I have a good story about a small town. It happened right here in Indiana too!
I'm not sure if you all remember Ryan White. He was a little boy from Indiana who contracted AIDS through a contaminated blood transfusion. The city of Kokomo, Indiana chased Ryan and his family our of town on a rail, but they were given a very warm welcome in Cicero, Indiana.
Kokomo is not a small town, but it certainly isn't a big city either. Cicero is a small town. I'm not sure of the population, but my guess is somewhere around 1500 people. This all happened when AIDS was still a relatively new disease and many people were very fearful of it and of those infected by it. It always amazed me that such a small central Indiana town managed to see a sick, scared and very sad little boy, rather than the disease slowly killing him. One would have expected even more hate and prejudice from a small town like Cicero.
He died about 15 years ago, and his funeral was held right here in Indianapolis. At his funeral, Sir Elton John played "Candle In The Wind" on the piano.
Edit: You can read about Ryan White here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_White