Living in NY it wasn't a big deal for me. "D&D is bad mojo" really wasn't a thing there. The only one of our friends who was a little weirded out by it, had known since Middle School that he was going to be a Franciscan Monk, the Catholic Church hadn't really said yay or nay on D&D, but he still played. Of course we also introduced him to beer... he lasted a little while in the Philippines at the monastery but got in trouble for giving his food away to the poor. So he changed his plans to become a parish priest; still good I thought - dude will help me get into Heaven still! His parents looked at me funny after that, as I was the face of our small group of friends to them, they were very religious - two of my buddy's sisters had become nuns, one of them cloistered. Then after a couple of our annual "fishing" trips to Montauk (the seven of us have been going since 1988 - never fished - smoked a lot of cigars and drank a lot of beer and Irish whisky, but no fishing) we found out he had had a girlfriend for 6 months and they kept their relationship secret from everyone!
Anyway, last time I was back on Long Island, I DMed "The Illhedrin Book" for he and his wife (his first and only girlfriend), and their four sons!

Dang... I'm going to hell.
Anyway, later when I found out about all this hoopla and the Chick Tracts, it just made me sad honestly.

People in pain don't need extra pushing away. Blaming the heavy metal, drugs or D&D for someone hurting themselves is ignoring the inner turmoil of the person in pain, in need. I guess at least parents thought they were helping by trying to keep D&D from harming their kids... but they weren't getting to the route of the problem. Ah well... [/soapbox]
My three oldest girls have all started playing around 7yo (maybe the 13yo and 10yo a little earlier, but the 7yo just started playing) and the 4yo already loves rolling the dice and has talked about wanting to play. It's been a joy to share this with them; they started playing because it's something their daddy loves to do, but they enjoy it on their own now as well. It's only brought good to my household. [/ferrealzendofsoapbox]