I've lived in small towns in Texas, and I've only found good natured people. Small town life is different. It's a little bit slower, I never had to deal with traffic, and I could drive anywhere in town in 5 minutes. But even my medium sized hometown (pop 60,000) stocked vegan cupcakes in the town bakery. Maybe it's not as progressive as Austin, but I don't appreciate how everybody else in the world writes it off as a joke.
I'm sure the evil bigots living somewhere, but I don't know where.
Did you notice anyone openly gay or transgender there? One of the issues with small towns is that you end up thinking people aren't racists, bigots, whatever because there just aren't that many people there for them to discriminate against. I grew up in a small town and thought it was open minded and didn't realize how wrong that was until I was older when I would listen to political conversations in bars, restaurants, and coffee shops how much mindless hatred was hiding beneath the surface.
I'm sure the evil bigots living somewhere, but I don't know where.