trying to figure out ways to support them while observing a pretty conservative faith. it was remarkable. so why did you decide to write this book and what surprised you most in the process. you know, i to write it shory after the 2016 election. i saw, you know, a fair amount of commentary of people on social media dismissive towards red state america. you know i still encounter that flyover country attitude from friends who live on the coast. i wanted to kind of go out there and say no, this is what lgbtq life is like in these places, it s not uniformly awful. yes there s lots combat at state legislative levels, lots of lgbtq bills being proposed, but these places themselves are often warm, welcoming places to live. so, samantha, there s a school of thought and i don t know how large or popular the school of thought is, but it does exist that out there in the