“It’s mostly lack of awareness, which could be chalked up to not being exposed to gayness,” says the Manhattan-based writer [Ryan Quinn], who came out to family and friends in Wasilla after his freshman year away at college, and even brought a boyfriend to visit. “The reaction was overwhelmingly positive from the people I heard from, and certainly from the people who know me on a personal basis,” he says. “I’ve never encountered homophobia in Alaska.”

Stielstra, 29, was born in Anchorage and soon afterward his family moved to Wasilla, about 40 miles north, where he lived until he was 19. Despite the influential presence of Evangelical Christian churches, and the absence of any detectable gay community, he says he felt welcome when he came out at 18.

“It’s not the kind of place where I’d feel comfortable walking hand-in-hand with my partner,” she [Christensen] says. “But you do see a decent number of rainbow stickers on cars.”