Yes! I'm really glad you wrote about Asheville, because it's an interesting microcosm of the struggle for queer acceptance in the United States. I've written a couple of stories about conservative homophobia in and around Asheville.

The local population surrounding Asheville is intensely conservative. A county official near Asheville has worked hard to remove LGBTQ-themed books from libraries (public libraries, not school libraries) and he has mostly succeeded, including by firing or forcing the resigations of library staff and directors who won't follow his homophobic orders.

I once interviewed a business owner in the area who who experienced threats of violence and actual homophobic violence against her shop, to the point that she packed up and left.

That's just to say that Asheville is part of the rural deep South, and as such it's intensely homophobic and often racist too.

I've even seen recent reports that sometimes groups of men in downtown Asheville gathered together to jeer at gay people, particularly at gay men.

That's not to say I'm urging people not to go to Asheville. The opposite! The locals who are turning Asheville into a queer haven represent the best of the US and the South.

They're standing up against the conservative evil of the U S. South and fighting for love and decency. In many ways, at least in a small geographic area, they're winning!

In my opinion, traveling to Asheville and helping support the local community economically is a wonderful thing for queer people to do!