I quite often feel americans show a lot of interest in new people they meet. If I tell something about myself usually they think its 'amazing' or 'wonderful', ask questions, not often steer the conversation to themselves. I think thats a quite nice cultural thing you have.

Travelers from elsewhere report Americans are unusually friendly and kind to strangers; very approachable. There's much more of a guarded or even competitive vibe, elsewhere. Anglo North America is also a very smiley culture (as in polite smiles). You can like or dislike that, but Thailand is as well, and they advertise it as a selling point.

All the things people like about developed countries in general apply - it's hard being gay in, say, Africa. Obviously the trends in the US aren't great, but there's a long way to go down.