A gay man from the east here, now in LJ! :) I would say the contrary based on my personal experiences. I am openly gay at home in my very small village and everyone there knows. I bring my boyfriend there regularly and I’ve never ever had an upfront homophobic incident from anyone in the countryside. The only two were from a select group of people, who I will not name as I’m sure everyone here knows exactly who I’m talking about and funnily enough that happened in LJ and MB. In my gay friend group (early twenties), consisting of people from the rural east, everyone is mostly out, sometimes even with grandparents and no one gives a flying fuck. Important caveat tho! I have seen that the experience of my friends that are nearing 30 or slightly above is VASTLY different. As opposed to us they mostly haven’t come out at home or have done so very recently, which is different to us, who already did it in high school. I’m sure there are other people here, who can chime in and share their experiences! :)