Rather than generating protests or public outcry, this song has dominated country music radio since its debut in late 2017. It broke into the Top 10 in February, and it has remained at the top of the air wave charts, occupying the No. 1 slot for three weeks. It’s also notable that Mr. Bryan is no progressive crusader out to make a political statement. A Georgia native, he is as mainstream as it gets, with previous hits that include lyrics that would make many liberals cringe, such as “Country Girl (Shake It for Me)” on his album “Tailgates & Tanlines.” When asked about “Most People Are Good,” Mr. Bryan has simply replied, “It just seems like it’s the right song for people to hear with everything going on in our world today.” For Mr. Bryan, and for many country fans today, pro-L.G.B.T. lyrics exist comfortably within a new country worldview.

While “Most People Are Good” was topping the charts, there was another major event in the country-music world signaling strong support for L.G.B.T. rights. In early March, the former Arkansas governor and Trump campaign surrogate Mike Huckabee resigned within 24 hours of his appointment to the board of the Country Music Association Foundation, the charitable and educational arm of the C.M.A. At issue, raised by several C.M.A. board members and prominent industry leaders, was Mr. Huckabee’s history of anti-gay remarks.

Jason Owen, a co-president of Monument Records and chief executive of Sandbox Entertainment, wrote a strong letter of protest to the C.M.A. leadership, threatening to withdraw the A-list artists he represents from C.M.A. charitable work if Mr. Huckabee stayed on the board. Citing his own family — Mr. Owen and his husband, Sam, have one child and twins on the way — he wrote that Mr. Huckabee’s statements about the L.G.B.T. community, such as comparing gay marriage to incest and polygamy, “made it clear my family is not welcome in his America.” Whitney Pastorek, a longtime C.M.A. member and prominent agent, wrote similarly to the C.M.A. leadership: “What a terrible disappointment” to see the C.M.A. Foundation’s mission “clouded by the decision to align with someone who so frequently engages in the language of racism, sexism, and bigotry.” The C.M.A. board was deluged with email and social media calls to rescind the invitation to Mr. Huckabee and threats of boycotts at C.M.A. events. Mr. Huckabee quickly conceded and resigned, but not without writing his own long protest letter on his website in which he absurdly declared, “The message here is ‘Hate Wins.’”

Part of the story is the growth and increasing crossover appeal of country music — approximately four in 10 Americans today are country music consumers. The popularity of country music has seen strong growth among millennials between the ages of 18 and 24, with listenership up 54 percent since 2005. Country music is as popular among millennials as it is among baby boomers, a fact not lost on C.M.A. leadership.