Utah, Kansas, S. Dakota, Wyoming etc
I think that in some of these communities, people join the Episcopal Church specifically to assert their "difference" from other, more conservative protestants - - so the Episcopal Church is more liberal than the community as a whole. Just my theory ...
I think that you are right in stating that members of the Episcopal church tend to be much less conservative. I know people who left the Episcopal church back in the '80s, as it moved more and more left.
I think you're right. How else would you explain UTAH's having a liberal, female bishop?