I go to NOW vs where I grew up WHEN I was a kid is a massive difference.

Compared to 2020 Anywhere, 2000 Anywhere was a very bigoted place.

In general that's true, but there are some specific exceptions that are worth remembering. Houston, for example, has always been unusually gay-friendly by Texas standards.

Finally but this such a young development it should be cherished by not taking it for granted.

> 2000 Anywhere was a very bigoted place.

This really is not true, in many big cities it was another common facet of life that people were by and large apathetic about at that point.

This is true. Even in big cities with large gay populations the reason why gay villages aros is because of safety. Now gay areas are disappearing from big cities because satefy is less of an issue and acceptance is much more widespread in society.

I think you might be thinking of the plot of the movie 'Milk' while not realizing it took place over two decades before the time being talked about here.

Then why is homophobia still a winning campaign platform in so many states?

Is it? Where? Which winning campaigns?

Probably not very many places, but transphobia still has quite a bit of traction.