Bridget Everett has a relative (“who shall remain nameless”) who disagrees with her greatly on politics. “We give each other a lot of shit,” Everett says. In their spiky debates, though, Everett has found openings to get into certain issues that matter a whole lot to her—specifically, the transphobic rhetoric and legislation that’s swept the country over the last few years. “I enjoy having those conversations and letting them know that maybe this talking point that you hear on Fox News or whatever [is wrong],” Everett says on this week’s Little Gold Men (listen below). “Let me tell you about some real-life situations—and let me tell you why I don’t agree with you.”

She could probably just screen an episode of her show too. It’s not quite real life, but Everett’s series Somebody Somewhere comes pretty damn close—and works as perhaps the best rebuttal in her arsenal. The HBO half hour paints a vividly realistic portrait of small-town Kansas life, drawing from Everett’s own history in its exploration of a middle-aged woman’s reluctant homecoming and the queer community she meets—and soon calls family—all around her. In its widely acclaimed second season, Somebody Somewhere blossomed into a warm tapestry of difference and community, depicting the wedding of Fred Rococo (Murray Hill), a trans soil scientist, and the new romance between Everett’s best friend, Joel (Jeff Hiller), and his love interest, Brad (Tim Bagley). There’s not a ton of action in this show; its stakes are life-size, with its characters leading with their hearts and simply trying to live as themselves in the world.

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All of which is to say, Somebody Somewhere demonstrates that, for all of the fear and hatred festering out there, queer people are, yes, people. “I’m happy that this show exists in this time,” Everett says. “It’s important for people to see, for instance, that Fred Rococo is a person that lives and breathes and loves just like the rest of us…. My hope is that people see the show, and maybe have a change of heart and maybe open their eyes a little bit.”

This wasn’t always Everett’s primary intention for Somebody Somewhere, which was cocreated by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen and was recently renewed for a third season. “The point of the show was really just to show a bunch of people, different as they are—a middle-aged plus-sized woman, a gay guy, a trans guy—how they just exist in the world and in a small-town place,” she says. But the kindness and honesty of the show has come to feel like a kind of tonic. Season two concluded just before June began, and in its ending on a gloriously gay wedding, now awaits those who’ve yet to discover it as an ideal Pride Month binge.

“It weighs heavy on my mind,” Everett says of the show’s impact. She returned to Kansas recently for a finale viewing party, and beamed at the rainbow of folks in attendance. “You could feel the room—that love was all around you,” she says. “I saw a lot of diversity in the room, a lot of out and proud people. It’s a good reminder that we’re here—and we’re everywhere.”