Carly, it's very difficult to understand this sense of persecution that many conservative Christian people like your mayor hold.

We LGBTQ people are struggling to live our lives in peace, free of laws that curtail our freedom and quash our equality as members of society. States led by conservative Christian people are passing laws to forbid our free expression in public, to bar health care that we freely choose on the advice of medical professionals, to remove books about us from libraries, and to bar discussions about us in public schools.

These are all clearly repressive, even oppressive acts of state tyranny.

Free people get to make their own moral choices – not use government power to force their choices on others.

How your mayor got that turned around in his mind is beyond me, but of course he's not alone. While his swastika symbolism is highly (even outrageously) provocative, his ideas are common on the right.

I've followed the controversy a bit in the news, and I'm super pleased to read your personal account of what's going on in the town. I feel quite encouraged, as a matter of fact, by your report. It's really good to know that your mayor is facing stiff opposition from people who aren't cool with actual Nazi-like oppression.

Thanks for the story!