Though LGBTQ pride events have long been mainstay celebrations in big cities, their presence in rural and small-town America has grown in recent years, experts said, claiming recognition in some of the more conservative areas of the country. Though there’s no national database of Pride festivals, they have spread in small towns in states such as West Virginia, Texas, Kentucky and North Carolina. Mississippi has gone from one to about a dozen events, according to the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group. Expansion to rural areas has been “quite significant,” said Zack Hasychak, the campaign's director of membership outreach, who has attended Pride events all over the country for more than a decade. The growing numbers in smaller-town America are a hopeful sign to some, Hasychak said, a result of emboldened LGTBQ communities buoyed by polls showing rising public acceptance since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2015. Read more about why the surge in pride events in rural towns is a sign of hope for many through our link in bio. Photo credit: Chris Kenning, @usatoday