The film is loosely based on a pair of news articles, published 14 years apart. Both were written by Adam Knapp, a journalist who spent more than a decade as an award-winning sportswriter for The Wichita Eagle. He eventually wrote the screenplay for Out Here In Kansas, making several massive changes after shooting began on the documentary.
Conservative Christian pastor Joe Wright, a key figure in the documentary, was instrumental in making gay marriage unlawful in Kansas in 2005. According to Knapp, Wright granted every request in the making of "Out Here In Kansas" (which wasn't completed until 2016, a year after the U.S. Supreme Court made it legal for any two consenting adults to be married).
Knapp originally wanted to tell the story of his main subject, Burt Humburg, and make it into a movie version of the articles he'd written. The movie's producers convinced Knapp that he was part of the story himself, and he ended up being the movie's narrator. It is being marketed to a "straight audience," although most of the people interviewed are gay.
Among Knapp's many requests for Wright was a callback voiceover to read a prayer that famously upset some members of the Kansas House of Representatives in 1996. This caught the attention of radio legend Paul Harvey, who read Wright's prayer in its entirety to his nationwide audience. After several months seeking permission to use Harvey's voice reading the prayer, Knapp finally asked Wright if he could read it himself.
Burt Humburg, the inspiration for Out Here In Kansas, was an All-American football player for Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas. To compile a two-minute football scene, Director Adam Knapp and Editor/DP Kenneth Linn watched approximately 30 hours of game footage. This proved challenging for two reasons:
1. Humburg was an interior lineman (left offensive guard) and was often hard to find once the ball was snapped.
2. The game tapes were nearly two decades old and had to be watched on a VHS player with no remote control.