Actually, I found your original post very inspiring. I wrote an appreciative reply yesterday but decided that you were really asking for replies from members who had done the same thing, so I removed my post.
I imagine that discrimination in a small town could be much worse than in a big city, as in a city there are nearly always others of our kind and in a small town there is nowhere to run.
I hope that you keep us posted and that other members share similar experiences.