As a rural American, I can quite relate. I live in a part of western Michigan well known for rural charm. People from Detroit and Chicago keep summer houses (they call them cottages, but as my hairdresser and I were joking the other day, a five-bedroom house is no cottage) and quite value the bucolic views.

Life here for queer folks is difficult. Grinder, Scruff, and Tinder are often deserts. There are no queer bars or other venues, mostly because there’s little population to support them, but also because a certain segment of the conservative population here would be hostile to them.

Yet I have a few queer neighbors. The same things that draw straight people to live here draw queer people too. Our challenge is to build community, and that’s not always an easy challenge to meet.

I think about a young gay friend of mine who lives in the UK — in Somerset near Taunton. I know he feels much the same way I do. The Southwest is home and he likes it. But he can get pretty bored and lonely there.