For instance, we have gay marriage (why deny those people happiness?),...
Onkel Willie,
Something which my home state, Rhode Island, and my current state, Hew Hampshire both have.
... prostitution is legalized...
Something that is also legal in Rhode Island.
... cannabis is available...
Something that has been decriminalized for personal use in several states and other locations.
The problem here is the
unexamined belief that you and too many others hold that the US is a
unitary polity like nearly all the polities in Europe. You
automatically think a law, an attitude, or an opinion from East Jesus, Alabama or Dumbfuck, Arkansas somehow magically apply across the continent and to all 300 million Americans. They don't, of course, because the US is a federal polity constructed to allow a wide latitude in local affairs. Local bodies regulate everything from marriage to gun ownership to alcohol sales rather than a central body mandating the same for all.
Perhaps prudish wasn't the right word.
Perhaps ignorance isn't the right word either. Incomprehension is much better.
If I routinely displayed the same level of ignorance about the internal political and sociological workings of another nation as you and many others do about the internal political and sociological workings of the US, this board would savage me and rightfully so.
Do a little research and try to control those knee jerks in the future. You'd expect someone discussing Denmark to do that and all I'm suggesting is that the same courtesy by applied to the US.
Bill
P.S.
The Works only reached 23 on the US charts and spent 20 weeks on the charts in total. It did eventually go gold however. In Europe and Japan, it reached the top 10 however and guess where Queen's post-
The Works world tour dates were?