St. Louis is a city not particularly known for its progressiveness.
While famous for the Gateway Arch, St. Louis’s more recent reputation is scarred by police brutality towards the African American community and racial unrest. It is situated on the eastern tip of the State of Missouri. This is the same state whose premier vacation town, Branson, was succinctly dubbed by The Seattle Times as “hillbilly-chic” and was elsewhere less charitably nicknamed “hillbilly Las Vegas” and “little Las Vegas for Christians.” This may as well be a neon beacon declaring Missouri to be solid-red state in the heart of the Bible Belt surrounded by states cut from the same cloth.