Looks can be deceiving. The United States is a very, very big country. Many parts of the nation are altogether different, much more tolerant and supportive of minority groups. Of course, the intolerant areas get a lot more attention. I mean, I wrote this article, not an article about how supportive people in New England tend to be of trans youth and autistic people, or of how fabulous resources are in Chicago, or even in a major metropolitan area like Kansas City.

The United States is full of wonderful people. And many of us are fighting hard for positive change in conservative areas. If you don't live here, I guess that can give an unbalanced picture of how things are. And, in my own way, I just contributed to that. But I'm not sure what my alternatives are.