| No Images? Click here  We spent yesterday in Provo, Utah, where Carol Kuruvilla met Brigham Young University senior Erin Tapahe. Erin's parents, who converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, taught her to treasure both her Mormon faith and her Navajo heritage. But Erin said growing up in Provo wasn’t always easy, especially as a minority.She said there were times she felt ashamed of her identity, like when her friends teased her for studying Native American dance."Diversity and being different wasn't looked highly upon,” Erin said. “When I was in high school, it wasn't the cool thing for me to be dancing.” Now, Erin is part of BYU's multicultural dance team and strives to be a mentor for other Native youth. And she said she's seen a shift in her friends’ attitudes toward diversity — a transition she said is also happening in her city at large.“[Provo] has become more diverse with lots of different kinds of people. The city seems to have changed a little bit and gone toward embracing diversity, rather than kind of avoiding it,” Erin said.“That's what I think it means to be an American: embracing and being able to learn about different people’s cultures and their opinions," she said. "And then having that respect for them.”  G Ryan (left) is a college athlete at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, which has been ranked in the past as one of the best universities for LGBTQ students. Liza Holdaway attends Brigham Young University, which is affiliated with the Mormon church and has an honor code banning same-gender relationships.They both talked to HuffPost about coming out, their families, dating and their on-campus experiences.
We want to know what you think!It means a lot to us that you've joined us virtually on our bus tour as we've listened to America — and now we want to hear from you, too! We'd appreciate if you would take this short survey so we can learn more about the issues that matter most to you.  Stephenie Larsen is Mormon woman with six kids. She doesn’t identify as LGBTQ, and neither do any of her children. But over the years, she watched as the church’s fraught relationship with the gay community affected family after family. So she decided to do something. We’ll be in Tucson, Arizona, tomorrow. We’re listening to a country-heavy playlist to get ready — a Spotify analysis found fans of George Strait, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Billy Currington and Brooks & Dunn in the city.And if you’re in the area, come hang out with us! In partnership with the University of Arizona School of Journalism, the Listen To America bus will be parked on campus tomorrow. Congrats to our sweepstakes winners!We've met a lot of people in the 25 cities on our Listen To America tour, but we wanted to hear from as many people as possible. So we asked readers around the U.S., U.K. and Canada to tell us what they love about their hometowns — for the chance to join us for an event in New Orleans. Congratulations to our three winners, who each told us what's so special about the places they call home: Deidra Hill from Flagstaff, Arizona, Shawna Bell from Winnipeg and David Wall from Birchington!
 Join us virtually on the bus! Ride along with our editor-in-chief, Lydia Polgreen, as she dispatches news from the road via Facebook Messenger.  Learn more about what it really means to be an American by signing up for our morning news brief.Did a friend send you this? Subscribe here. For more politics news, check out our HuffPost Politics email.©2017 HuffPost | 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 |
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