Not surprised about Trinidad, Colorado- always was cutting edge, one of the first places and soon after the most popular place to go for a sex change. The people there have never been afraid to get involved in something new and they welcomed that for their economy for many years.
My aunt was a nurse in a hospital about 2 hours away and she began to hear rumors of what was going on in Trinidad after the first surgery. At first people in Trinidad and Dr. Biber tried to keep it a secret what they were doing there. Word traveled fast in the medical community though so my aunt was talking about it long before it became common knowledge. I was a sheltered ranch kid and was shocked when she was telling us about it.
That doesn't have anything really to do with this, but the sex change thing is all I can think of to this day when I hear anything about Trinidad.
Years ago, I bought investment property about an hour north of Trinidad. Had never been to the region.
So I went out and spent three days traveling around that area of Colorado. Trinidad is a fairly unusual place. It would be like walking around Mississippi, and suddenly walking into Portland, OR. I won’t even say that the locals are liberal or such...it’s just that it’s a crowd that seem to have different views on life. I didn’t stay long enough to ask questions or figure out where this started.
As you run from Denver...southward....each one of these communities on the interstate has a unique character. Some more than others.