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Comment by datashow | Hacker News Reader

"Racism and bigotry against LGBT folks is less common than it once was, but it's still prevalent".

"prevalent"? Like how? I think you are making up. Still exist? Definitely yes. Prevalent? No way. Unless you have a very different kind sense of "prevalent".

Actually people in small towns in general are much nicer than big cities and usually they don't care about your skin color or whatever. And they in general appreciate "a slight countercultural bent", unless you have a different sense of "slight".

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Anecdotally, I witnessed a lot of racism in small town Oklahoma, including a black family being threatened to leave town. I saw no LGBT people who felt safe to be out.

I think you're going pretty easy on Oklahoma, perhaps just because you like it for other reasons. Oklahoma would put people in prison for consensual same-sex relations as recently as 2003. The law remans but the US Supreme Court struck it down. Ask yourself if a state with a statute against "detestable and abominable crimes against nature" has a prevalent anti-LGBT attitude or not.

There are people alive today who survived a white-against-black race riot that killed hundreds in Tulsa. There are people alive today who were imprisoned and threatened with sterilization for being gay. There are followers of Islam alive today who needed police protection after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building instantly became an anti-muslim witch hunt. Oklahoma is objectively one of the most backwards places in America. It might be better than it was, due largely to federal preemption of their theocratic laws, but it's still incrediby intolerant.

None of you said has anything relevant to support the claim that racism and bigotry against LGBT is prevalent in Tulsa.

Is Oklahoma similar to Kansas? https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/23/14717506/garmin-engineer-...

Sadly, "prevalent" represents a range degrees. From "universal" to "widespread" to "frequent" to "common". I'm not sure I would normally consider all of these to be reference the same word. My usual interpretation of prevalent would be common or frequent, and in this case I interpreted it as "it's still pretty common, but with less public downsides".

The thing about small towns is the people are generally really nice to you, but not so much when referring to a group that includes you. One data point: a man who loved talking to people regardless of color or persuasion. But, he'd talk about a group of them with much negativity. Blame it all on FOX News?

reference: Apple's integration with Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus

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