“It’s so much better,” she said. “It’s so much freer. It needs to be reported.”

It is, of course, being reported — but news about positive L.G.B.T. developments in cities and states tends to garner a small fraction of the attention that stories about the Trump administration’s anti-L.G.B.T. plotting do. When the Department of Health and Human Services circulates an anti-transgender memo, social media is aflame for days; by comparison, when New Hampshire’s Republican governor signs a transgender nondiscrimination bill that passed with bipartisan support, we barely bat an eye.

When we focus too intently on the actions of the Trump-Pence administration, we miss the bigger — and better — picture: A majority of Americans — in all but six states — now support same-sex marriage. Most support transgender military service. Most oppose businesses’ turning away L.G.B.T. customers in the name of religion. Public opinion on L.G.B.T. people is finally turning a corner, not just on the coasts but between them as well.

That shift is thanks in large part to the increasing proportion of Americans who identify as L.G.B.T. themselves. According to Gallup polling data, 4.5 percent of American adults now identify as L.G.B.T., which is a full percentage point higher than in 2012. Millennials may not be more likely to be L.G.B.T., but their increased willingness to come out of the closet is driving the community’s numbers up.

Queer people, simply put, are everywhere. (We are most definitely in Dollywood, a theme park owned by Dolly Parton in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., and my favorite stop on my road trip, where I saw Bible Belters and lesbian couples peaceably ride roller coasters side-by-side.)

As more millennials move to the South and West — and as more Americans all over the country come out as L.G.B.T. — cities like Louisville, Ky.; Norfolk, Va.; New Orleans; and Salt Lake City are all seeing huge spikes in the percentage of their residents who identify as L.G.B.T., as data from the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, shows. At the same time, between 1990 and 2014, that same statistic stayed relatively static for longstanding hubs of gay culture like San Francisco and Los Angeles — and it even fell in New York City.

America’s queer center of gravity is moving toward the middle. Before we know it, this country will have become L.G.B.T.-friendly not from the outside in but from the inside out.

There are plenty of reasons for L.G.B.T. Americans to feel despondent right now. But hope is just down the road.

Samantha Allen is the author, most recently, of “Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States” and a senior reporter covering L.G.B.T. issues for The Daily Beast.

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